Canadian Railroads > Cloudy with Sunny Periods in Nova Scotia

Friday was one of those days when you just have to be an optimist.  With what seemed like an average of 60% cloud cover, I was hoping that if I took enough pictures, I'd get a few that had decent lighting.  The day didn't start out so well: 120 at Belmont in good sunshine, but a camera malfunction meant I didn't get the shot there, followed by a brushy but sunlit frame at Hilden, and then a cloudy wedgie 45 miles later at Rocky Lake outside Bedford.  As 120 was passing Windsor Jct., 511, the gypsum train was preparing to enter the CTC on the Bedford Sub. Rather than follow 120 into Rockingham, I headed north again towards Milford to wait for 511's arrival at the mine.  This took longer than expected, since they were picking up 24 empty gondolas at Kinsac to add to the 60 hoppers already on the train.

​Finally, a bit after 11, Dash-9 2515's scabby nose poked around the east leg of the wye, and 511 pulled down to the combination road/rail bridge across the Shubenacadie River into the mine property.  They cut off from the empty hoppers, and then shoved the gondolas into the west leg of the wye where the mine switcher could pick them up later.

GTD

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But they still had 60 hoppers on behind the power, which was too long to fit in the yard tracks.  Normally, the mine switcher runs into a pocket track before 511 pulls in, and can haul the tail end 10 or so cars off and spot them at the crusher, but the switcher wasn't around this day (maybe because of the holiday).  So the road power hauled down across the bridge, and the conductor made a cut 7 cars back, and those cars were spotted at the crusher.  As 2515 and 8901 were pulling across the bridge, a kayaker was taking advantage of the warm weather and high water, paddling downstream on the former Shubenacadie Canal towards the Minas Basin.

​The power then ran around the cars at the crusher and returned for the remaining 53, hauling them across the bridge just before noon.  Even with the significant cloud cover, they made enough passes across the bridge that I could get the shots I wanted in sunshine this time.  50 cars were already loaded and waiting, but the crew would have to wait for those 7 to be loaded as well, before making the return trip.  I was interested in shooting the Budd Ocean again, so headed north towards Truro to set up for that.

​I had seen a new shot when I was at East Mines (mile 14, Springhill Sub), 2 weeks earlier, and wanted to investigate it a bit further this time.  New road construction has removed a few trees at the edge of a cliff, giving this mostly unobstructed view at trestle level.  The clouds had thinned out quite nicely, although there were a few anxious moments as a cloud blotted out the sun, just before the detector at mile 12 went off announcing 15's 70 mph pace and imminent arrival.  But about a minute later it was clear, and the Ocean sailed past in full sunshine at 15:05.

​GTD.

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Great set at an interesting location; neat bridge!

Andy

Very cool!

PQM

Wow, very interesting. Never seen an automobile / train bridge before.

That shared road/railroad bridge makes for the ultimate in "street running". 
Thanks for posting these.
Bob

There used to be one between Jasper and Primce George......but I think the railroad finally decided to charge way to much (somehow - no toll - not sure how it was charged) for vehicular traffic, so British Columbia finally built a separate highway bridge.