I was gutted to hear that Tim Dryden died on December 29, 2024, at the age of 45.
(image from the Salisbury Fire and Rescue Facebook page)
Tim was a devoted father to his daughter Mackenzie.
He was well known as a long-time volunteer fire fighter with the Salisbury Fire and Rescue service. He served for 27 years and was a Captain with the service.
I knew Tim as a railfan. He volunteered with the Salem & Hillsborough Railroad, and we corresponded occasionally on various topics. Most recently we talked about the boxcars I spotted in Miramichi, mentioned in this post.
Looking back, I ran into Tim several times over the years while chasing trains. We both showed up at Clarendon to photograph an NB Southern train in 2007, we overlapped a lot on the VIA Veteran Train chase of 2005 and the War Bride train of 2006, plus a few other more mundane train spotting opportunities. Tim always had a smile on his face and a story to tell.
The CN crews around Moncton knew Tim, and as his funeral was about to begin, the CN train through Salisbury blew some extra notes on the horn to show their respects. This was a classy move by the crew. Thank you.
My sincere condolences to Tim’s daughter Mackenzie , her mother, Tammy Corey Dryden, and to Tim’s friends and extended family.
More information on Tim:
Steve –
This is very sad news – I only met Tim a couple of times when volunteering at the S & H RR and he certainly was a very interesting person and well versed in talking about his love of trains, While the S & H is no longer operating the few of us still around remember him and he enjoyed being here when he had time to come. A real dedicated person to his family – work – community – A great loss indeed !
What is the “VIA Hospital Train”?
A “hospital train” is a train operated to bring damaged equipment back to a yard for repair. It’s usually at low speed and only has the damaged equipment, not regular freight. In this case these was retired VIA equipment being brought to the IRSI facility in Moncton for refurbishment or cannibalization. I think IRSI took the diesel engines out of the LRC locomotives for resale, as those engines are frequently used in ships.