Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia Railway

Good Day: I'm visiting family in Nova Scotia and thought I'd pass along what I observed today. Traveling to Cape Breton we caught up to a freight as it started onto the Canso causeway. The two engines on the train were a pair of rather beaten looking EMD products. The lead engine appeared to be a GP-18 painted for RailLink, the second unit was, I believe a GP-35 or GP-38 in the Red, gray and white scheme that I believe RailTex used.

I was suprosed at the amount of flotsam, logs, seaweed and junk along the right of way. The water must have been quite high during the last storm surge. The way side signals for the draw bridge were out of service and bagged over. While it nice to see a train on the causeway it is a far cry from the days when CN kept the property up.

A freight for Truro just passed by the house ( Antigonish ) and although I could not see it, it made a heck of a racket. It's engines were really pulling hard!

sounlds like a vary relaxing vaction Did you get a cab number for that old railtex locomotive?? I have a pic of one that fits that same pain sceam taken in North Bay, Ontario, Canada on the Ottawa Valley Railink.

Sorry, as I was driving I was not able to get the No. It was a low hood EMD my guess a GP-18 and it was in the blue and white Rail link scheme, a nice looking engine though a bit worn out looking! U hope it had a good cab heater!

I know that they have GP7's and 9's They might have an 18 can't rember thow.

could this be the locomotive you seen?

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... ia_Railway

a better shot of the head end with the number......

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... ia_Railway

i hope this helps

Yup, that sure looks like the engine. I'd say they had just over forty five cars in the train, looked like paper boxcars, tank cars and a few flats.

There were a few pulp wood cars being loaded at Antigonish and I noticed a fair number of hopper cars at Canso on the main land side.

It was nice seeing some activity but I sure "pine for the old days" with big MLWs pulling hard for Sydney.

I didn't notice any of the Terra Nova containers for newfoundland. Are they still used? I know they were used to replace boxcars on Newfoundland and thought they were still in use, what happened?

Thanks for the cahnce to view the images of the Rail America engines.

that look a lot like the GEEP I saw in North Bay, Ontario I don't recall the cab number of the one that I saw thow. I can rember seeing in 1999 3 MLW M424's 2, 1 GP7E, 2 GP9's, and an SD18 in RLK Colors.

The TerraTransport containers haven't been used in some time, not sure what happened to them, repainted or sold I guess. The CBNS sees very little container traffic now, CN either transfers it to truck in Moncton or Ships it by container from Halifax to NFLD. With the decline in the Steel and Coal industry, and now with Stora on strike traffic has severely fallen on the line, especially the Sydney end of the line. The rails might see a 4 to 10 car train every other day now to Sydney. If CN would ship containers bound for NFLD over the CBNS again it would certainly help to insure the lines survival.

any rumors on abandonment filings again?

All is good right now, the province has singed a contract to keep the railway running for 5 years. In that time CBNS is suppost to try and regain/gain new traffic to help make the line viable again. It is also to help save the line for a proposed coal mine at Donkin (although the rails to Donkin would have to be relaid, they were torn up sometime ago) and other future industries that require rail. Also the Cape Breton Regional Municipality has signed a contract for the CBNS to carry garbage from Sydney to somwhere on the mainland (sorry I can't remember). This hasn't started up yet but it is suppost to be starting soon.

Jason

good news to hear,i'd thought after the mill strike it wasn't going to look good.

The other day i was railfanning near my home (Indiana) and I caught one of this railroad's engines. I was surprised as I've never seen power from this road...ever. Kinda cool. The photos are in the link below in the "Leaser Units and more" section.

Ahhhh one of the GP50's haven't herd too much about them since the SD45's came to town.

Yep, one of the ex BN units..here's a photo I got of it a couple weeks ago.

http://nictd1000.rrpicturearchives.net/ ... ?id=544883

I was there in 2005 and saw no trains, except for Halifax and that's all for my whole entire Maritimes Trip, I cant remember which RR used the CP Alcos but they we not running either, and another RR that had a steamer and a couple of Alco's that we not running either due to poor track, Ill have to look up the sames as I cant remember.