The Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway (reporting mark CBNS) is a Rail America road consisting of 234 miles of former CN main line in eastern Nova Scotia. The railway was created in 1994 when CN "spun off" the Hopewell, Sydney and Oxford subdivisions and sold them to US shortline operator RailTex, whose holdings were subsequently merged into the RailAmerica family of shortline and regional railways in the US and Canada. The Hopewell (Truro to Havre Boucher) and Sydney (Havre Boucher to Sydney) subdivisions were retained, with the former Oxford subdivision (Stellarton to Abercrombie) incorporated into the Hopewell subdivision as the "Oxford Spur".
| Channel | Frequency |
|---|---|
| Road Channel | 161.310 160.185 |
| EOT Device | 452.9375 457.9375 |
| Hot Box Detector | 161.310 |
| Hopewelll Sub | Sydney Sub | Oxford Spur |
|---|
| Mile | Stations | Siding (feet) |
|---|---|---|
| 2.3 | Truro | yard |
| 20.6 | West River | 5630 |
| 23.6 | Hot Box Detector | |
| 31.3 | Lorne | 4750 |
| 40.7 | Stellarton | yard |
| 40.7 | Jct w/Oxford Spur | |
| 42.8 | New Glasgow | 1800 |
| 42.8 | Jct w/Trenton Spur | |
| 61.5 | talking hot box | |
| 70.8 | Marshy Hope | 3350 |
| 89.5 | talking hot box | |
| 100.1 | Afton | 3900 |
| 109.8 | Jct w/Mulgrave Spur | |
| 116.2 | Harve Boucher | 3800 |
| Mile | Stations | Siding (feet) |
|---|---|---|
| 0.0 | Harve Boucher | 3800 |
| 8.7 | Canso Causeway | |
| 9.5 | Port Hastings | 2405 |
| 12.3 | Port Hawkesbury | |
| 13.5 | Jct w/Point Tupper Spur | |
| 13.6 | Tupper | 3865 |
| 33.2 | River Denys | 3100 |
| 41.2 | Orangedale | 5400 |
| 42.8 | Hot Box Detector | |
| 58.1 | Grand Narrows | 3350 |
| 71.9 | Cross Pint | 5550 |
| 77.5 | Hot Box Detector | |
| 92.6 | Gannon | 5200 |
| 98.8 | North Sydney | 2300 |
| 103.6 | Leitche's Creek | 1500 |
| 107.9 | Jct w/Point Edward Spur | |
| 108.1 | Jefferson | 3350 |
| 113.9 | Sydney |
| Mile | Stations | Siding (feet) |
|---|---|---|
| 79.4 | Stellarton | |
| 76.3 | Westville | 900 |
| 71.4 | End of Rail |
Industries served by CBNS include paper mills at Point Tupper and Abercrombie; a tire plant at Granton; a Liquefied Petroleum Gas fractionation plant at Point Tupper; a railcar plant in Trenton; and power generating stations in Point Tupper, Trenton and Lingan. There are various smaller customers as well, shipping and receiving commodities such as plastic pellets, pulpwood, gypsum and heating oil. The railway interchanges daily with CN at Truro.
Mainline traffic is split into two trains: one operating daily between Tupper (2 miles east of Port Hawkesbury) and Truro; and one connecting Tupper to Sydney several times per week. The Western train proceeds from Stellarton to Tupper as train 306, there exchanging empty LPG and paper cars, various chemical loads for the mill, and all traffic for Sydney for loads of LPG and paper, chemical empties, and any traffic from Sydney left by the eastern train. It then becomes train 305 and works its way west, picking up pulpwood loads in Antigonish if need be. In Stellarton the crew usually ends their trip and a new crew takes the train on the return trip to Truro, servicing the Irving sawmill in Valley (just east of the Truro yard) on the way. The Eastern train operates with one crew as a "turn" with a crew and engines based in Sydney. It proceeds to Tupper as train 301 and back as train 302. This train also services a pulpwood loadout at Orangedale.
Local shunters are based in out of Sydney, Port Hawkesbury and Stellarton. Sydney shunters crews handle all local deliveries and pickups in Industrial Cape Breton; two shunter jobs in Port Hawkesbury handle traffic to and from the industries in Point Tupper, with at least one trip to move LPG tanks between the fractionation plant at Point Tupper and a storage yard in Havre Boucher. The Stellarton job handles shunting in the classification yard in Stellarton as well as industries in Pictou County, including regular trips up the Oxford Spur to the tire plant and the paper mill.
For daylight railfanning, your best bets are shunters and road trains east of Stellarton. Train 306 usually departs Truro between 8:00 and 9:30 AM and changes crews in Stellarton, continuing eastward in the early afternoon. Some popular sites for photography are:
Sutherland's RiverAll offer decent photographic opportunities for eastbound and westbound trains. A determined photographer can try for West River, Lorne and Union (all between Hopewell and Truro), but venturing into the back roads between Truro and Stellarton requires a good map and a skilled navigator to get more than one opportunity. The Truro run usually spends a couple of hours blocking the traffic from CN before departing eastward, so lucking into this train heading towards Truro after daybreak would leave sufficient time to catch up to it later. This is a rare case, but it does happen.
End-to-end radio communication is mainly on 161.310 MHz, and 161.415 MHz; the latter (CN channel 1) is used mainly in Truro to communicate with CN crews. End of train devices operate on 452.9375 and 457.9375. The talking defect detectors in various locations all operate on 161.310 MHz.
CBNS has a history of "laissez-faire" relations with railfans. Trespassing is addressed with polite firmness, but railfans respecting the property can expect friendly crews and few problems with employees in general. The diesel servicing facilities in Sydney are posted against trespassing - access is not inconceivable if one has personal protective equipment, a positive attitude and a little luck, but one could just as easily be asked to depart the property immediately upon arrival. Be prepared to cheerfully accept refusal and move on to more accessible locations.
Coming soon: Where to find (and hear) talking defect detector locations; more on train operations; and photo locations east of Port Hawkesbury. Stay tuned!