NBEC Shunting

On thursday evening I had heard some chatter on the scaner, so I went to the NBEC yard to take a look and I seen #1813 switching tracks, I assume they were done for the day as they went back to the shops. There were several boxcars on a sideing waiting to be attached to Train 403. They were shunting as what I was hearing on the scaner before I arrived at the yard.

NBEC Cabouse!

Last night I was on my way to Upsalquich to take my Daughters on the former INR line to go for a nature hike and at the same time take a few pictures of them in the snow and of course of the iron bridge there. Along the way in Glencoe I spotted this as though my trained eye had caught it long before it came into view. I seen this cabouse, quite shocked because of many reasons one of them being I didn't think I would have seen this another why did it have NBEC markings?

I don't know who the former owner was(Ex. CN or CP) but you'll see here it was previously owned by NBEC and it's numbered 1000.

It is now owned by a private owner and is sitting in a parking lot, there are no wheels on it I don't have a clue why, but I did manage to take a few pictures. I'm a little curious why it has NBEC markings though, since NBEC was created long after cabouses were taken out of service. If anyone has any info please let me know. Thanks.

///UPDATE\\\ After doing a little bit of looking around I found this particular cabouse was owned by Smurfit Stone and was Ex CN 79593. Now as for the wheels missing I don't know, perhaps it had something to do with transport I am not sure but Steve Boyko has a picture of this cabouse when it was on rails, on his site with a bit of info on Smurfet Stone.

This is #79593 when it was owned by Smurfit Stone and still on rails with it's wheels on as well. This picture was copied with permission from Steve Boyko.

Once in Upsalquich I took these pictures of the bridge.

In this picture, picture your self as a member of a train crew as you make this turn and your on the bridge and crossing a level crossing than turn again. You zig zag your way through the mountains. It's quite the trip I'm told. Long the way we met several skidooers and because of that I'm looking into buy my self one now. Yeh implusive buyer that's me!

Some sad news

It's situations like this is what makes me sad, as a railfan, a Dad, a person I don't understand how this could have happened. Yesterday morning I had learned a man was killed in an unspeakable accident, his car was hit by The Ocean 14 as the day went on I learned more info on the accident, his four year old son was in the car with him fourtunately his son is still alive but in critical condition. The driver wasn't all that old either, he was just twenty nine years old. CBC has a report on the accident. Here is the link to the story which is explained in full.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Atlantic/080126/t012608A.html

About me.

I've been asked several questions about who I am and verious other questions of the sort, so I'll go a head and I'll make the formal introduction of my self and I'll explain who I am and my other interests.

First off my name is Chris. I'm twenty eight and I have four children all girls, I built my house last fall and moved in, in August of 07. I currently work for the Listuguj Mi'Gmaq First Nation Governement at the AV Cell mill in Atholville NB. I'm a "Envrionmental Sevrices Technition." I'll put it this way, I work with a lot of chemicals, I'm on my feet all the time and I rarely get a break. I don't normally work with other people my job takes me to places where I find my self working alone so it's not like I want to be alone but that's why I bring my MP3 player with me. I work long hours and I come home tired and drained.

I've been at AV Cell for a little over a year now, it's not a bad job I don't particularly like my job but it pays the bills just fine so I'll settle for that. I went to UNB for three years and studied in Political Science, I was working towards my degree. Before I went to UNB I was in the Canadian Forces, I joined right after I had graduated from High School. I graduated in June of 1999, I left for CFLRS ST Jean in April of 2000.

My Dad is Mi'Gmaq and my Mom is non native so I'm half. I have one brother and one sister, I'm the youngest of three. I grew up in Listuguj First Nation, lived here all my life and since I got my first train set when I was about five years old, I've been in love with trains. In October of 2001 my oldest daughter was born, my second daughter was born Janauary 2003, my third daughter was born January 2006 and my youngest daughter just turned two weeks old this week. She has the same birthday as my second daughter quite the coinincidence.

