CP 4563

This photo – mine – was published in the November 2007 Branchline magazine, on page 25 in their “Photo Corner”.

What was the occasion? How did a big Canadian Pacific MLW end up back in McAdam, New Brunswick, years after the CPR fled the Maritimes?

You can thank the Canadian Pacific Pensioners.

McAdam was a big railway town. It still is, at New Brunswick scale, with the New Brunswick Southern Railway running trains between Saint John and Maine, and the “south job” from McAdam to St. Stephen and back.

Back when the CPR ran the show in McAdam, there were trains everywhere. Here are the passenger trains running through McAdam in early 1954:

• Trains 39/40 between Saint John and McAdam
• Trains 41/42 (later known as the Atlantic) between Saint John and McAdam
• Trains 101/102 & 103/104 between Saint John and McAdam
• Trains 113/114 (the Gull) between Halifax and Boston
• Trains 151/152 & 153/154 between St. Stephen and Woodstock
• Mixed trains 163/164 between McAdam and St. Andrews

These are just the passenger trains.

McAdam had a hotel, a restaurant, a lunch counter, and a ticket office to serve the clientele. It even had a one-person jail at one time.

In 2007, the Canadian Pacific Pensioners decided to hold a reunion in McAdam. According to Canadian Rail (#521), the 2006 reunion in Woodstock, NB was supposed to be the final one, but they decided to have one more.

In addition to the regular reunion-type activities like a dinner, they arranged with NB Southern to have an excursion train run between McAdam and Harvey.

Also, the Canadian Railway Museum sent their CP 4563 down from Delson, Quebec to provide some Canadian Pacific colour. It would have been great to have it pull the excursion train, but there were some concerns about the big MLW being too heavy, maybe for the siding in Harvey.

The Excursion Train

The skies were threatening rain on September 15, 2007 when I set out from Fredericton. My game plan was to meet the eastbound excursion train at Prince William Station, get a few quick shots of the runaround at Harvey, then get the westbound at Harvey Lake before proceeding to McAdam.

The train was due to leave McAdam at 10:00, but it wasn’t until 10:59 when it ran through Prince William.

The excursion train had NBSR 2610 and 2317 pulling the three passenger cars (5537, 5448 and 5471, all ex-VIA, ex-CN) and caboose NBSR 422990.

At Harvey, the two engines uncoupled and ran down the main line out of sight, then came back up the siding. They were ready to roll by 11:37.

I barely made it to Harvey Lake before the train passed by.

There was a lot of activity at McAdam when we arrived, ahead of the excursion train. A scale-sized model of steam engine CP 29 was parked in front of the station, and NB Southern had parked a number of their MOW machines by the shop building.

CP 4563

CP 4563 was still in the main yard. I took a few shots and ended up in the cab talking with the gentleman who came down from the Canadian Railway Museum to look after the engine. Quite a nice fellow. I wish I remembered his name.

4563 was looking fantastic – like it was fresh from the Montreal Locomotive Works shops. Kudos to the Canadian Railway Museum for keeping it in such great shape.

The excursion train arrived at McAdam at 12:25 and unloaded. I talked with a few people I knew (Art Clowes, Wendell Lemon, Danny McCracken) and met a few people I had only known online or by reputation.

By 2 PM, CP 4563 had been moved over beside the station, and that’s when I made the photograph that was published in Branchline and Canadian Rail.

I wish I would have seen it moving under its own power, but I had my young kids with me and we were having lunch at the time.

The excursion train was turned on the wye, and at 14:16 they left McAdam. The conductor on the tail end, Gary, told me they had 175 passengers for the Harvey trip.

Right after that, the daily NBSR eastbound freight train arrived at McAdam, with NBSR 2318, 2612 and 9802. I’m not sure, but I don’t believe they made any setoffs or pickups.

I recorded a brief video clip of the engine idling. Love the sound of that big motor.

We headed home at the end of a long but good day.

Kudos to NB Southern for being such a good host railway, kudos to the McAdam crew for hosting the event at their beautiful station, and kudos to the Canadian Railway Museum for lending their big beauty to the event.