Canadian Railroads > Same Day, Different Gypsum Trains

For many years a photographer could reliably find at least two gypsum-by-rail operations in Nova Scotia.  The biggest has always been the National Gypsum mine in East Milford, hauling rock to Wrights Cove on Bedford Basin in Halifax Harbour.  In the 1970s and '80s, CN ran three 50-car trains a day between the mine and dock, often hauled by pairs of MLW C-630Ms or M-636s.  After a wreck in the late '80s, that changed to two 75-car trains each day with 3 units, and the crew would have to wait at the mine until 20 or so empties they had just brought had been loaded.  In 2005 the old gondolas were near the end of their lives, and the company bought about 130 high capacity (286,000 lbs.) cars to replace them and ran two 65-car trains each day.  CN found that a pair of the relatively new SD75Is fit this job well, and they were routinely assigned to trains 701 and 703.

In the first image below, 701, hauled by 5783 and 5744 are slowing to take the switch from the Bedford Sub to the Dartmouth at Windsor Jct., just before 2 pm on September 28, 2005.  In the foreground is the east leg of the wye connection to the old DAR and an interchange track.

Meanwhile, 32 miles away in Windsor, NS, the Windsor and Hantsport, successor to the DAR, was also hauling gypsum, this time from the Fundy Gypsum mine in Mantua to the ship loading facility in Hantsport.  In Dominion Atlantic days, 2 or 3 SW1200RS diesels were the preferred power for the 21 or 22-car trains, using 70-ton capacity hoppers.  When the WHRC took over they used RS-23s, bought from CP, exclusively until the summer of 2005 when four leased GP9RMs replaced most of the MLWs.  In the second image, CEMR 4014 and 4012, from Central Manitoba Railway, were hauling the usual 21 loads off the Truro Spur towards the main line (on the right) at 15:21 of the same day.  Two crews on the WHRC would usually make 3 or 4 round trips a day between them.  The Geeps lasted until early 2010 and were replaced by a pair of ex-Conrail B23-7s.  And then in November of 2010 the bottom fell out of the gypsum market, and the Windsor & Hantsport hasn't turned a wheel since.

There have been some other gypsum trains in Nova Scotia over the years, most notably between a Georgia-Pacific mine in River Denys, Cape Breton and Port Hawkesbury.  That mine ceased operations before CBNS took over from CN in 1993.  And more recently there has been sporadic gypsum mining in James River, Antigonish Co., also on the CBNS.  That rock went to a wallboard plant in Saint John, NB.

GTD

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Nice pair.
JB