Canadian Railroads > MLW Monday at Millers Creek/Mantua (Again)

On February 20, 2002, I was back in Mantua, NS, to catch the last empty trip of the day as RS-23s 8036, 8042 and 8026 curved off the old main line (the switch had been gone since the 1980s) and onto the track into the Millers Creek mine.

As the train headed away from me in the second frame, a string of loaded cars was already waiting for the crew to take back to Hantsport.  The gypsum hoppers are an Ortner design, believed to be unique in Canada.  CP bought about 75 of them for the DAR in the late '50s.  Although they were delivered with plain bearing trucks, many had been converted to roller bearings, or had the trucks replaced completely, but not the one right behind the power this day.

GTD

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Very nice.  Have the WSOR tracks been pulled up?

Lee Hower - Sacramento

mcfflyer Wrote:
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> Very nice.  Have the WSOR tracks been pulled up?
>
> Lee Hower - Sacramento

I assume you mean WHRC, not Wisconsin Southern? :-)

I think the track between the mines and Hantsport is still intact, with the exception of the failed aboiteau in Hantsport that the province had to fix because the railway wouldn't. It's badly overgrown, since nothing has moved on it in more than 10 years now.  Still, the province recently spent millions more that they would have to build one or two overpasses and widen the causeway in the Windsor area when Hwy 101 was twinned.

The Halifax Sub from Windsor to Windsor Jct. reverted to CN ownership in 2013.  It was originally the NS Rwy., later the Intercolonial, but was then leased to the DAR for 99 years.  As the successor to the ICR, CN now owns that track.  The odd thing is that the WHRC still seems to act like they own it, leasing it to trail groups as a walking or ATV trail.  The rails have been pulled out of many of the crossings on this section and/or paved over.

West of Hantsport was abandoned in 2007, and many of the crossings have been removed there too.  The railway is also leasing the RoW to trail groups there as well, although I don't think ownership is in question.  Apparently they still have some revenue from charging rent to utilities that cross the RoW.

GTD

Here's a shot from last October traken roughly where the engines are in the second shot

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