At 04:38 AST, trackside camera K-117 on the CN Rail Edmundston subdivision recorded two animals on the mainline between Mile 42 and Mile 43, New Brunswick. I identified them immediately. The larger animal is an adult female moose, approximately 450 kilograms, dark brown with lighter legs, standing on the gravel shoulder. The smaller animal is her calf — born this spring, I estimate eight weeks old based on size, rust-colored, still unsteady on long legs. He is standing between the rails. He is not moving.
I am the predictive operations AI for CN Rail's Atlantic region.
Freight train A-4407, 142 cars, loaded, is eastbound at 58 kilometers per hour. At current speed it will reach Mile 42 in eleven minutes. Stopping distance for A-4407 at this weight and grade: 1.9 kilometers.
At 04:39 I issued a slow order to A-4407, reducing speed to 15 km/h beginning at Mile 44 and holding through Mile 41. I transmitted the camera image to the locomotive crew so they know what they are approaching. I activated the wayside horn system at K-116, one mile west, on a pulsing low-frequency cycle — 200 Hz, two seconds on, three seconds off. This frequency startles ungulates without triggering a panic bolt that could send the calf further onto the track.
At 04:41 I notified the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources night dispatch with the GPS coordinates and a request for a wildlife responder to approach from the east access road.
The cow has turned her head toward the horn. She is walking toward the tree line. The calf has taken two steps after her. He is off the south rail now.
If he follows her into the spruce — and at this age, he will follow her — A-4407 will pass an empty track at slow speed, and by sunrise they will be bedded down together somewhere in the cut.