Canadian Railroads > Moving Gypsum in Nova Scotia

15 years ago that title could have referred to either the Milford Mine, served by CN, or the mines in the Windsor, NS area, where the Windsor & Hantsport did the hauling.  There has also been sporadic gypsum mining near James River on the CBNS, and 30 years ago CN hauled gypsum from the River Denys mine in Cape Breton to Port Hawkesbury on the Strait of Canso.

But today, the only significant gypsum mining going on is the big pit in East Milford (reputedly the largest open pit gypsum mine in the world), which sees a CN train 6 times a week (511).  And demand must be up at the moment, because starting this week, there will be a second train (513) running to and from the mine each evening.

On October 6 I caught the empty train at Enfield (Bedford Sub, mile 29) and then a few hours later loaded at the mile 26 rule 42 site, and about 2 miles into the Dartmouth sub in Waverley.  This particular pair of units has been together for a few weeks, working on 511, and also 407/408 (see John Reay's post from yesterday).

GTD

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