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Difference between revisions of "Hantsport"

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[[File:Hantsport Waterfront.jpg|thumb|500px|[[Hantsport]] Waterfront in spring, 1967.]]
 
[[File:Hantsport Waterfront.jpg|thumb|500px|[[Hantsport]] Waterfront in spring, 1967.]]
Mile 38.51 from [[Windsor Junction]] on the [[:Category:Subdivision Halifax|Halifax Subdivision]]  (Mile 54.32 from [[Halifax]])
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Mile 38.60 from [[Windsor Junction]] on the [[:Category:Subdivision Halifax|Halifax Subdivision]]  (Mile 54.32 from [[Halifax]])
  
 
*Next Station East: [[Mount Denson]]
 
*Next Station East: [[Mount Denson]]
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==Gallery==
 
==Gallery==
 
<Gallery perrow=5>
 
<Gallery perrow=5>
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File:HA-38.60 Hantsport Track Chart.JPG|1918 Track schematic for [[Hantsport]] including the gypsum loading spurs, the Minas Basin Pulp spurs, the [[Hantsport Railyard]] and the [[Halfway River Bridge|Halfway River Bridge and Aboiteau]].
 
File:Wolfville_21_H1_East.jpg|Topographic map from Avonport to Shaws Bog circa 1956.
 
File:Wolfville_21_H1_East.jpg|Topographic map from Avonport to Shaws Bog circa 1956.
 
Image:Halfway River Bridge construction.jpg|Construction work at the [[Halfway River Bridge]] in [[Hantsport]], with the town in the background, date unknown.
 
Image:Halfway River Bridge construction.jpg|Construction work at the [[Halfway River Bridge]] in [[Hantsport]], with the town in the background, date unknown.
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File:201580050.jpg|Dumping gypsum into a schooner at Hantsport, Nova Scotia ca. 1900.
 
File:201580050.jpg|Dumping gypsum into a schooner at Hantsport, Nova Scotia ca. 1900.
 
File:201580051.jpg|Dumping gypsum into a schooner at Hantsport, Nova Scotia ca. 1900.
 
File:201580051.jpg|Dumping gypsum into a schooner at Hantsport, Nova Scotia ca. 1900.
File:HA-38.60 Hantsport Track Chart.JPG|Track schematic for [[Hantsport]], 1918, including the gypsum loading spurs, the Minas Basin Pulp spurs, the [[Hantsport Railyard]] and the [[Halfway River Bridge|Halfway River Bridge and Aboiteau]].
 
 
Image:Hantsport Surveyors Car.jpg|[[DAR405801|No. 405801]] as it first appeared on the DAR as Quebec Central bunk car No. 40792 used by surveyors at [[Hantsport]] on August 1, 1958.
 
Image:Hantsport Surveyors Car.jpg|[[DAR405801|No. 405801]] as it first appeared on the DAR as Quebec Central bunk car No. 40792 used by surveyors at [[Hantsport]] on August 1, 1958.
 
File:DAR - Hantsport Station East End - Harold Jenkins Photo - Unknown Date - July 1959.JPG|[[Hantsport Station]] east end, with the [[Laurie Sanford Apple Warehouse|Sandford apple warehouse]], July 1959.
 
File:DAR - Hantsport Station East End - Harold Jenkins Photo - Unknown Date - July 1959.JPG|[[Hantsport Station]] east end, with the [[Laurie Sanford Apple Warehouse|Sandford apple warehouse]], July 1959.
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[[Category:Locations]]
 
[[Category:Locations]]
[[Category:Subdivision Halifax|160]]
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[[Category:Subdivision Halifax|HA-38.60]]

Revision as of 13:09, 27 February 2020

Hantsport Waterfront in spring, 1967.

Mile 38.60 from Windsor Junction on the Halifax Subdivision (Mile 54.32 from Halifax)

Facilities & Features

Commerce & Industry

Description & History

Hantsport is located on west bank of the Avon River at the mouth of the Halfway River. The river and the community that developed beside it in the 1790s were named because they marked the halfway point between Grand Pre and Windsor. The village was renamed Hantsport in 1849 as it had become the chief port for Hants County.[1] Hantsport was a major shipbuilding centre in the sailing era and boasted a world-wide fleet of large square-rigged cargo vessels.

The Windsor & Annapolis Railway arrived in 1869 with rails being landed for railway construction at the aboiteau by the ship Sunny South for the final push to complete the line in late 1869.[2] The first train passing through the village on Christmas Day 1869. The railway stimulated a number of industries: a foundry, a basket and a candy factory as well as apple shipping with two warehouses being built on a spur behind the station, one for the Laurie Sanford Apple Warehouse and one for the United Fruit Companies Co-operative. Several hotels built next to the train station. Hantsport became a town in 1895.

In 1927, Hantsport became the headquarters of the Minas Basin Pulp and Power Company, founded by the Joudrey family who build a pulp and paper mill with a railway spur along the expanded wharves beside the Avon river. The Joudrey's expanded in 1933, building a paper products plant, the Canadian Keyes Fibre Company (CKF) next to their pulp mill at the Hantsport waterfront which included an oval shaped spur. Further development occurred in 1947 when the Canadian Gypsum Company replaced their summer shipping terminal want Wentworth and their winter terminal at Deep Brook with a new year-round loading terminal at Hantsport. A new siding and spurs were constructed for the new gypsum dock. The gypsum dock became a busy operation with its own switcher and up to six gypsum trains a day.

After the DAR abandoned its tracks west of New Minas in October 1993, it closed the Kentville Car Shop and transferred MOW equipment and servicing for cars and the remaining DAR locomotives to Hantsport.[3] Car and locomotive servicing we done at outdoor facilities in Hantsport until the Windsor and Hantsport Railway built its own shops in Windsor. The US housing crisis in 2010 caused a collapse in the gypsum market which resulted in the closure of the Hants County gypsum mines and the end of gypsum shipping by rail and ship at Hantsport. This the Windsor and Hantsport Railway shut down in 2011, ending railway activity in Hantsport.

Operations & Orders

Gallery

References & Footnotes

  1. C. Bruce Fergusson, "Hantsport", Place-Names and Places of Nova Scotia Nova Scotia Archives (1967), p. 278.
  2. Hattie Chittick, Hantsport on Avon, Hantsport Women's Institute, 1968, page 27.
  3. David Othen, Dominion Atlantic Railway The Final 25 Years, page 79.

Reference Tag

External Links