Canadian Railroads > CBNS on the Nova Scotia Power Spur

Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway's Port Hawkesbury switcher, 701, was working the gas fractionation plant at Pt. Tupper on August 28, 2015.  SD40-2 3366 and GP15-1 1562 have a string of loaded tankers as they head up over the hill to Tupper Yard, where they will run around the train and then deliver the cars to Havre Boucher to be picked up by 305 that night.  The offshore gas wells have played out since this picture was taken, so now the only customer on the spur is NSPI, which has a large import coal pier on the Strait, and a coal fired generating station.  20 years ago, the generating station was fed with coal mined in Cape Breton (and delivered by CBNS).  With the closure of the Cape Breton mines, coal is now imported, and some goes by rail to another plant in Trenton, on the mainland.  Sydney area generating stations are supplied by imported coal at the International Pier, and delivered to the plants by the Sydney Coal Rwy. or trucks, so no coal crosses the island by rail any longer.

The large oil tanks in the background of the first picture are part of Statia Terminals, which receives oil by supertankers, and then reloads into smaller ships which can land at US east coast ports.  It doesn't have rail service, and it doesn't supply any product locally.

GTD

---

---