JOURNAL V

Conrad Toner representing the Mighty Grand Falls Website has generously offered to post a quick link to my 508 webpage on their site. You can find it under the section entitled "Good Stuff". ;) In return I have added a new section on my webpage titled "Links". If you would like your website posted in the links section, send me an e-mail and the same agreement applies. Post mine and I will post yours.

Here is a cheap way to build a cool looking fire pit. I built this on Saturday and it turned out pretty good. You need an old truck wheel rim, rocks and muscle.

1) Find your fire pit location and cut out the grass to create a 6ft diameter circle.

2) Place the rim level in the center of the circle over 4 bricks (or rocks) for ventilation.

3) Place a well graded mixture of round rocks all around the rim tapering to nothing at the edge of the circle.

104 years ago today we had a big train accident here at Grand Falls when the CPR bridge crossing the St-John River collapsed and fell in the water under the weight of the locomotive and freight cars. Interestingly enough nobody died in the crash but some newspapers (back then) went to print informing the reader of unfortunate fatalities. Read some of those newspaper articles here.

I think dive 6 should take place sometime in July. I will start organizing something soon. I have done nothing to date for the simple reason that rain falls every other day and some gates are still open at the hydro dam, creating strong currents for the divers.

With the help from Wayne, we went down on the 20 ft long object today. It was a big mound of sand with pieces of old crib work from the collapsed deck sticking out of if. If the engine is in that mound, we could not confirm it today.

What's next? I'm hoping Luc will give a dive course this fall so I can get my scuba license. The plan is to fix up my old boat over the winter and start up a new hobby next summer exploring the wreck area at any time. Marc from work and his brother will also take the course and we will have just the right amount to form our local dive search team. We have been brainstorming the thought of doing this for a while now and some cool and interesting ideas have come of it.

Wayne Hodges also suggested he may be able to borrow some equipment that would permit us to map the river bottom by means of a boat. This could be done in the weeks to come.

Jessy Jane is getting a car wash. We have bought the building where I work (Gemtec Ltd.) and the remaining space (that is not rented) will be turned into what will soon be called "Jessy Jane's Car Wash". We are pretty excited about the whole thing and we also can't wait for people to see it. Jessy Jane is also pretty excited, she's been blowing bubbles all day. Jessy Jane's Car Wash will be like no other in many ways but I'm not going to divulge too much right off the bat. Let's just say we will try to make the visit memorable and fun. I'm going to start building the Jessy Jane Car Wash website in the weeks to come and I will detail more on the car wash site instead of the locomotive site....but in the end they will be interlaced in a cool and unique kind of way.

It's been a while but I finally got a few minutes to write up a new journal entry. I have been drenched in work both at Gemtec and at the car wash. It's really nice to see Grand Falls grow, and I think this summer is only the first of many similar years to come.

On a different note, Jessy Jane's Car Wash is now open. We finished working on it today. I still have some landscaping work and tweaking to do in order to get it finished 100% and to my liking but the car wash itself is fully operational. Now that the major work is done, I want to fix the locomotive message board and build a Jessy Jane Car Wash website. I have something cool and fun in mind for the car wash website.

I have not had much time to dedicate to the train search efforts this summer but with all the rain we have seen up here I couldn't have organized much of anything even if I wanted to. On the other hand, tourists have gotten an eyeful at the falls.

It's been a real busy summer and I really couldn't wait to get time to start working on my 508 project again before people start saying I gave up on everything. Grand Falls has seen an historical construction boom this summer. We have seen the construction of the following and some of them are ongoing as I write this:

- A new Wal-mart store, new Kent building supplies store, new strip mall, new marina, new Tim Horton's coffee shop, new Cinema, New Thomas Equipment building, new Best Western hotel, new Irving Big Stop truck stop, new Madawaska Road, New Speedy auto glass building and more but best of all a new Car Wash........Jessy Jane's Car Wash. Here is an updated picture of Jessy Jane. She is getting pretty cute and approaching the big 1 Year old in February.

Needless to say I have been running all summer to those sites but now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and the train has been slowly creeping back into my mind. So this said I have to bring everybody back up to date on everything that has not been documented on the site.

- I received a picture this summer showing a locomotive being dragged out of a river. The man who showed it to me said it was from above the head pond in the early 1930's. It looked pretty convincing but when passed under the fine tooth comb I quickly noticed the wheel configuration on the locomotive was not right. The one in the picture showed 3 drive wheels and locomotive 508 only had 2. The background also looks funny, not resembling the hillside in our area. I will try and get the picture scanned and will post it as soon as I get it for everybody to judge for themselves. You never know but the CPR archives would most likely NOT be mistaken as to it's wheel configuration?

