Canadian Railroads > Last Days of New Brunswick East Coast

New Brunswick East Coast (NBEC) and Chemin de Fer De Matapedia et Golf (CFMG) were formed in 1998 as a spinoff of CN's Mont Joli and Newcastle Subs, the old Intercolonial Rwy., in New Brunswick and eastern Quebec.  CN had decided to consolidate through traffic on the NTR through Edmundston, and at the time there was a lot of local business for NBEC to make money from.  Unfortunately things started to go downhill not long after the sale.  One by one, the large wood fibre mills closed, until the rayon mill in Atholville, near Campbellton, was all that was left.  In the summer of 2008, rumours started to swirl about CN buying the subdivisions back, so I arranged a trip up there in September to see what was still running.

NBEC/CFMG preferred to serve their customers from the west end, and 402 was the daily train from the CN connection at Riviere du Loup to all points east, gradually getting smaller as it worked towards Miramichi.  In the first photo, 402 has arrived at the small yard in Miramichi (formerly know as Newcastle) on September 23, 2008, and the power has been split.  A RAM of tank cars has been dropped to go across the river to an Ultramar bulk plant, and a single SD40 will continue east with the 5 BCOL boxcars. 

In the second photo, the short train, still numbered 402, is crossing the North Branch of the Miramichi River on its way to Moncton.  In the background is the huge Repap paper mill, which once had its own in-plant trackage and switcher.  By this time it was closed, and today most of the buildings are demolished.

The next day I was just east of Bathurst to shoot 402 passing Stone Jct., the former connection to Stone Container's plant (also closed) on the other side of the town.  This was customer trackage as well.  Stone used a former TH&B SW9 to switch the plant.

GTD

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Three first-rate photos - Great job.
Bob

"RAM" of tank cars? Sorry, the term doesn't ring any bells outside the computing context.
Fred

feclark Wrote:
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> "RAM" of tank cars? 

I probably should have explained that one.

A RAM is a set of 17 interconnected tank cars that can be loaded or unloaded from one end, without having move the string during that process.  The cars are semi-permanently coupled.

However, after an hour of Googling, I can't find a citation for that term.  I'm pretty sure it's an acronym for something, but I don't know what it is.  For now I will have to be guilty of using a TLA* for which I don't know the origin.  :-)

GTD

* "Three letter acronym"

Geoff,

Thanks for this note; this sounds like the concept intiated by TankTrain.

Fred

cn6218 Wrote:
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> feclark Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > "RAM" of tank cars? 
>
> I probably should have explained that one.
>
> A RAM is a set of 17 interconnected tank cars that
> can be loaded or unloaded from one end, without
> having move the string during that process.  The
> cars are semi-permanently coupled.
>
> However, after an hour of Googling, I can't find a
> citation for that term.  I'm pretty sure it's an
> acronym for something, but I don't know what it
> is.  For now I will have to be guilty of using a
> TLA* for which I don't know the origin.  :-)
>
> GTD
>
> * "Three letter acronym"

Never heard of RAM ever being used on the TankTrain consists on the Oil Cans on the SP in California.
 

Nice pics!!