Moncton trip

My trip to Moncton was great, VIA still knows how to treat customers well, on the return trip I had decided to have my supper in the dining car. Shortly after we left Moncton station we stopped on a siding to let a passing freight go by, it was a shunter coming from the Gordon yard. I have a short one minute video of that freight going by, I tried to get artistic by getting the wheels however that didn't work out too well as you may notice. I have another short video from the dome car but nothing special about that video, however in Bathurst I got a great shot of the side of the car, I got off the train for a few moments and I seen a perfect photo op and took a great shot of the stainless steel siding of the budd car where the lights were reflecting off of it just right as you'll see below. Other than those two videos and one picture I didn't take any other pictures as I mentioned in an earlyer post I was in Moncton for other reasons, I wish I had the oppurtunity to do a bit of rail fanning however I wasn't there for that reason.

The 15 was on time, though I wasn't; Moncton traffic is crazy! If I was ten more minutes late I would have had to come home on Thursday however my Aunts New York City style of driving saved the day. So that was it for me as far as trains go for this week. I hope everyone had a better week with trains go also one quick note if you haven't already checked it out Steve Boyko has some pretty neat videos on Youtube and on his site of his chase with the NBSR pipe train. Great videos Steve!

Changes

I had to make a few changes to my comment settings, so if for some reason you don't see your comment email me with your comment or question. Otherwise I had to make a few changes because lately I've been getting spam and it's annoying thing to check my comments and to find it's nothing but worthless trash. So I do apologise to those who wish to leave legitimate comments and find it hard to leave one now.

New videos on Youtube

I have two new videos on Youtube. I took my Daughter on the train this morning which was three hours late, the Ocean 14 has been late a lot since Christmas due to the winter weather. The Ocean deaprted Campbellton at about 1115 and we arrived at our destination at Charlo fourty minutes later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF95lTvgU1Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on0qIuyE5lM

Late VIA 14 the Ocean

I heard Ocean 14 on the scanner at 0850 calling RTC informing them they were one mile from Campbellton. So I took out my camera and went on my deck and took these pictures. It's a newly painted Locomotive (I don't know the number) and the CBC locomotive. The consist is the BUDD (Stainless Steel) train.

Another late VIA 14

This morning I was going to take my youngest Daughter on the train it would be her first train ride, I was pretty excited about it, I think I was more than her hahaha. However the weather did not permit such an occation from ariseing. The 14 will be late AGAIN this morning it will be arriving in Campbellton @0800. So rather this morning I'll be taking her tomorrow morning also the roads are a little on the rough side. Well for those of you wondering I had an interview on Wedsenday well it went really good I think I'm in the course. I applyed for a traning course that's about eight weeks in length as an Environmental Monitor. For those of you who don't know what that is well I didn't know what it was till about two weeks ago when I signed up for the course. Basically I would be monitoring human activity on the environment and taking down data and writting a lot of reports. I should know next week if I'm in the course or not, I have no worries about it I'm pretty sure I got in.

For those of you who know, I work at the mill in Atholville and well that job isn't all that great yes it pays well and it's an ok job but I want something better I want something to work with not work for. By taking this course I'll be able to advance to a better job and on to a career, and by the fall I do intend on returning to UNB to finish up my Political Science degree.

I'll be heading to Moncton on Monday there has been a death in the family so I won't be going for pleasure or doing any railfanning. So that's been about it for me this week.

Possible abandonment

I was researching the former Laurenient line (Excuse the spelling) in Quebec and I came across something that caught my attention right away. It appears that since the Gaspe Pannusula is expreiencing a huge fall out in the forestry sector with the closures of several saw mills and pulp and paper mills on the Gaspe CFMG is in the process of abandoning the line from New Carlisle to Chandler. That would be on the Cascapedia sub. If that were to happen than that would seriously screw up the Chaleur meaning it would no longer have the line to continue to Gaspe, that for some reason bothers me, this whole region from New Brunswicks North Shore to the Gaspe coast is in some serious trouble since our chief export is forestry and that sector doesn't look like it'll recover at any time in the near future. Here is the link and the few lines I seen on this topic.

"Matapedia & Gulf Railway Rivière du Loup (interchange with CN) to Tide Head, New Brunswick (meets New Brunswick East Coast Railway), with branches from Mont Joli to Matane (ferry to Baie Comeau) and from Matapedia via New Carlisle to Chandler (meets Gaspé Railway). In 2007, Matapedia & Gulf announced that it will begin abandonment proceedings for the section between New Carlisle and Chandler. Under Canadian law, it will be several years before the abandonment can be completed but, if it takes place, it will leave the Gaspé Railway isolated from the remainder of the Canadian network"

From http://www.sinfin.net/railways/world/canada/quebec-eng.html

///UPDATE\\\
If you haven't already read the comments to this post, Steve Boyko had commented the section of track from New Carlisle to Chandler Quebec on the Cascapedia Sub was bought and funding came from the Governments of Quebec and Canada. This move had saved the line from an iminate doom. Again I am looking towards the future for the economy of the North Shore and the Gaspe coast with hopes of a brighter future. Here is the link to the site Steve had posted in his comment. http://www.dec-ced.gc.ca/asp/SalleNouvelles/communiques.asp?LANG=EN&PRESS_RELEASE_ID=4978&TYPE_COMM=CANADA
In it you'll read the whole deal and the positive outlook it has for the Gaspese.

CN Makeing a return?

In the past few weeks all has been quiet in regards to the CN take over of NBEC and CFMG however in the past few months there has been a lot of talk about CN buying back the Mont Joli and Newcastle subs and a few other subs as well. My biggest question is Why? Why does CN want all the lines in NB and Quebec that it sold back in 1994-96? Persoanlly I have mixed feeling about them coming back to the North Shore. All the scuttlebutt I've been hearing isn't good of course but I'd like to focus on the positive aspect of CN returning. On the lighterside they could very well bring with them more jobs to the already dead or dieing North Shore for example. Part of the rumor is they (CN) wants to abandon it's Napadogan sub for the Newcastle sub because the bridges are smaller and less costly to maintain. That would mean CN would be bringing more freight through here from Halifax more container traffic and speaking of which Belledune is looking at opening up a container facility so there is more jobs as well and more rail traffic.

More rail traffic would mean more jobs, you'll need people to shunt freight around and put more trains together and you'll need more people to maintain the rails etc etc. More rail traffic also means less clutter on our highways from trucks and better maintained highway infrastructure as well. (Per se) the provincial governement would "want" to put more money into it's railway infrastructure as well and who knows what could happen from there on, I am looking to the future with high hopes as far as a CN take over goes, I know not everything about it will be all peaches and cream however who knows eh? I think with the majority of it all I think it'll be a positive thing for the North Shore economy. I'll add more to this at a later date.

(The above picture was taken by Phil Ross and used with permission from Phil Ross. The picture is of CN 8826 in Dorchester NB as CN freight 120. Thanks Phil!)