Since I was able to get around on my own I've been chaseing trains, sometimes waiting hours track side to catch the train it's was quite time consuming however when your a kid that's all you have is time. It wasn't till I got my first car at twenty one did I actually go out and chase trains, however living in Fredericton you don't catch a lot of trains there seeing there isn't any tracks left in the area however I did know about the sub that ran through Tracy.

In my travals I have also travaled a lot by train, I sometimes take my daughters on the train just for short rides sometimes to Charlo or to Bathurst the last time we took a long trip on the train was in October we travaled on the Chelaur to Gaspe and returned that same day it was quite the day trip and was worth the price I paid as well.

I love to do some research as you may see already, I like to do it, it's fun and passes the time away durring the day, I work nights so it leaves the day time pretty much open for me. Researching the St Quentin sub isn't all that hard just a little difficult to find detailed maps and areal photgraphs from a certin period so it can get hard at certin points. As a young child I can only recall twice I've seen the St Quentin sub with tracks, both when I was six. Once we went through Tide Head and I remember going over the tracks at mile 00.00 or what would have been and the second time was in the summer of 86(?) and I went with my Mother and Aunt to Upsalquich after a really bad storm, my brother, cousin and my uncle were fishing in the Upsalquich river and we had gone to get them and I remember the iron bridge going over the rive and seeing the tracks I also remember hearing a train comeing but we had left before we could see it cross the river and the road that would be my only recollection of a train on that particular line.

Among other things aside from trains I do have many other interest, mainly politics and history but there are others such as rock climbing, photography, playing playstation2 I like to go hikeing in the woods and I've gone on hunting trips a few times with my brother when I was younger. Last summer I started playing golf for the first time after I had receved a set of clubs for Fathers day and I think I'm not too bad for my first time. Aside from golf I really do enjoy playing paintball, I'm not a pro but let's just say the military has proven to be quite usefull when playing paintball, I've been invited several times to play at compititions this past summer but because of work and building my house I couldn't really go also well I discovered golf so I wanted to put my clubs to use rather than collecting dust in the closet. Other things I enjoy doing is walking with my dog (black lab and border collie) and chaseing after my daughters. I basically enjoy being outdoors and of course I love to traval by train. I enjoy listning to music just about any kind of music as long as it has a good beat and strong lyrics. In my opinion music is a very important part to life it offten reflects our moods. In my musical interests I like Tom Cochrane, Pavarottii, The Cranberries, Tom Petty, Kris Kristofferson, Toby Keith, AC/DC just to name a few.

It has only been a year since I've taken a greater interest in this hobby of mine, chaseing trains and photgraphing them and taking video as well. I guess you can say it is the powerful influence of the internet that has brought me to this particular hobby or bringing it to the next level, after viewing some rail fan sites it has really given me the motivation to record trains either in picture or on video and to some extent it would be rude of me to not mention Steve Boyko, Luc Doiron, David Othen whos sites and videos on youtube have given me that motivation not to mention my own affection for trains and the railroad. So those mentioned have influenced me in their details and what not. In all I'm still pretty new to this I guess I don't know what else to say about that.

Oh yes and incase you haven't already figured it out yet, I can't spell for shit!

So that is a little about me, if there is anything else you would like to know don't be shy to ask I'll be more than happy to answer you.

Dalhousie Shunter NBEC 591

Last evening I caught the Dalhousie shunter arriving into Campbellton, I caught it by chance actually, I was in town to get some coffee when the scanner went off, telling me of 591's arrival so I made my way to the Ceader Street crossing and took out my camera and in a short moment there she was. The research on the former INR is comeing along just great, I have found some new things to put down thanks to Jims post on the Yahoo group I'll be sure to post another part of my research soon so come back and check soon, I'll post more as soon as I have enough done.

Pipe Train to St John NB

The St John Journal reported a pipe train due to arrive on Tuesday in St John NB will be carrying 24 meter pipes for Brunswick Pipeline a subsidery of Emera Inc. It will build a 145 Km pipe line toMaritimes & Northeast pipeline near St Stephan NB. http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/search/article/184061 The train will be arriving from Panama City Florida, Steve Boyko's blog reported it was last seen at North Adams Mass today.

When I get more info I'll post it, and I'll see about catching this particular train.

