Yet some more railfanning in the Month of January. I first headed to Painsec Junction to catch VIA 15. I went to the usual spot, on the side of the road to get a long shot of VIA 15, but I was forced to use the driveway on the other side. It wasn't my best video of the VIA 15 at Painsec Junction, but it's still good enough. VIA 15 had 6421 & 6411.
VIA 15 at Painsec Junction
Later, I headed to the yard and caught CN 120 with 2557, 2574 & a brand new EMD SD70M-2 number 8856.
I also saw CN 4721 doing some shunting & CN 407/408s power on the move. The units on 407 were 5666 & 2591.
I then went to Tim Horton's on the West Main & waited on 120 to come by. But I made a dumb decision to head back to the yard because as soon as I arrived back, CN 120 was already gone. I then chased it to Memramcook, but yet I made another dumb decision & too Main street at Traffic hour & as I was approaching the tracks, I saw 120 going by. CRAP. So I decided to head to Amherst Station & I managed to catch it there.
Here is part 2 of my railfanning trip to Saint John in January. On my way to check out the potash yard, I saw CN 7038 & 7060 (part of the NB Southern local) siting off the switch with no crew aboard.
After checking, I headed back to Staples to see what else was going on. Finally, the NBSR local came back.
Once they went by, NBSR 2612 came to the yard, from Dever Rd. yard of course, to collect some cars.
After a while, Matt came along to catch a couple of trains. After a while, the NBSR local returns to the refinery pushing a few cars.
At around 3:00pm, CN 405's power heads for the Courtenay Bay to collect 40 empty potash cars. The units are 2251, 4722, 4727 & 5647.
I headed to Coast Tire and caught em going by nearing the Potash yard.
I then headed to Russell St. and waited on 405 to come back. While waiting, I saw the NBSR local crew getting some coffee from Tim Horton's and then heading back for the refinery.
A few minutes later, the Yard Master told 405 to come back to the yard.
I then headed for Tim Horton's on Rothesay Ave. and waited for them to get RTC clearance and managed to get a video of my scanner while they got OCS clearance from Mile 83.5 to Fundy with no restrictions.
After that I headed for Ashburn Lake Rd. and caught them leaving. You should see this IDIOT on the video & photo.
Once the video & photo was taken, I headed for home but not without a chase. So I headed for Hampton for my first stop. I caught them there and I also got the scanner reading going off.
I then headed for Sussex to get the second last video of them there. The video isn't any better than the photo in this shot. For that reason, I will not show the video here.
My next & last location of the chase was Penobsquis.
I ended the chase there due to the following reasons. First, it was late enough I didn't want to stay out any later. Second, they were moving slower around Penobsquis than usual. And third, there was no spot to park than the side of the Road. So I called it a night after that.
After I did my exam, I decided to head for Saint John to do some railfanning since I didn't have anything better to do. Here are some photos when I just arrived.
An odd looking car that looks like a boxcar & Hopper car in one
NBSR 3703 is out of function and by the looks of it, it's being used for parts
About 10 minutes later, CN 7038 & 7060 return to the yard with some cars
Then they push some more back to the refinery.
Finally around 1:00PM, CN 405's power heads for the Courtenay Bay to collect 43 empty potash cars. The units on 405 are 5647, 4727, 4722 & 2251.
While waiting for CN 405 to return from the Courtenay Bay, the refinery units (CN 7038 & 7060) return to get some coffee. When they headed back, CN 405 was just coming back, so they was a horn show between the two trains.
After CN 405 headed back to the yard, I headed to Tim Horton's for some coffee. When I heard that they got OCS clearance from Mile 83.5 to MP 20 of the Sussex, I headed for Ashburn Lake Rd. crossing. Here's the video I got about what happens in Saint John at Rush Hour.
Once I got the video, I headed for Tennis Court Rd., where saintjohnrailfan was waiting for CN 405 as well. Here's the video and a couple of photos of CN 405 at Tennis Court Rd. in Rothesay.
