Canadian Railroads > BC Rail Heritage Locomotive Goes East

As has been widely reported here, CN recently released six repainted locomotives to mark the 25th anniversary of their IPO.  One of these is ET44AC 3115, which left Montreal on November 16 for Halifax, NS on train 120.  I was away in New Brunswick when news of this event broke, but I decided to try and make an effort to see and photograph it on the return trip (train 121), which would go through New Brunswick in daylight on November 18.  If the Precision Scheduled Railroad really was, 121 should have been arriving in Plaster Rock, NB about daybreak.  However, because CN likes to run opposing 14,000 ft. trains on a subdivision with sidings no longer than 9000 ft., 121 had to wait until 120 arrived in Moncton before it could have its turn on the Napadogan Sub.

Roughly 5 or 6 hours after it should have been there, 121 finally made it to Plaster Rock.  The long wait gave me plenty of time to scout locations, and I found this trestle not far from the main road, in New Denmark.  It is only a couple miles east of the big Salmon River trestle in Davis Mill, but I had never shot a train on it before, and unlike the Salmon River trestle, this one is a deck girder type, so it gives a better view of the train.  At 13:36 the head end rolled across, with AC GEs 3818 and 3274 leading the 630-axle train.  About 3 minutes later, 3115 appeared as expected, in the DPU position.  3115 had lead 120 into Halifax, and normally the roundhouse crew doesn't rearrange the power if the DPU is capable of leading on the return trip.

I chased the train to Edmundston, getting a few more shots while the sun was out. At Edmundston, the train changed crews, and after a short wait, they headed west again on the Pelletier Sub.  I had one more chance at 3115 as the train travelled through MacKenzie, NB.  Normally I would have tried for one last shot at Lac Baker before the train crossed into Quebec, but by this time the sun was so low that the village and lake were in shadows, and that was it for the day.

GTD

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Excellent, really stands out.!!

Bob Jordan

You definitely made the best out of shooting a mid train remote!

Trevor

Posted from iPhone

Thank you for getting the photos and sharing them here.

The only other photo I've seen with the BC Rail Heritage unit is the publicity photo in which this unit was posed with the other CN heritage locomotives.  For that photo, the BC Rail unit was off to the left side where one does not get a good view.

With your photos, one can see how good this locomotive looks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/20 12:54 by RuleG.