Hantsport, Nova Scotia

Mile 38.51 from Windsor Junction on the Halifax Subdivision (Mile 54.32 from Halifax)

Next Station East: Shaw's Bog
Next Station West: Avonport

Facilities & Features

Commerce & Industry

Canadian Gypsum Company
Sandford apple warehouse
Minas Basin Pulp and Power
CKF Paper Limited

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 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 and 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 fibre-mill with a railway spur along the expanded wharves beside the Avon river. The Canadian Keyes Fibre Company (CKF) built a paper products plant in 1933, also at the Hantsport waterfront. 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 frequent gypsum trains until the collapse of the gypsum industry during the US housing crisis in 2010 which resulted in the closure of the Hants County gypsum mines, the end of gypsum shipping and the closure of the Windsor and Hantsport Railway in 2011.

Operations & Orders

Gallery

Topographic map from Avonport to Shaws Bog circa 1956.
Construction work at the Halfway River Bridge in Hantsport, with the town in the background, date unknown.
Hantsport with crowds gathered for a VIP train showing the Hantsport Station, water tower and the Hantsport Fruit Basket Company, possibly during the 1901 royal visit.
Hantsport viewed looking east from boxcar on the Hantsport team track with the Hantsport Station and the Sandford apple warehouse, circa 1895.
Interior of the Sandford apple warehouse in Hantsport, circa 1900.
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.
9365 HANTSPORT NS 1971-08 BILL LINLEY medres.jpg

No. 8133 and ballast cars repairing washout at the Halfway River Bridge at Hantsport, CKF paper plant in background, August 1971.
No. 8138 at Hantsport in 1993.
No. 1274 at Hantsport in 1993.
Van No. 434678 at Hantsport, July 2, 1993.
Hantsport repair, Jul 6, 1993.
Wheel change, Hantsport, July 6, 1993.
Wheel greasing, Hantsport, July 6, 1993.
Canadian Atlantic Railway hi-rail truck and No. 1275, Aug. 29, 1993.
Locomotives No. 1275, No. 1273 and No. 1274 with van No. 434676 between No. 1273 and No. 1274 at Hantsport, Aug. 29, 1993.
Locomotives No. 1275 and No. 1273 at Hantsport, Aug. 29, 1993.
Van No. 434676 between No. 1273 and No. 1274 at Hantsport, Aug. 29, 1993.
Flat Car No. 419503 behind loco No. 1274 at Hantsport, possibly Aug. 29, 1993.
Hantsport, looking railway west, July 1994.
Locomotives No. 1275 and No. 1274 at Hantsport just east of the yard adjacent to the CKF paper plant, July 1994.
Locomotive No. 8138 and No. 1273 at Hantsport, July 1994.
CP Rail caboose No. 434678 on the storage track just east of the Hantsport yard adjacent to the CKF plant, July 1994.
Hantsport Yard close up on August 30, 2011.
Box cars in Hantsport 18th December 2012.
Halfway River Bridge washout at Hantsport with DAR tracks hanging in midair over the eroding causeway over the former aboiteau, December 2017.
Halfway River Bridge washout at Hantsport, with collapsed aboiteau remnants of older bridge structure, April 28, 2018.
Halfway River Bridge at Hantsport, east side with wash out and piles from older bridges, with the CKF paper plant in background, Sept. 15, 2018.