A Nice Sunday Surprise

I was going to head into Saint John first thing on Sunday morning, because I had to give Dave (nbsrfan) back a Microsoft Train Simulator CD which I borrowed from him. I woke up at around 8:15am, and went to check my email. I discovered that a late CN 406 was ordered out of Moncton for 6:00am. I thought that was great. I figured that it would take roughly an hour before it departed, which meant that I figured I had about 90 minutes before the train rolled by. I decided to head out to the entrance to the Kennebacasis Park, which is roughly milepost 81.3 on the Sussex Sub. I gave Dave a call to let him know of the late train, and he decided he would join me out in "K-Park" to catch the train.

About 10 minutes before he arrived, there was chatter from the Island Yard on the scanner, indicating the train just departed Moncton at around 9AM. A later email proved this to be true. After talking for a bit, we decided that we could do a mini chase of 406. We both got into Dave's car, and decided to try our luck in Hampton. We arrived in Hampton around 10am, and discovered that 406 was just heading through milepost 37, around McCully's, outside of Sussex. We decided to stay put in Hampton, as trying to proceed further up the line might end up costing us. At around 10:45am, we could hear the pounding of the engines about 4 miles away. About 5 minutes later, CN 406 came barreling through Hampton, hitting the hotbox detector at 39MPH.

Once 406 departed, we decided to head back to Kennebacasis park to catch it again, just before it entered yard limits in Saint John. A quick little drive back, we arrived about 5 minutes before the train came through. Not sure the exact time, but CN 406 came through "K-Park" with two SD75i units, 5746 & 5774, hauling 86 cars. It turned out to be a decent morning. We caught some train action, then I was able to make it home before lunch.

Here's the video. It's from both locations, combined into one video. Enjoy.



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