NBEC 402

This morning I had decided I was way over due for a freight train. I've been chaseing the Ocean for a couple of weeks now, so yeh it's time for the 402. I'm still at work when the 403 arrives into Campbellton. I started my chase in Campbellton and seen NBEC 1868 idleing with 6909 attached to the 402 waiting for RTC to give them the "go ahead" Approx 1100 402 began it's journey to Moncton with a stop at the "General Chemical" plant at Dalhousie Jct to drop off a tanker.

By 1200 402 was on it's way to Bathurst ordered to wait at a siding for another freight in Bathurst. 402 wasn't all too long but still I got my chase in today and am quite pleased. I stopped in McClouds to take a few stills as it went by.

I shot video in Campbellton and Dalhousie Jct. They're on Youtube check them out.

Well that's it for me today for trains so keep chaseing those trains and have fun!

VIA 15 the Ocean

Tonight I caught the Ocean going through Charlo, I've noticed lately the Ocean has been late arriving in Campbellton both 14 and 15. I've heard through some net chatter the Ren cars have been having some truck or axel issues. I don't know for sure but that's what I've been getting. I listend to the "hotbox" detector outside of Charlo and there was no defects. Also the 15 was about fifteen minutes late to Charlo. Steve Boyko has mentioned on his site CN will not be taking over NBEC or the Newcastle sub. It appears they've lost interest. No one really knows why CN wanted this line back in the first place. Odd to me. Anyhow I have some pictures to show off. Some from other chases and some I didn't post from a few weeks ago when I caught the 14 and the 16 arriving in Matapedia.

The NB side of the railroad bridge at Matapedia.

Looking down the bridge.Looking down the line in Dalhousie Jct.Mile 0.00 on the Cascapedia Sub.
VIA 15 the Ocean in McClouds.The Ocean 14 arriving in Campbellton.My personal favorite shot.

Chaseing the Ocean

This morning I arrived in Matapedia and was wondering why the scaner was so quiet, I knew I had the right freq's but why there was nothing. So at 0550 I called the station in Campbellton to ask if the train was on time this morning. Well turns out it wasn't. I was told it would be fifteen minutes late. So I figured it would arrive in Matapedia at or around 0700. Well I was wrong, the Ocean didn't arrive till 0745 hrs. So I waited and I waited, I decided to go out and take some pictures. And that was when I heard off in the distance the Ocean and the Chelaur approching Matapedia. I took a few great shots, The lead this morning was 6400 followed by 6408. I didn't catch the Chelaur's lead.

Speaking of great shots, I had a perfect oppurtunity to take one. After the Chelaur had left on it's run down the Gaspe, I was waiting on the New Brunswick side of the train bridge I was going to catch the Ocean crossing the Restigouche, however my batteries were dead! I couldn't believe it, I had just spent $11.69 on batteries for digital cameras about an hour before hand and they were dead already. Needless to say I wasn't impressed. My mistake was though, I had forgot lastnight to recharge my rechargeables before going to bed.

So I didn't get the "Perfect shot" and I was left fumbbleing for a pair that would get me the next best thing. And here it is.

A point of interest for me was when I seen the lead unit was 6400, whereas back in April I was sitting in the cab of 6400 here I am.
So my whole point of waiting at the end of the bridge for the 14 was to get it on video but fate wasn't going to have it this morning. Also one more thing, in the past few months I've receved four hello's from the loco drivers not too bad, I got one this morning from the Ocean. I'm impressed and I got one last night from the 15. Hey two in a row I like that, I guess after seeing me at just about every other crossing they kinda got to know that I was chaseing their train and decided to add their own thing to my video, Thanks guys! Well I'll be posting my videos on Youtube as usual so have fun and chase those trains!

Last night (As I posted earlyer this morning) I had chased the 15 to Campbellton, here are my pictures, though some are not all that great I took some from the video.

VIA 15 the Ocean

Last night after work I had decided I was going to try and catch the 15 before it arrived in Campbellton, after phoneing the station I quickly learned it left Charlo station at 2100 hrs on time and was due in Campbellton at 2130 on time. I had caught it in Dalhousie Jct, from there the chase was on! I chased the 15 from Dalhousie Jct to Tide Head, by the time it left Campbellton you've guessed right the light wasn't all that good. However I did get some great stills once it arrived in Campbellton and I did get some great video of the 15 as it crossed over Christopher Brook. ("My brook" as I used to call it as a kid.) This morning I'll be chaseing the 14 from Matapedia to Dalhousie Jct as I have been wanting to do for a long time now so this will be a great time for me to get some of those "Great shots" I've been whining about for quite some time now. After this mornings chase I'll post last nights pictures and this morinings as well. Till then have fun and keep chaseing those trains!

It's been awhile!

It's been quite some time since I wrote last, well life has been pretty hecktic for me in the past month and a half, I just completed an eight week traning course and I am now a certified Environmental Monitor. I would goto my course at 0900hrs every morning and at 1700 I'd leave to goto work, so I'm at work for eight hours and when I get home I'm too tired to bother with anything. Now that I am done my course I can finally relax and get back to my other passion...Railfanning.

As some of you noticed I defied sleep deprevation and went to catch the Ocean and the Chelaur leaving Matapedia. That was a good run, a few days later I was on my way home after work when again I caught the Ocean leaving the Campbellton yard heading to Montreal. I chased it to Tide Head and called it a night. I have three new videos on Youtube for those who don't know just yet.

When I was in Montreal in April we visited the CAD facility, one of the loco's they were working on was a "green powered" locomotive 7102. It is the "hybred" of the railway. It runs on a greener fuel mixture of I believe alcohol and diesel fuel. I stand to be corrected on that. It's been a month and a half since I was there. So while on Youtube a few nights ago I was looking around and I stumbbled onto a video by ConrailSD70MAC he has a video of the aforementioned locomotive. As you see here I have some pictures of the loco and I have a shot of my self in the driver seat. I thought that was pretty awesome not as much as when I found this video and heard it for the first time.....What sound, very distinctive and a beauty.


First here are my pictures of the GP9 710ECO 7102 that I took at CAD.
Here's the cab shot.And a shot from the driver's side.


Here is another video of the same loco, this one is by EMDX7102 both videos were shot in Ottawa on OCR. Since EMDX7102 has disabled embedding here is the link to his video. Very neat to see it. http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=eOiAnzwEIhA&feature=related

Well I'll keep you posted as usual in regards to railfanning, now that I have the time I'll diffently get on it and now that we have longer daylight it will make it a lot easyer. Have fun and keep filming those trains.