I had some time on my hands at the end of a work visit to Moncton, New Brunswick, so I headed down to Hillsborough to the New Brunswick Railway Museum. The museum was closed, of course, it being out of season and also late Sunday night.
I dug my tripod out and started taking photos. It was a little tricky to find camera angles where yard and street lights weren’t blowing out the photo.
There was one nearby light that was particularly hard to work around, but it did do a good job of illuminating the rolling stock in the rear of the yard.
Sadly there is evidence of a fair amount of vandalism in the area with broken windows in many of the cars. It’s impossible to watch an open yard like this all the time. Someone did drive by and check out what I was doing.
When doing night photography like this, I try to be very obvious about what I am doing. There’s no need to be skulking around, looking like you’re up to no good. Make it clear that you’re just taking pictures and not hurting anything.
I was in the area for an hour at most. The replica station is still looking great.
The two black and white passenger cars below have no windows at all. These cars were used as paintball targets / props down on the wye for years, and are slowly being restored.
It was nice to visit Hillsborough again, for the first time in… oh… more than 15 years. I need to get back again.
I took some night photos in Hillsborough way back in 2006.
Visit the New Brunswick Railway Museum in 2024!
Just One More Thing
Speaking of the NB Railway Museum… check out this fantastic video of ex CN 1754 being fired up for the first time since 2006. 1754 and 8245 are the two diesel-electric locomotives at Hillsborough, and they live in the train shed.
The track that 1754 sat on was starting to “lean”, and the locomotive had a definite lean to it, so the volunteers hauled the equipment from that track out and rebuilt the track. While they had 1754 out, they decided to refurbish her and bring her back to operating condition. It took a few months of hard work, but they got her back online.
I love that Alco sound… but I especially love the enthusiasm and joy shown by the volunteers. Well done.
Nice pics especially the plow . I’m building one now and you lit up the dark details otherwise .
What strikes me is the shot where the rails can be seen amid a field of green, as if they were simply laid in grass. You cannot see the ballast at all. That, of course, is something that would be hard for a volunteer-run museum to address, but something about having the rails poking out of grass gives it a small-town, retro feel. I like the challenge of finding compelling railway images in situations like this. Nice shots.
A new group of volunteers as most of the S & H boys from earlier years have retired or passed on – Lots of work but well done – Hats off and continued success in getting ex CN 8245 operating as well from what I understand –
Nice photos indeed! Nice that you could get to the equipment, but not so nice that it is easily available to vandals. Reminds me of my visit to the Edmonton rail museum – way out of town – but also in the off season. Had quite a time finding it and then it was all chained off so you could just see some of the equipment from a distance. Always a problem to protect rail equipment – even the big museum in Delson or St. Constant can’t protect everything.
Thanks Steve for the pictures. I wish I knew that you were around . Allan Flewelling
Hi Allan, it was a spur of the moment thing. Maybe I’ll be back around soon!?