- I got an e-mail a few weeks ago from a guy named Jeffrey Smith, an artist from Ohio, USA. He has offered to paint (free of charge) an actual setting of engine 508 approaching the bridge for it's final crossing. Jeffrey may even incorporate a scene of her actually going for the dive. A freeze frame of an historic event that happened here in Grand Falls back 105 years ago this summer. To have a complete stranger come out and offer his services, free of charge, in order to re create and promote Grand Falls is actually pretty cool. He is doing it to get his art skills noticed and also help generate some exposure for the search. All +++ in my book!! Here is some of Jeffrey's artwork posted on his webpage. http://www.3angelsstudio.com/

Jeffrey asked me to send him some pictures of the bridge and some info on the engine. He will try to have something ready for Spring 2005. Go check out his site and thank him for it.

- Luc Pelletier is trying to set up a scuba diving course this fall and we are still short a couple of bodies. If anybody is interested in taking the course or would like more information, please do not hesitate to call me or Luc at:

If anybody knows anybody who would like to take the course please forward them the contact information. Only two more people are needed and then I will be able to tackle the mound in the river myself in 2005.

I am also working on getting my webpage back to what it was when I had the message board operational. It was fun to see everybody participate.

Ok. I have received the pictures that I said I was going to try and get from Patrick Rioux. He works at the Hydro plant here in Grand Falls and found some interesting picture depicting a steam locomotive on its side in the water. The envelope he found them in was labeled in black print (top left corner):

Obviously the pictures do not show ice on water but rather an engine in water. So we can safely assume that the pictures and the labeling are not relevant. The year can also be taken with a grain of salt. Upon closer observation I noticed the envelope had another envelope inside of it. The other envelope which contained the engine pictures was labeled in the return to sender area:

It would seem that the Gatineau Company is present on both envelopes but I don't know which envelope would be the older of the two. It would be good to look up the history on the Canadian Hydro company and the Gatineau Electric company. Anyhow the handwritten labeling on this envelope is hard to read but what can be easily read is:

Again the labeling on these envelopes may have no relevancy but I thought they might be interesting enough to bring up. Here are the pictures. I have gotten them scanned at a very high resolution so that you can view them very closely.

The two pictures above show a crowd of men standing around an engine on its side, in the water (in a river or a lake). In both pictures, the men are all standing and looking at the train and not at the camera, which gives me the impression that these pictures were taken without there knowledge or consent. This may explain why picture #1 is from a bad angle, far away and behind everybody. And why picture #2 is closer to the engine but the bottom half consists of a ground shot and still nobody looking at the camera. It almost look like they were hiding behind a mound and took a shot without actually knowing if they had good visibility. It seems to me that if I wanted to take a picture of something like this, I would of gotten closer to the engine and taken the time to take a good picture. These shots look rushed and forbidden. If I had to guess, the one who took the pictures took picture #1 first than tried to get closer for a more revealing shot of the actual engine in picture 2.

You can see no clear way on how this engine was pulled to shore or if if it was pulled at all? There are no landmarks like bridge piers or buildings that would indicate where we are in the photograph. The background in picture #1 contains a mountain range that doesn't resemble the Grand Falls area at the location of the old bridge or in the near vicinity of the accident. The mountain range would still look the same a century later. I have tried to see any clues as to the direction of the current (if a river) but the picture doesn't reveal too much. It does however indicate early spring or late fall because of the lack of leaves in the trees and the men are wearing coats and hats . The two pictures are from the same site because some of the men in one picture #1 can be identified in the other picture #2. This train accident, in my view, looks like it was a section of rail that paralleled the river. A rail line following along a river is not something rare when trying to keep the grade to a minimum. Seems to me that the train in the pictures above was running parallel to the river, derailed and went down the slope, causing it to turn over on its side.

Now as for the engine itself. I'm not much of a train buff but it looks like the engine in these pictures is more recent than the one we are looking for. It is hard to see but it also looks like the engine in the pictures has 3 drive wheels and the 508 only had 2. There are no visible numbers or markings on the engine that could reveal clues as to what type and make of engine this is. Hopefully someone who reads my journals will be able to identify the engine in the pictures. In my opinion the pictures above do not reveal the engine we are looking for. It would however be nice to identify the engine in the pictures. Must be from around here somewhere?

