Canadian Railroads > Working at the Quarry

Bedford Quarry, at roughly mile 12.7 of the Bedford Sub in Nova Scotia was once an official station in the timetable, as well as the location of a crossover between the north and south tracks.  The steep grade going west from Bedford crested here, and it was a helper district in steam days.  Today there is only one main track and the location is known informally as the 'Old Quarry", but the old sign remains.  It no doubt was an active quarry in years gone by, but in my memory has been a transload location for cement, and more recently propane too.

In October of 2004, in the aftermath of Hurricane Juan a year earlier, the two main tracks had become one, although the remains of the crossover at 12.75 can still be seen.  GP38-2 4721 was switching tracks DF30 and DF31, while empty hoppers from the WHRC remained on the main line.  Although this is CTC territory now, in 2004 it was only OCS, so 4721 would have had a work permit.

In the second image, taken a few days later, loaded cars are on the left track.  St. Lawrence Cement used a trackmobile to pull cars down to the silos and then shove them through a crossover to the other track once they had been unloaded.  With the conductor riding the last car, it looks like they are shoving back to pick up empties, and the grey cars are most likely loads to be left on DF30.

In the third picture, the work is all done, and the crew is heading back to Rockingham with 3 empties.  The piles of ties are from the former north track, which has already been lifted.  The grade right here is only about 0.1% descending, but it will be as steep as 1.6% before leveling off again around mile 9.5.

The propane operation was added sometime after these pictures were taken by extending DF31 (track on the right) back farther.  Since the empty cement cars are spotted on DF31 too, the crew will pull those out first before switching the propane dealer.  Some years ago, the St. Lawrence Cement logos on the silos were painted out, and it is now owned by McInnes Cement, the same company that has the plant near Port-Daniel on the Gaspé.  Cars from there do come to Bedford, but not before going to Joffre (Charny, QC) first, since CN doesn't want to run freight down the old ICR in New Brunswick.

GTD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/20 17:43 by cn6218.

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First-class commentary and photos. Great posting.
Bob