///UPDATE\\\
The pipe train will be arriving in St John this afternoon aprox 1400hrs, it passed through McAdam around noon according to Steve Boyko. Due to some loggistical issues I wasn't able to make the trip to catch this particular train. Too bad I was really looking forward to catch this train.
GaryLee Shot this video in McAdam today.

Former INR line Campbellton to St Quentin NB. PT 2

So in the past several days I have been searching around the internet for several sources and at the same time fixing up a few of my other posts as I find new information. You'll notice on the post about a former spur line going through the community where I live, I had the dates wrong so I fixed them as I found more plausable dates that fit the time line that I've found.





Thanks to Tim whom has given me some new intel, I'll take another look at the Library and Thanks to Steve Boyko for his input as well, I'm planning on a trip back to Fredericton in the near future so I'll make it a point to go check out the places he recomended. So After a few days of going out in town to take a look on the former 7.6 mile track I had taken some pictures of where the line would have been but it's of course snowed over so there isn't anything to see really but it's more or less to give a point of refference. I don't have my camera just yet and I haven't uploaded the pictures onto my computer as of yet so when I do I'll post them.





This is the arial photograph that I have been useing to plot mileage 00.00 to as far as Sugarloaf Park, Also you'll see blue dots, that represents where I took the pictures I will upload later this evening. Because of MS paint the spots I pointed out as you can see are actually a lot closer than shown here. The red line represents the former line through Campbellton.
This is the orgional. Here you can see the outline of the railway but the semi circle from the Campbellton yard to the INR station on Arron street is not visable at all, I had to pretty much guess.


In this one if you look closely you could see the semi circle where the line left the Campbellton yard and looped around to the INR station, also if you look closely you could see the station. The line was built between 1900 and 1911 this picture clearly shows it was taken before the fire of 1910 so I'm guessing the early 1900's. Here you can see where I was wrong, if you know Campbellton you can see it goes down present day Malcom street.

Also I was wrong about the postioning of the orgional line as well I have taken a closer look at the pictures and it shows the Tribune is correct in it's account of the lines history. So I'm currently in the process of piceing together a small history of the former line that ran from Campbellton to St Quentin, over the years the line has had several owners, First being the Restigouche and Victoria Colonization Railway Company (R&VCR) Then the International Railway (INR) than finally Canadian National Railway (CNR) or (CN) I will post my brief history on this line from verious sources as well as from my own knowledge so keep checking back from time to time hopefully soon I'll have it all posted here, and by this spring and into the summer I'll have posted some pictures of the line other than what I have now.

*The pictures are from the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick.
*The first picture was taken between 1958 and 196

In the areial photographs provided I have marked where I had taken some pictures of where the line would have been some 90 years ago. Looking towards Malcom Street where the line was.

This is behind the Comfort inn, I thought I was looking at the actual line it self but I don't think so based on my knowledge I don't think so. It looks like it was going up rather than down. However still there is where it would have been.

Looking towards where it curve towards Sugarloaf mountain and bend towards Christopher Brook.

And here is where the exact line is, buried under the snow there is some remants of what used to be the INR line. I have walked this part of the line before and know it's there. This is the curve it would have made towards Christopher Brook. In this picture I'm at the base of Sugarloaf Mountain.

Look in the opposet direction of the above picture, the line would curve slightly more then streighten out.

Former INR line Campbellton to St Quentin NB. PT 1

As I had mentioned in a previous post I had several projects planed for this summer and one of them is traceing the orgional 7.6 Km's of trackage from Campbellton NB to Christopher Brook near Tide Head NB. Last weeks Tribune had given me some much needed answers and also doing some research on line I have found what could be a discrepency in my findings and the published article in the January 9th edition of the Campbellton Tribune. I'm not sure but I will get this puzzle solved soon. Part one of the article is written by Yvon Roy as is said in the paper.

