CN Safety Day

On Saturday, I was up in Moncton, NB attending the annual CN Safety day, at Gordon Yard. It was a great time, and I was able to talk to some great people while I was there.

Of course, while in Moncton, I managed to catch a few trains as well.

The first train was CN 120:



Next up, CN 305 leaving Moncton, with a DPU as well:



Finally, shorty after the safety day completed, a westbound CN 407 heads through Moncton's west side on it's way to Gordon Yard, with a rather long train.



It was a great day overall. I missed a few trains, but the quality of the ones that I caught made the trip worth it.

-Matt

Road Trippin' Last Sunday

On Sunday, myself and a friend of mine, Dave Dineen decided to do a road trip to see if we could catch a few trains. We arrived at our first location, Chipman, NB, just in the nick of time. As we were arriving, we heard CN 120 calling the signal for Chipman. We had to back track, and manage only to get this shot.



Afterwords, we decided to venture back into Moncton, NB to get a few daylight shots. We arrived in Moncton just as CN 120 was pulling into the Yard. After a crew change and a bit of work, they were on their way to Halifax, NS. We decided to venture out to Painsec Jct, located on Moncton's East side. We managed to catch them with the same loco consist, with 161 cars.



About 2.5 hours later, CN 305 hooked on to their train, did their work, and departed for Toronto, Ont. We managed to get a shot of them at Berry Mills, NB, located on Moncton's west end. Here they are with 5 locomotives, with around 10,000 feet of train.



Afterwords, we heard about a couple of more trains. One was arriving in Moncton, and the other was soon ready to depart. CN 569 arrived in Moncton, and CN 535 departed Moncton towards the Napadogan Sub with centerbeam & a woodchip car. Both were shot on video, but I have yet to upload them to Youtube. I should over the next day or so.

We decided to chase CN 406 west to Saint John. Today's westbound only had 26 cars, so it was relatively easy. I won't go into great detail about the chase, as the video speaks for itself.



After the chase, it was time to call it a day. We were both home by around 2:30pm, but we had both already been awake for 12 hours. To me though, it was worth it.

Enjoy.

-Matt

406 With Some Advanced Editing

After arriving home from work, I descovered that the eastbound (CN 406) hadn't left Saint John yet. I waited until they called the RTC to depart, and I decided to venture out.

CN 406 heads by with CN 2202 & CN 5718, hauling 92 cars.



I ran the video through some extra editing. It's relatively bright. The original raw file looked pretty dull, so I think this is somewhat of an improvement over the original quality.

-Matt

First Recording

I was browsing through my saved movies that I've shot and put on Youtube. I found one that I forgot that I had actually recorded and not uploaded. I'm pretty sure it's the same train as my "first video", but shot a few hours earlier. It's amazing the difference two and a half years makes.



-Matt

Not Bad...Only 10 Hours Late

A buddy of mine was conductor on CN 406 again on Saturday. He was not having much luck though. I decided to venture out to catch his train, and about 5 minutes before midnight AST, CN 406 West came through. Normally this train is usually here between 2 and 3pm at the latest.



They left Saint John about 2 hours later, but I didn't feel like heading out, as they were only around 3,000 feet.

-Matt

CN 406 East

A buddy of mine was conductor on CN 406 yesterday, Friday. It was relatively warm and sunny outside, and I had just finished up my work week. I decided to venture out to catch him on the return trip from Saint John to Moncton, NB.

Here is my lame attempt to be "artsy" with the shot. Maybe if I had a better tripod. Yeah, yeah, I know, don't blame the tripod.



-Matt

Blog of Note

Well, I'm flattered. Just like Steve's blog, I was chosen for the "Blog Of Note" for Friday, June 4.

Thanks blogger team, It's much appreciated!
http://blogsofnote.blogspot.com/2010/06/saintjohnrailfans-ultimate-adventures.html.

Seems like a motivating enough factor for me to keep updating this on a regular basis.

-Matt