Yard Shots, NBEC 587 And VIA Ocean 15

I was going to go into Calgary on Saturday and photograph the switch derail and industries along the Mayland Heights spur that runs across the street from my place of work, but as I was checking my gear and getting ready, I noticed that one of my batteries was at 0% and the other was at 4%. It takes about two and a half hours to charge each battery. So I'm postponing my expedition until next Saturday. As a substitute, I bring you another installment from my holidays in New Brunswick this past summer. I hope you enjoy.

August 20th, 2008

It was Wednesday afternoon at around 15:30 and overcast. I wasn't really trying to catch a train that day, I was just wandering around taking pictures of the Bathurst Yard area which is on the Newcastle Subdivision. So I started off at the Golf Street crossing and the first couple I took were of the line heading towards Nepisiguit Junction.

The left track is the main line and the two right tracks are mostly used as storage sidings. Eventhough the middle track does continue on up to the other end of the yard, there is a switch on the station side of Golf Street to bypass this portion of the track back onto the main line. The crossing shown in the first photo is at Squire Green Drive. From what I have observed, the portion of the middle track west of Golf Street is mostly used for storage and temporary staging. The portion east of Golf Street is used to make up trains departing Bathurst heading east, as well as dropping off trains or blocks of cars that may be destined to go to Brunswick Mines, Belledune, Beresford or Chaleur Sawmills.

My next two shots are directed into the main yard area. From my observations, the switch in the foreground is used mostly as the entrance point into the main yard sidings and also divides the middle track in two. The switch is located just east of Golf Street. The siding in the first photo going off to the left, use to be the shop track back in the CN days. I have no idea if that shop building is still there today. The track also leads to a couple other sidings that seem to be used for storage as well. There use to be a scale on the siding between the switch and NBEC 1851, but that is no longer there apparently. In the second photo you can see two other sidings that are also used for storage.

The next photos are taken near the VIA station and show the main area of the yard. You can see in the background of the first photo, some cars on the back sidings. You can clearly see in the third photo that the main yard is four sidings deep plus the main line. The AOK hoppers are bound for Brunswick mines full of cement to back fill the stopes with a mixture of taillings. The covered gondolas are also bound for the mines and will be filled with extracted ore and sent to the smelter for final processing.

From this point on I'd like to mention that the remainder of my photos are out of chronological order when shot and may appear that I've jumped back and forth from one spot to another.

My next three shots are just east of the VIA station. The first photo shows the retaining wall where I was standing for my next few pictures. The second photo is looking west towards Golf Street. There is a NBEC office in the VIA station and it is beyond the wall where the big white Bathurst sign is. The third photo is a close up of the second. This is just speculation, but it seems that at some point in the past that there may have been a siding beside the retaining wall which was possibly used to off load some local freight.

For these next three shots I'm still on the top area of the retaining wall. In the first photo it shows the main yard extending up to the bridge over College Street where it narrows down to two tracks. You can also see a couple of sidings which only the one on the right is still in use and is used to store locomotives. The second photo shows a close up of the two of three remaining sidings. The third photo shows the now dismantled third siding. I remember this siding being used in the CN days to fill gondolas with scrap metal which was loaded from the platform you see in the foreground.

For this next series, I had walked further down towards the College Street bridge to photograph the switches leading to these sidings. The first photo shows where the bridge is and the switch on top of it. In the second photo, you can see that the frog has been removed and replaced with solid rail, but the points leading to the nearest siding have been left behind. In the third photo you can now see the remnants of the third siding. The frog and points are still in place but the rail has been removed. The last two photos are of the sidings and the yard heading back toward the station.

These next two photos are from one of my previous New Brunswick postings. and the third photo was taken 11 days after this outing. The photos were taken from the St. Anne Street bridge towards the College Street bridge. I'm using them here since they show the west end of Bathurst Yard. This part of the yard has three sidings. The one to the far right is used for storage/staging and the middle track is used for staging for outbound trains heading west. If you look closely in the second shot, you can see a switch at the far end. Shortly after that is the College Street bridge. The third shot is another angle of the sidings before the bridge. Without the view interrupted by freight cars, you can see the beginning of the third siding in the western part of the yard. You can also see part of the St. Anne Street bridge in the background.

That afternoon at around 16:45, NBEC 587 returned from it's trip to the Irvco Spur. with a load of cars. Locomotives 1868 and 1813, both RS18's in case you did not know, were the power for this train. The car you see immediately behind 1813, is one of the ore hopper destined to head to brunswick mines for a load.

After that I went home for supper, but I did end up going to Nipisiguit Junction to catch the the VIA Ocean 15. Unfortunately the light was diming due to the overcast sky and my pictures ended up blurry.

