Canadian Railroads > Ballast Extra on the CBNS

On October 1, the Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia Rwy. ran another ballast extra east of Stellarton, giving me a rare opportunity to see a train in daylight on this portion of the Hopewell Sub.  The train was supposed to start early at Havre Boucher (the division point), but was delayed several hours because the crew had to rescue 305 which had run out of time somewhere west of Port Hawkesbury.  That worked out well for me since I had to drive up from Halifax.  I got to Havre Boucher just as they were leaving, and nabbed this first shot here as the 5-car train went under the TCH in Tracadie.

The next stop was Afton, where the cars were reloaded on the main line with ballast.  Once that operation was complete (it took about an hour), the extra proceeded west again, dumping ballast at Williams Pt., just east of Antigonish.

The third shot here is at Brierly Brook, as the train climbed towards James River, and eventually Marshy Hope.

GTD

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Unfortunately, Marshy Hope was as far as they got.  The late start (after rescuing 306), and the fact that the train was restricted to 15 mph because of plain bearing trucks on some of the ballast cars, meant they had to tie the train up at the west end of the siding.

There was pretty good colour in the hills behind the train as they came down the main line, with the conductor on the steps, ready to get the switch.  I had a cover of light cloud by this time, which was taking the edge off the leaves.

Apparently the easiest way to put the train in the siding is to back it in, as seen here in the second image.  The derail is an "exception derail".  It doesn't have to be set in derailing position unless something has been left in the siding, so it just had to be handled once.  In the background is an apple tree, likely leftover from the farmer who homesteaded at this location so many years ago with some soggy land and plenty of hope.

The light cloud cover finally moved off as I headed for home.  This last shot was taken a mile or two farther west in the gorge proper, showing the leaves at what I expect will turn out to be their peak this year.

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Thanks for the photo/report.  Nice to see some fall colors, finally.
jb

Nice series, and also good work to frame it so the train didn't look overwhelmed by its power.
Fred