We built this one a little different from our first design. We meaning Eric Ouellette, Andrew Mulherin and Alex Mulherin. We spent 3 nights working on it last week and were almost scared of loosing her before Christmas with two straight rain days last Thursday and Friday. In the end, the rain has only solidified the igloo by transforming her into ICE. Last year we built the igloo out of snow blocks created by the extreme two weeks of very cold temperatures but this year the snow wasn't good for a block igloo (in powder form) so we decided to make good of what we had on the ground by transforming it into the snow we needed for igloo building. You might say we cheated because it wasn't built like the real igloos but the effort put into building this one doesn't make me feel bad.

Night #1: We decided to build it in front of the house this year. Last year we built it out in the back yard and nobody could see it driving by. Rounding up snow and building in 2 foot lifts, we then packed the snow by means of shovels and water to get the snow as dense and hard as possible. When everything freezes over the hard packed snow mixed with water will turn into hard snow blocks. Just enough water to make the snow sticky is all you need......too much water will create voids in the snow mass. We also used a hose fed from the house for water. We built the mound into a cone like shape with added provisions for the igloo entrance. Once the mound of snow built, we shaped it into what looks like the finish igloo but with one distinct difference.....lots of snow inside. We then wet the outside finished shell before coming in for the night. We were in the -15º Celsius range on night #1.

Night #2: A little less intensive tonight. We drew in the brick lines to give it the Block Igloo look. A simple axe is sufficient to break into the ice and create the look. Also started excavating the entrance way and hosed the exterior shell of the igloo again tonight before calling it quits.

Night #3: It's digging out the igloo's core time. I gave much thought on how to make sure to excavate the interior without over excavating from the inside and possibly causing an igloo collapse. That can be dangerous and possibly even fatal. I had a bunch of flags that you sometimes see in fields around here. They have a little plastic flag at one end and are supported by a metal wire mesh about 3mm in diameter and 24 inches in length. There are probably lots of other thing you can find to do this with but make sure the diameter of the object is not to big or else you will have holes to plug later. We then planted the flags all over the outside shell of the igloo at increments of approximately 1 to 2 feet apart horizontally and vertically. The igloo kind of looked like it was undergoing acupuncture therapy. The flags at the base of the igloo were pushed in deeper than the flags on top of the igloo. The logic behind this is to give the igloo a solid and thick foundation and a lighter roof load with thinner walls. Basically the flags got longer and longer until we reached the top. Make sure to leave at least 8 to 10 inches thick at the top in case of warm temperature or even rain. Once the flags have been all placed and have been looked at from a distance, it's time to go digging igloo guts. The point of the flags is to know when to stop when digging from the inside. Once you hit a flag base from the inside you know you have reached the desired depth of excavation and that the work you are doing is not going to cripple anybody . I would recommend having an adult doing the gut digging phase and having the young ones hauling snow out of the igloo.

If anybody decides to build there own igloo, take a picture, e-mail it to me and I will post it on the website. Have fun during the holidays and best wishes to everybody in the new year.

The scuba diving course is in serious jeopardy!! We still need 2 more bodies, if it is to be given. We have four people committed so far but that means nothing if we don't achieve the minimum 6 required. The course cost is 450$ and would be given in Edmundston on weekends for an approximate duration of 60 hours. 30 of those hours are theory and 30 are pool practices and actual outdoor dives. Among the practice dives would be a dive on the train site. The final dive would be in June in the ocean. The course would give you a NAUI certification that is recognized all over the world. We are 3 guys from Grand Falls and one from Florenceville. We would be traveling together and saving some money by doing so. So if anybody from this area wants to take the course we can all carpool together. Luc has plenty of dive suits he can rent for about 100$ to 150$ (course duration) depending on what is needed. It is a big investment in money and time but if you always wanted to get a thorough dive course, now is the time. If the course is to be given at all, we need to move fast, so if anybody knows anybody who might be interested, tell them to call me or Luc Pelletier for more details ASAP.

The scuba dive course is canceled. Not enough people singed up and time is up. That kind of disappoints me because I really wanted to attempt a dive of my own this spring. I don't know what is going to happen next but surely something will come up. I would like to do something on the ice again this winter but I'm not to sure what else could be done to find out what rests inside the sandy mound between the piers. I will make a few phone calls this week and see what I can stir up.

I will also be moving my webpage to another address before the end of the month. So when your bookmarked link stops working in March, just do another search for "Steam locomotive 508" in Google and save it again.

I'm almost done updating my webpage. Rebuilding the website has been a longer task than I had anticipated. I figure a couple more hours and all will be done. We have been busier than normal for this time of year at work and not much time has been spent on the train site or the actual search. I have managed to make a few phone calls but nothing is confirmed for this summer yet. I have a few friends in the military and I am hoping they can possibly help me out. Imagine having some Canadian military divers showing up in Grand Falls this summer with the sole purpose of finding a steam locomotive. I think that would be pretty cool and impressive. Anyways let's keep our fingers crossed and possibly before the accident turns 105 years old, we will have solved the mystery.