Well that's it for this one. Hopefully you enjoyed this one. I think I have one or two more posts of my New Brunswick holidays, so stay tuned.

Cheers,

Super Saturday Surprise

If you wish to follow along in Google Earth to see my stops and travels, here is the kmz file for download.

May 3rd, 2008

I had wanted to get up bright and early to try and maybe catch a couple of trains in the early morning sun. Unfortunately, I only woke up at around 7:30. By the time I got my coffee and bagel at Tim Horton’s in Okotoks, it was 8:30. I still had not made up my mind as to where I wanted to go at this point. I was about to turn south to head towards Vulcan and suddenly changed my mind and head towards Shepard. CPR has an intermodal yard in Shepard, so I figured I would try to catch some eastbound trains.

I drove north on Highway 2, east on 22x and then north on Shepard Road. As I arrived in Shepard at about 9:20, an Eastbound was already on it’s way out. I decided not to chase this one down and head for the intermodal yard. I turned west on 114th Ave, parked my car at the corner of 68th and 112th Ave and walked the rest of the way up the dirt lane. I took a couple of minutes to take a picture of some ducks in a pond. Notice some of the Canadian Tire containers in the background. There was probably close to two hundred of them there at the depot.

I took a few pictures looking down into the yard and also looking towards Shepard. There were 5 trains waiting to be unloaded and an auto carrier train in the distance.

As I was taking my pictures, when one of the yard workers drove by on a quad and stopped. At that point I thought I was in trouble, cause I was a little further up on the access road to get a good view for my photographs. We exchanged greetings and then to my absolute surprise he asked me if I was looking for the “steam train”. I was unaware that 2816 was going to be out and about that day. He told me that 2816 was going to leave Alyth yard at approximately 13:00.

This was absolutely great news!

Since I had a few hours to spare, I decided to go roaming around the Shepard Industrial Park area for a bit. The track coming from Ogden Shops follows the irrigation canal and into Shepard Yard. I ended up at a grade crossing on Shepard Road just off of Barlow Trail. I took some pictures of the double tracks heading to Shepard Yard and also heading towards Ogden Shops and Alyth Yard. I was also snapping some pictures of a switch on a spur leading past a chain link fence gate to an unknown industry. I was trying to be creative with the shots of the switch, you know, practicing a bit.

Has I was snapping my pictures, I heard the distinct sound of a train horn. I managed to catch a container train lead by 8893 followed by 9122 heading East at 10:25 with 8758 on the push. The pictures are a bit blurry.

CN was also at work on the other side of the irrigation canal. Unfortunately I was not able to get the engine numbers.

I made my way to a spot along Alyth Yard just off of Blackfoot Trail. A freight train led by 8534 and 9525, rolled by at 10:50 heading southbound towards Lethbridge. A couple GP9’s came by at 11:20 heading downtown. At 11:35, a container train left heading west probably towards Vancouver. This was lead by 9615 and 9546. I didn’t get any pictures of these trains unfortunately as I was looking in my map books trying to figure out the best location to catch the steam train.

At around 12:00, I figured that I should start heading out and get into position. On my way out of town, I made a quick stop at Ogden Shop for a few minutes to see if there was anything interesting around the yard. I managed to see some rather old coaches on a siding, and I also caught a glimpse of a couple of F units in the yard. Both locomotives were in the tuscan & grey paint theme. The first was CP 1400 a FP7A and the second CP 1900 a F9B.

I knew there was an overpass on 22x over the tracks, and I knew that this was where I wanted to be. I arrived there at about quarter to one and shortly after my arrival as I started to pick the perfect spot on the hillside, a stack container train came rolling by. The power was 9117 in the front and 9107 close behind. Both locomotives are SD90MAC’s, and pretty grimy looking as well.

Then I waited, and waited, and I was getting hot, and also started getting thirsty.

Finally at 14:22, I could hear the whistle of 2816 in the distance near Shepard. Behind her tender was another FP7A locomotive CP 1401.

Here is the photograph I took of 2816 that day on RailPicture.Net.

The consist was:

1. CP 2816 "Empress" 4-6-4 Hudson
2. First Tender, 12,000 gals Water, 4,600 gals Diesel
3. Second Tender 23,000 gals Water
4. CP 1401 FP9A Diesel Locomotive
5. CP 29114 , A box car used as a tool car (CP cars all solid maroon color)
6. CP 96 Power Car
7. 2 CP Coach car of which I missed the identification marks
8. CP NSR9107 Baggage Express
9. 2 CP Coach car of which I missed the identification marks
10. 1 Business car of which I missed the identification marks

After they had gone by, I headed back to Alyth Yard to see if there was any action going on. There wasn’t very much happening except for an empty potash train coming in. The empties were led by locomotives CP 8886 and CP 8782 both being ES44AC’s. These trains are usually pretty long. If I can remember, next time I’ll have to take a car count.

