Rainy Sunday in New Brunswick

Well, on Sunday, the weather called for heavy rain. Even with that, Dave (nbsrfan) and myself ventured up to McGivney. We left Saint John a little after 4am. We ended up at McGivney a little after 6am. When we arrived, we were greeted with a green over red signal facing east, so we knew that 121 was due to arrive. We sat in car in the downpour of rain. At around 7:20am, CN 121 came barreling around the corner. However, once they started up the grade at the crossing, they throttled down, and stopped right in front of the green signal (before the siding). After a 5 minute stop, they were finally on the road again. Unfortunately, I have no idea as to why they stopped. There was no mention on the scanner.

Here are a few pictures. Sorry, they didn't turn out the best.




Here's the video of CN 121 with 8849,5539,5265 and 8827 as the DPU, hauling a total of 160 cars.



After talking with a few of the maintenance crew that arrived, it was discovered that the next train would not be arriving for a little while. So, rather than sitting in the pouring rain, we decided to venture down to Moncton. One of the maitenance crew had looked at the computer, and there was no sign of 305 on the computer. However, about half way between Fredericton and Moncton, we picked up on the scanner that CN 305 had the clearance to leave Chipman. Damn. We also discovered later on that CN 473 left Moncton around 11:30am, and CN 308 was due through McGivney sometime between 1:30 and 2pm, so there could have been a meet at McGivney. Ah well.

Anyway, once we arrived to Moncton, we heard VIA 14 getting their clearance to pass Gort, so we booted it to Marsh Junction for a clip. Afterwards we decided to venture out to Memramcook to catch VIA 14 passing through on the way to Halifax.



We had heard on the scanner that CN 407 pulled over in the siding at Evans, to let VIA pass. To my understanding, Evans is between Dorchester and Sackville, NB. Hence, we knew that 407 was close by. About 40 minutes after VIA came by, CN 407 rolled by with 5621, 8817 hauling 28 cars. Apparently there is no pick up in Truro on Sundays, which is why the train was so small.



Afterwards, we headed back into Moncton. There was very little going on, and we discovered that CN 405 had not arrived from Saint John yet. We decided to venture back home, but keep our eye out for it. We picked up on the scanner that 405 was stopped at McCully's to drop off potash cars. We booted it down to McCully's. We decided to try a different location, rather than near the potash terminal. CN 405 passed by with 5277, 2416 and 2650.



Afterwards, we decided to call it a day and head home. It was unfortunate that we didn't see as much as we wanted to in McGivney. As well, it was nice that even though it was raining most of the day, the rain help up once the trains came by. Of course, up until that last video.

Definately not one of the better trips, but something is better than nothing.

-Matt