I have been able to obtain an arial photograph of Campbellton from the late 1950's circa 1958 the photograph had shown the outline of the former 7.6Km line running from it's origonal mile 00.00 at the Campbellton yard and make the half loop to the INR station on what it present day Arron Street and make it's way down Val D'mour road then through some what is now a thicket of trees crossing walker brook and makeing it's way to the base of Sugarloaf mountain and through present day Sugarloaf Provincial park. I have been able to trace that part of the line pretty good. However in the Tribune article the claim is different. The author say's the line ran from the former INR station on what is now Malcom street and went down a steep grade crossing present day Val D'mour road and eventually makeing it's way to the base of Sugarloaf mountain however the arial photograph I seen show's differently unless I'm not reading the picture properly. Eitherway it's worth some looking into I'll write more at a later date regarding the newspaper article as I am still researching this section of track and for the most part it'll have to wait till spring comes so that I may follow the former line to Christopher Brook and take some pictures, who knows maybe a railroad tie or rail might have been forgotten you never know!

New freight railroad proposed for New Brunswick's Acadian Peninsula

I was looking around on the net this morning and I came across this, I've heard about it several times in the past year and well I decided to give it a shot and look this over and give it some thought. So rather than writting for an hour I decided copy and paste this isn't my work; here is the link to the orgional post I'm assuming was written by John Godfrey on the American Rails forum. http://american-rails-forums.com/viewtopic.php?p=2389&sid=fa8d21caddb078e7f9504c0cb5715bd5

"September 14, 2007 NEW BRUNSWICK, Canada - Canadian entrepreneur Peter Swire is pushing a proposal to build a new freight railroad on the Acadian Peninsula in New Brunswick, the Atlantic Northeast Rails & Ports Bulletin reported. The Acadian Railway would service the same areas once served by Canadian National's Caraquet Subdivision. It would begin in Bathurst and proceed approximately 53 miles to Caraquet, N.B., and then another 11 miles to Pokemouche Junction. There the line would split, with one route heading approximately 27 miles to Tracadie and another about seven miles to Shippigan.

CN abandoned all but the first 4.3 miles of the line in 1989. The portion from Gloucester Junction (just outside Bathurst) to Shippigan was originally the Caraquet Railway, completed in 1886. The line from Tracadie to Pokemouche Junction was originally the Gulf Shore Railway, completed in 1887. The largest physical structure will be the construction of a new bridge crossing the Pokemouche River. A rail connection to Lameque Island will be handled through a rail barge. There would also be a small station (head office) and an intermodal transload facility in Caraquet's Industrial Complex.

The Acadian Railway has not requested any form of capital or operating subsidies from the government. Swire anticipates over 10,000 carloads of traffic in the first year. He said the railway already has sufficient shipper commitment (verbal and written, but not contractual) to use the line. From the onset of operations, there will be five-day-per-week service over the entire system. Swire plans to provide an outbound daily service to the various peat producers. The Acadian Railway would also provide regular service for inbound semi-finished steel products and outbound fabricated goods.

The province has amended its Short Line Railway Act to permit the construction of new railways. Until the amendment in March 2007, the act only addressed the operation of current provincial railways, those whose operations did not cross the provincial boundary. Under the act, as amended, Acadian must enter an agreement with the Minister of Transportation "for the purpose of establishing and ensuring safe and efficient short line railway operations within the Province." After the New Brunswick Department of Transportation and Acadian have entered the agreement governing how the railway will operate, NBDOT will request Transport Canada to inspect the track, signals, and equipment of Acadian before it begins operation.

Once Transport Canada has reported to NBDOT that Acadian's operation will be safe, and Acadian has fulfilled the other regulations, it may begin operation. The former right-of-way is in the ownership of the province and managed by the Department of Natural Resources. According to Swire, since the project will generate a great number of jobs, it is believed that the existing rail trail will be converted back to a railway.

He anticipates providing trail users with an alternative. Swire hopes that groundbreaking will take place in the first half of 2008. Swire, 50, advised two shortline Ontario railways in the 1980s: Trillium Railways' Port Colborne operation and a planned 48-mile freight operation over the former CN Uxbridge Subdivision, now owned by GO Transit. For a brief period of time in the mid-1990s, Swire served as officer and director of a railway holding company based in Florida. John Godfrey"