One of CP’s tampers was on the same siding as the Sperry unit that usually hangs around there. There was also a ballast regulator behind the tamper but I didn't get its number. The number on the tamper was TP2760.

Three GP38-2’s numbered CP 3033, CP 3023 and CP 3034 had returned from turning around on the wye and were in the process of switching onto the idling track.

Other than that, there was a slew of idle units hanging around. The closest to me were CP 9679 and CP 8503, both of which are AC4400CW’s which they later turned them around on the wye and moved them toward the diesel shop at Alyth.

Three SD40-2’s numbered as CP 5910, CP 5981 and CP 5965 were sitting on the usual idling track, as were three GP38-2’s numbered CP 3062, CP 3093 and CP 3046.

Shortly after the hump came out I left cause it was pretty long and slow. The power was CP 5495 an SD40m-2 and CP 6603 an SD40-2.

Although I never did catch as many container trains as I had initially wanted to, the day was a great success. I finally found my way to my oasis for a cold brown brew.

Goggle Earth kmz file.

Cheers,

Lunch Time Sortie

At Lunch yesterday, I took a little trip down to Alyth Yard and not much was happening there. I didn't even see the hump. I did see however a CEFX unit sitting one of the stub ended tracks tagged on the butt end by a CP unit of the same type, AC4400CW's by GE. The CEFX unit numbered as 1036 and the CP unit numbered as 9633.

I have seen several CEFX locomotives in Calgary over the past year or so. I'll have to look through the archives and see if I have pictures of any of them and post them up here.

Cheer,

Happy New Year!

As my first post of the New Year, I like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2009. I hope that all celebrations last night where enjoyable and safe as mine.

Cheers,

Jason Chamberlain

Friday Off Meets Weekday Railfaning

If you wish to follow along in Google Earth to see my stops and travels, here is the kmz file for download.

June 27th, 2008

I left the house in Turner Valley at about 8:00am and stopped in Okotoks at Tim Horton’s for a coffee and bagel to go as I usually do before heading out on an adventure. Since this is one of the rare opportunities that I have a week day off, I wanted to head out to Carseland to see if I could grab a couple of pics of one of my friends who happens to be an engineer for CPR. He does daily weekday runs to a couple of chemical plants out that way. By 8:30 I was on the highway heading east towards Carseland on Highway 7 to Highway 547 and then North on Highway 24.

I arrived in the general area at around 9:15 about 8 km past Carseland. The two plants in the area both receive shipments of Nitrogen and they are Orica and Agrium. After a quick Google search when I arrived home that night, I found out that Orica produces commercial explosives and Agrium produces fertilizer. I could see Agrium's railcar yard, but Orica's was behind their facility and was not easy to see.

I proceeded to scout around a bit to see what was in the area for photo taking spots. There is no shortage of level crossings in this area, but not all were that great. Some were not as level with the road and were too elevated for my liking or there just wasn’t any place to park my car. I stopped at one crossing to take a few pictures of a pair of signals and of a grain elevator.

From there I headed north on a dirt road and turned west on Township Road 222. As I was driving, I noticed a blocked road leading to a crossing. I decided to keep going and return a bit later. I arrived at another crossing just north on Twp Rd 222, and took a few more pictures of some other signals. After a few minutes I headed back the way I came.

On my way back I stopped at the blocked road. This was one spot in particular that pleased me. This abandoned crossing was dismantled and the road to either side was barricaded. It was a nice location because I could position my tripod anywhere and not worry about being run over by a vehicle. I later returned to this location on the south side of the tracks.

There was also a white tail deer hanging around in the area.

I headed back toward the first set of signals and down toward Agrium and Orica. I wanted to get to the abandoned crossing from the south side as I could park my car about 75 feet away from it which was alot closer than the 300 feet on the north side. I was almost up to the two plants and just happened to look north and saw a westbound stack train slowing down. I booted it to the crossing just north of Twp Rd 222, but it had stopped way back.

Just before noon I heard the blast of the horn coming from Shepard. After a quick look back, I saw the headlights and they were coming up pretty quick. Thinking this was my engineer friend, I tried to race back to the abandoned crossing, but I was not fast enough. Thankfully it wasn't him. I did however manage to get some pictures of one of the 2010 Olympic locomotives, number 8861, in the middle of the westbound stack train heading for Shepard that had stopped for the eastbound stack train.