When I returned to Saint John, I noticed CN 7010 was pushing some TOFC cars
Later, around 6:30pm, I headed to Carle Ave. to catch the NB Southern WB. Nearly 10 minutes after I arrived, I saw NBSR 2317 doing some shunting in the west end of the yard.
Finally, at 8:20pm, NBSR 9802 & 2319 take the WB back to Brownville Jct. in Maine. About 10 minutes later, they pass Acamac Backland Rd.
Afterward, I headed back to my hotel to prep myself for the next day to come.
It started out that I wanted to catch VIA 14 from Memramcook, NB (my hometown), to Amherst, NS. At around 1:17pm, VIA 14 comes flying through Memramcook with 6404 & 6405
After it flew by, I headed for Sackville to catch it departing. Here's the video.
I was also pacing this train at the Tantramar Marsh.
I notice that the Signal was not at Clear (Green) it was set to Approach (Yellow/Amber) that's when I heard that CN 407 had some problems with a car up the line.
Over an hour after it arrived, I heard that all the passengers had to get off the train and take a bus to Halifax and VIA 14 would head back for Moncton & get turned around. Here's the photo at Amherst.
It took over half an hour for the train to reach from Amherst back to Sackville. Here's the video of the train going in reverse back to Moncton.
I headed to the yard to see what was up, but there wasn't really much going on but some switching. After that, I headed for home.
I decided that after school, I would do a bit of railfanning in the Moncton area. I started with VIA 15. When I arrived at the station, I notice that the door heading for the platform was blocked and that the whole station was fenced. I guess there were too many people crossing the tracks at this location. Anyways, here's the video of VIA 15 arriving at Moncton.
Later, I headed for Gort to catch VIA 15 departing Moncton.
After VIA 15 left, I headed in the yard and caught CN 539 returning from the Humphrey spur with 4713 & 4773.
Then, since I was a bit hungry and there was no action for a while, I went to get some supper a continue afterward. I heard on the scanner that CN 308 was asking for clearance to enter the yard. I headed out and caught it right on time. The units were 2653, 6028 & 2684.
While 308 was entering the yard, I heard that CN 537 was ready to depart after 308 has cleared. The units are the same ones from that 539.
Before I made it to Gort, I also heard that CN 405 was getting RTC clearance from MP 37 Sussex Sub to Fundy. So I after 537 headed for Chipman, I headed to the yard and waited on 405. Here's a photo of 308 shunting in the yard.
At around 8:00pm, when I was about to call it a night, CN 405's crew was saying they were approaching Fundy, so I sticked around to catch em. The units were 2620, 6016 & CN/IC 2723
After that, I called it a day and headed for home.
Since I only did some railfanning once in the Month of December 2008, I may as well give the full story of this local railfanning
CN/IC 2711 (part of train 407) resting at Gort
CN 4760 (part of train 473) & CFMG 6909 at Gort
Later, I caught CN 473 just about ready to depart at Gort. The units are 2200, 8831 & 4760
About 20 minutes later, VIA train 614 (not 14) passes train 473 with 6404 & 6400 hauling Stainless Steel Budd Cars
I headed back into the yard to wait on trains 405 & 539. While waiting, I got a couple of shot of Train 407's power & CFMG 6909 resting in the yard, as well as the switchers (4721 & 4773)
About a couple of minutes later, CN 539 returns from the Humphrey spur with 4729 & 4719 hauling about 5 cars
Here's train 539 switching at Gort
Finally, at around 3:45pm AST, CN train 405 returns from Saint John with 2620, 6016 & 2634 hauling 49 cars
Finally, to conclude this day, on the way back to Memramcook, I figured since VIA 614 was late, so would 615. So I checked the signal, and my predictions where correct.
At around 4:42PM, VIA 615 comes flying trough Memramcook with 6433 & Loto-Quebec unit 6414
Believe it or not, this train (from yesterday's VIA 614) passed the Tantramar Marshes at around 6:00pm
VIA 15 at Painsec Junction
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