Uploaded September 2013 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
On a gorgeous Saturday, August 24, 2013, Canadian National freight train 323 heads north out of Italy Yard in St. Albans Vermont bound for Montreal with a big train, including an entire empty CWR train behind the locomotives, which consist of CN SD75I 5657 and CN Dash-9-44CW 2569. We'll see the train also heading through Swanton and across the trestle at East Alburg.
0:00 - CN M323 has its train together and departs St. Albans in the late afternoon on a cloudless Saturday. The empty Continuous Welded Rail remains from new rail being dropped in the previous days. The New England Central Swanton Subdivision remains a long stretch of messy jointed rail for now, but soon it will be improved to passenger speeds with anticipation for the return of the Amtrak Montrealer in 2015.
1:45 - Just up the road below Swanton, 323 throttles out of the yard limits and a speed restriction. Despite the open scenery of farms and marshes along the lake, towered by silhouettes of the Green Mountains to the east, and the Adirondacks to the west, the tracks unfortunately follow a tight line of trees most of the way to the Canadian border.
3:50 - 323 begins its long trek over the Missisquoi Bay of northern Lake Champlain. Track speed is currently 5 MPH with the jointed rail, so this movement is an adventure in of itself.
5:00 - A boat makes its way under the trestle as the train is just half-way across to East Alburg.
6:00 - The train finally makes landfall on the west shore of Lake Champlain. A true track star could outrun this train to the next location.
I forgot my passport on this trip so this is about the last shootable location before the train enters Canada. Next time I hope to do an international chase of this train at least as far as Cantic, Quebec.
On a gorgeous Saturday, August 24, 2013, Canadian National freight train 323 heads north out of Italy Yard in St. Albans Vermont bound for Montreal with a big train, including an entire empty CWR train behind the locomotives, which consist of CN SD75I 5657 and CN Dash-9-44CW 2569. We'll see the train also heading through Swanton and across the trestle at East Alburg.
0:00 - CN M323 has its train together and departs St. Albans in the late afternoon on a cloudless Saturday. The empty Continuous Welded Rail remains from new rail being dropped in the previous days. The New England Central Swanton Subdivision remains a long stretch of messy jointed rail for now, but soon it will be improved to passenger speeds with anticipation for the return of the Amtrak Montrealer in 2015.
1:45 - Just up the road below Swanton, 323 throttles out of the yard limits and a speed restriction. Despite the open scenery of farms and marshes along the lake, towered by silhouettes of the Green Mountains to the east, and the Adirondacks to the west, the tracks unfortunately follow a tight line of trees most of the way to the Canadian border.
3:50 - 323 begins its long trek over the Missisquoi Bay of northern Lake Champlain. Track speed is currently 5 MPH with the jointed rail, so this movement is an adventure in of itself.
5:00 - A boat makes its way under the trestle as the train is just half-way across to East Alburg.
6:00 - The train finally makes landfall on the west shore of Lake Champlain. A true track star could outrun this train to the next location.
I forgot my passport on this trip so this is about the last shootable location before the train enters Canada. Next time I hope to do an international chase of this train at least as far as Cantic, Quebec.
