Canadian Railroads > Cape Breton Operations

Hello everyone... I was visiting the area over the weekend, stayed in Sydney, and coincidentally caught an article in the local paper about the G&W threatening to abandon service on the island due to a lack of carloads. I saw a fairly extensive network of tracks around Sydney, and of course the bridge and causeway out to the island but no activity. wasn't sure if this was a real or simply a demand for a larger subsidy.

Anyone have any knowledge, just curious...

Rich

Current traffic east of Port Hawkesbury is only about 500 cars/year over about 100 miles of track.

Generally there is one train up from the Hawk on Monday, returning from Sydney on Tuesday.

GTD

Thanks for the info. Does Sydney still export locally mined coal by rail to the docks?

There has been no locally mined coal in the Sydney area since about 2000 or 2001. Coal is now imported (from various places, but Venezuela is one) at the former export pier, and then transported by rail to one or two power plants in the area. Several carloads of this coal each week also went to the LaFarge cement plant in Brookfield, but I haven't seen any of this lately.

Coal is also imported at Pt. Tupper, and burned at a co-located power plant as well as moving by rail to the thermal plant at Trenton.

GTD

Posted from BlackBerry

cn6218 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There has been no locally mined coal in the Sydney
> area since about 2000 or 2001. Coal is now
> imported (from various places, but Venezuela is
> one) at the former export pier, and then
> transported by rail to one or two power plants in
> the area. Several carloads of this coal each week
> also went to the LaFarge cement plant in
> Brookfield, but I haven't seen any of this lately.
>
>
> Coal is also imported at Pt. Tupper, and burned at
> a co-located power plant as well as moving by rail
> to the thermal plant at Trenton.
>
> GTD
>
> Posted from BlackBerry

Thanks. Sad to see what was once a major coal mining center now importing coal.

There is still coal there, but it's hard to get to, and high in sulphur when they do dig it out. The mines went out under the ocean, and geological instability is what shut them down, rather than a lack of coal. There is always hope that the undeveloped Donkin mine may be restarted some day, but coal has fallen into disfavour, and as former miners get older, there is less of a mining "culture" to advocate for a return to underground mining.

There was/is a strip mine in Stellarton, that trucks coal to the Trenton plant, but if it isn't played out by now, it soon will be.

The local power utility is committed to not replacing coal burning plants as they reach their end of life. Some of that capacity will be replaced with hydro-power from Labrador, and also a marginal contribution from (feel good) wind power.

None of all that will involve rail.

GTD

Posted from BlackBerry

Thank you, my journey around Nova Scotia continues... but other than coal imports and what appears to be aggregates and/or sand, what else makes up Cape Breton's traffic?

Seems like there might be LPG/propane seasonal business, maybe refined gasoline and diesel, but I didn't see anything that might support this.

Rich

There's been a lot of oil exploration off Cape Breton, Nova Scotia etc. How is the pipe and gear coming in? By ship?

RichM Wrote:
what else
> makes up Cape Breton's traffic?
>
>

If you include the Port Hawkesbury area (technically Cape Breton, but not on the endangered list), there is LPG, wallboard, coal and paper going west, Also probably the odd load of scrap steel from the Sydney area. Going east, there are plastic pellets for two different plants in Sydney, the odd load of grain, building materials (west coast lumber), cement, and likely propane for local distribution centers.

With the uncertain future for the Sydney Sub (G&W has announced they will abandon in September), I'm planning a trip to chase the Sydney train the first week of August. There has been a lot of political noise from well connected people, so there is a good chance it won't happen, but I'll make one last trip while it is a sure thing.

Here's a shot from better days, in 1997, as four big MLWs haul empties to be loaded with steel and coal east at Neilban Cove on the Bras d'Or Lakes.

GTD

---

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There's been a lot of oil exploration off Cape
> Breton, Nova Scotia etc. How is the pipe and gear
> coming in? By ship?

I've never noticed any pipe coming in by rail. There are one or two tracks dedicated to drilling mud unloading though. That stuff arrives in covered hoppers.

GTD

Thank you again!

cn6218 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There has been no locally mined coal in the Sydney
> area since about 2000 or 2001.

That's not quite true. There is an active mine on the site of the old Prince Mine near Point Aconi. They have been operating a strip mine there since 2006. The work is being done under the guise of reclamation of the Prince Mine, and is being done by Pioneer Coal, the same company that has the mine at Stellarton (which by the way is still very active).