About 15minutes later, my engineer friend rolled by with his train. The engine was a GP38 unit number 5867 and was hauling 17 cars made up of various covered hopper, cylindrical covered hoppers and tankers. They were headed toward the wye leading to the two plants I mentioned above.

When they moved nearer to the wye, they had switched off three tankers onto one of the legs and proceeded to do a little shunting. After kicking off a covered hopper, they kicked another two covered hoppers toward the three tankers on the wye leg. After that they proceeded with some more shunting.

I took a picture just after they went by of a bridge that had been around since 1930.

After a few pictures of them shunting, I then moved to a different location further down the tracks to the west.

I zipped on over to a crossing on Highway 797 about 2.8 km south of 22X. I was quite pleased with this location because the ditch is almost flat and level with the road. Also, there is plenty of space to park a number of cars here and to set up a tripod or two.

At about 1:30, an Eastbound mixed freight train with the lead power being a GP38-2 numbered 3049, followed by another GP38-2 numbered 3094 and then CEFX 102. The train consisted of mostly of hoppers and tankers and came crawling by at a snails pace. This was great because it allowed me to grab a ton of pictures of it. In all there were 4 trains that went by between 1:30 and 3:00 pm.

About 45 minutes after the eastbound 1:30 train, a mixed freight train lead by a GE unit numbered 9772 rolled by. This unit had a number of odd features on it. It had what looked like bolts along all edges and corners. I didn’t get a good look as it was barreling by at a good speed.

At around 2:50, an intermodal train with two power units leading and one pushing at the back went by heading east. All three locos were ES44AC units. The two leading numbered 8813 and 9809 with the pusher numbered 8746.

About 10 minutes later, my engineer friend went by with a dozen covered hoppers and tank cars heading back to Alyth yard in Calgary. After that, I decided to head to my watering hole to cool down a bit and then headed home.

Goggle Earth kmz file.

Cheers,

Railfaning Around The World - India

I wanted to share a discovery that I had made about a year ago. I had done an extremely quick search on Google for "railfan blog" and one result quickly caught my attention. I think at that time it was like fifth or sixth down on the search results list. The name of this blog was Platfom 7 - A Railfan's Blog. The blog is maintained by a fellow called Binai K. Sankar and he writes about railfanning and busfanning in India. He also maintains in conjunction with his blog, a photo gallery which contains his railfanning photos on Fotopic.net called Railway Junction.

It is interesting to see what types of locomotives that are being used and operated on a daily basis in another country halfway around the world. I did notice that most of the diesel locomotives have high nose hoods. I am interested to know who is the manufacturer of these diesels. Also, you will notice that just about every locomotive number is five digits compared to our North American four digit numbers. Also they have a naming system that identifies the type of train it is suppose to be which he explains in one of his posts.

I you have a few minutes and are looking for something different to read, then I suggest to take a look at this interesting railfan blog.

Cheers,

Two CP F Units At Alyth

November 10, 2008

I went down to Alyth Yard on my lunch and as I was crossing the bridge over the tracks on Blackfoot Trail, I caught a quick glimpse of two F units but didn't catch the branding as I was trying to keep my eyes on the road. I thought to myself outloud in my car "Yes! What a wonderful lunch hour this will be".

Once I arrived on location, I saw immediately that they were CP F units, 4106 and CP 4107. Unfortunately they tagged on each end by some GP9's. From what I was able to find out, 4106 and 4107 are part of The Royal Canadian Pacific train. Both units are FP9A's and were former CN/VIA units.

The were five other units that were tagged on to 4106 and 4107 at each end. One unit in front of 410 and four in front/behind 4106. The first was GMD GP9 1524 and the other four were GMD GP9 1693 and 1551, followed by EMD SD40M-2 5495 and 5497. As you can see in the picture, 1551 had some of her access panels open.

Also, 1648 and 1507 had arrived in the yard with a few scrap metal gondolas and some other freight cars.

On the one siding closest to me, the near side of the access road in the pictures above, there were three deck cars and another of these 'A' frame cars similar to the one in my post titled "Union Pacific In Calgary" on September 26th, 2008. In a response to that post sent to me in an email, the A-frame cars are used to transport prefabricated switch sections to where they are needed. The a-frame was CP 421892 and the three deck cars were CP 507134, CP 507185 CP 507170.

Just past the Blackfoot overpass, There seemed to be some track work going on. I'm not sure if what they were doing was repairing and replacing ties, or if a section of track was being removed completely. I can't seem to find a decent shot in my archives for comparison, and now that there is snow on the ground, it will be difficult to see.

Something else grabbed my attention off in the distance of the yard. It was a massive ring of someking in a stack well car.

References - 4106 & 4107:
WCRA Railway News: July 2007

Cheers,