On April 1st, the igloo finally decided to turn in for the summer and that's no April fools joke. I was surprised it stood up that long. The week before the roof collapsed, I was still standing on top of her. The boys are now wet, freezing and pretty disappointed but next years igloo will be even better.

The new Grand Falls cinema is opening tomorrow. A special private screening was held tonight and I must say the new facility is quite impressive. It's suppose to rain all weekend.....go see a movie.

At work, we have been doing plenty of test holes for the future four lane Trans Canada highway that will be linking Grand Falls to Woodstock. Construction is set to start this summer and we (Gemtec Ltd.) are doing all things related to the geotechnical on this project. Basically we have been digging holes all over the country side from Grand Falls to Woodstock. Last Thursday while walking along the cut corridor of mulch and and tree stumps in the Aroostook area, we stumbled upon something that caught the eye from a distance. It looked like shiny metal in the middle of the future westbound lane on the other side of the gully. The excavator operator I was with that day said he had been here before and that those pieces were from a downed B-52 plane from years ago. The military plane was from the now closed Loring Air force base in Maine USA.

We did not make it to the actual location of the big debris pieces that day but I started questioning around for details on the accident. Apparently all or most of the crew was killed in the crash and that it was a very cold day when it occurred. The accident happened anywhere between 1955 and 1958.

So, I convinced the boys (Andrew and Alex) and my Father to go for a hike on Sunday to investigate a little further and to try and identify the large pieces of debris. Here are a few pictures of what we found. One engine!!! B-52's have 8 of these engines as seen in front of me in the picture below. My father said he was 10 when the plane went down and he remembers seeing it blow up in the air and falling to the ground. I'm assuming this engine fell at a different location than the rest of the plane. This may explain why the U.S. military did not find or retrieve this engine. I will try and find some newspaper stories related to this accident when I get a chance. Go figure........All this time I have been looking for a train engine and I stumble onto a plane engine?!?

Still didn't get around to looking up the history of the B-52 crash. More of a winter project.

The Ron Turcotte Bridge has reopened today after over a month of work on its deck. The entire deck surface was removed and replaced because of much needed maintenance. The opening is 6 days early of the stipulated June 20 deadline. Now that the bridge has reopened, the ongoing road rehabilitation work on Madawaska Road will be the new traffic bottlenecking area in town.

I have gotten into communication with a military diver at CFB Gagetown concerning a possible dive on the train site this summer. The captain I spoke with is very interested and is going to get back to me sometime soon when his work load slows down. Things are looking good.

The two B-52 engines where officially mine for a couple of days this week. Brunway called me up last month to see if I wanted to have them. They obviously received a picture of me with the engines taken in April and they decided to offer them to me first. I accepted and we got them out of their 50 year old resting place yesterday. I have decided to bring them to a metal recycling facility. I can now say: I once owned two B-52 engines......for all that's worth.

Concerning the train search, last month I contacted Andy Savoy (our local parliament representative) in order to help me try and get access to some military divers from base Gagetown. Andy has since replied to me and asked that I write up a formal request and forward it to our Canadian Defense minister Bill Graham in Ottawa. I sent Mr. Graham a formal letter on July 19 stating my request along with a brief summary of my search efforts and my website address. Let's hope that does the trick.

I got some good and bad news from Andy Savoy's office today concerning my request to get military divers at the wreck site. Training is all done this summer, so that is out of the question but a possible dive early in 2006 has not been ruled out.

If I can, I am still going to try and get a few military guys up here this summer on their personal time. Never know, I will at least ask them.

I have been busy this summer building my new fireplace at home. This thing is going to be a monster at 8ft diameter and approximately 9ft high when completed. I am building its structural shell out of concrete cylinders we use for testing concrete at work. The outer shell of the fireplace will be covered with round rocks when completed. The fireplace foundation took a little less than 2 cubic yards of concrete. I will also be able to cook food in this bad boy. To view some fireplace pictures click below and go on the fireplace album. I also have an IGLOO album and a recently added Jessy Jane Car Wash album showing the construction of Jessy Jane's Car Wash (2004) and The newly installed sign (2005) at the road. I will be adding more fireplace pictures as it gets built.

INTRO	FUN STUFF	POLL	SOUNDS	CONTACT ME	LINKS
RESEARCH DOCUMENTS					HOW TO GET MARCEAU'S BOOK
GUEST MAP	www.locomotive508.nb.ca				GUEST BOOK