CN train passing signals

Chasing CN 120

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Back in October (2023) I had the opportunity to visit New Brunswick. I flew in and out of Moncton, New Brunswick and spent most of my time there. On the weekend, I rented a car so I could visit my mother in Oromocto, NB.

It happened that there was a model train show in Truro, Nova Scotia hosted by the Truro Model Railroader’s Association that weekend. My good friend Caleb wanted to meet up, so I got up early on Saturday to pick up my rental car and head east.

As I was walking from the hotel to the car rental agency, a CN train headed east out of Moncton past me. I knew this was CN 120, headed to Halifax, mainly by the fact that there are only a few main line freight trains in the Maritimes and this one had containers! I didn’t think too much about it at the time.

Driving east, I crossed into Nova Scotia between Sackville and Amherst. On the east side of Amherst, the highway goes over the tracks, and as it happened, I drove over CN 120. I guess I caught up!

My brain started working overtime. Can I catch this somewhere along the way without delaying my travel too long? I considered stopping near Springhill Junction, but I’d never been there before and I was afraid I would miss it. I chose to continue on to Oxford Junction, a place I knew well and was only about 3 km off the highway.

Oxford Junction and the Oxford Subdivision

Oxford Junction was the western end of the Oxford Subdivision, which ran through its namesake Oxford, Pugwash Junction, Malagash, Tatamagouche, and others before rejoining the “main” line at Stellarton.

Pugwash Junction, you say? What connected to the Oxford sub there?

4.6 miles of track, that’s what!

There was even passenger service on that little 4.6 mile section of track, a hundred years ago. This snippet from the May 20, 1928 CN public timetable shows that both scheduled passenger trains paused at Pugwash Junction and spent 15 minutes going that 4.6 miles to Pugwash, then backing out again to the “main” line.

I’m not sure when that practice ended, but it’s still in the November 1946 CN public timetable.

Anyway, the Oxford Subdivision eventually dwindled, as Maritime branch lines did. The salt mine at Pugwash (Windsor Salt today), the Wallace Quarry, and Canso Chemical and Michelin Tire near Granton provided traffic but that wasn’t enough to sustain the rails.

By 1987 the Oxford subdivision had been cut, with 8 miles still in operation from Stellarton to serve Michelin, and another 16.5 miles open from Oxford Junction to serve the salt plant at Pugwash. The middle 45ish miles were abandoned per abandonment order R-37727.

Shortly before November 1, 1993, the eastern portion became part of the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway. The CB&CNS still operates that portion, all the way to Granton to serve Michelin.

CN retained the western portion of the Oxford Subdivision from mile 0.0 to mile 16.5. Canada Salt was the anchor and one of the very few customers remaining. You can view the May 1992 car control manual here and see the sidings remaining at that time.

Eventually CN persuaded Canada Salt to give it up, and a salt transfer facility was built just north of Oxford Junction and CN retained 0.85 miles of the former Oxford sub to load salt trucked from Pugwash. From the January 1, 2005 timetable:

I was there in May 2006 to photograph the westbound Ocean and we noted that the eastern leg of the wye at Oxford Junction was recently disconnected. The photo below is facing west.

The other “leg” of the wye at Oxford Junction is still there today, although it only extends a few hundred feet.

Anyway, that’s a brief history of the Oxford Subdivision and why this location is called Oxford Junction.

Back to the Near Present

I waited perhaps 30 minutes for CN 120 to catch up to me. I had a more direct route than they did, and I could drive faster too!

Eventually I heard a train horn in the distance, and CN 120 came rolling through at track speed with CN 3065 and an ex leased locomotive on the head end.

The fall colours were muted by this time in mid October, but they were still pretty.

Well car after well car flashed by, on their way to Moncton and Halifax.

Recently rebuilt locomotive CN 3900 brought up the rear of the train.

Satisfied, I packed my gear up and carried on to Truro to see my friend Caleb. I was happy to see a few other friends there, including but not limited to Bill Linley, Will Lawrence, Duane Porter and Tim Hayman. I was even able to provide a little tech support to Bill for his slideshow!

It was nice to catch CN 120 again! It’s been a while.

Oxford Junction in June 2013

I’ll close with this photo of VIA 15, the westbound Ocean, that I took at Oxford Junction on June 21, 2013. You can see the sad little remnant of the Oxford Subdivision just in front of the train.

The thrice-weekly OCEAN train rolls through Oxford Junction, Nova Scotia.

Looking at my photos from June 21, 2013, I see I chased it west from here to Moncton, photographing it at Oxford Junction, Aulac, Painsec Junction and Gort outside Gordon Yard. I’m surprised I never blogged about that chase.. but it was just before the Lac Megantic disaster and like many others I was focused on that.

Just One More Thing

If you’d like to see more Oxford Junction action, read these!