Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative - Wiki
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Mantua
Mantua, Nova Scotia
Subdivision Truro, Mile 4.59
Next Station East: Brooklyn
Next Station West: Dimock's
Facilities & Features
- St. Croix River Bridge
- Miller's Creek Gypsum Quarry
- Mantua Station
See Gypsum Trains for more details.
Description & History
Mantua was a small farm community until 1956 when the Canadian Gypsum Company decided to develop a quarry in the Avondale area to supplement some of the quarry sites at Wentworth where gypsum yields were declining. Miller's Creek, next to Mantua was chosen for the new quarry to take advantage of the railway access.[1] A spur and yard tracks, 9,911 feet in total were built for the Miller's Creek quarry which by the 1960s was annually shipping 1.3 million tons of gypsum in 14,500 carloads a year from Mantua.[2] Traffic east of Mantua ended in 1983 with the closure of the Truro subdivision. The spur to the Miller's Creek quarry continued in operation until the Avon River quarries shut down in 2011 after the American housing crisis led to an abrupt drop in gypsum demand.
Operations & Orders
Gallery
Midland Mixed freight of D.A.R. near Mantua on route to Windsor - 28th August 1956
Midland Line near Mantua from the rear of Train No. 22 on August 1,1958.
Mantua station, photographed by Harold Jenkins, June 1959.
Fundy Gypsum No. 640 at the Miller's Creek facility at Mantua, August 1978.
Engine 8139 derailed at Mantua May 30, 1982 due to track issues.
One of the derailed boxcars from a train at Mantua, May 30, 1982
Track damaged by derailment at Mantua, Lawrence Rd on the left, May 30, 1982.
The Mantua derailment on May 30, 1982
Eastbound empty gypsum train arriving Mantua in the early 1990's.
Fundy Gypsum 25 tonner No. 642 at Mantua in July 1994.
Fundy Gypsum 25 tonner No. 642 at Mantua in July 1994.
St. Croix River Bridge just west of Mantua, photo is from West side of the bridge looking east, 500 to 800 Meters from the bridge, Nov. 11, 2013.
Topographic map from Avonport to Shaws Bog, including Mantua, circa 1956.
