SYDNEY COAL
RAILWAY
The Sydney Coal Railway (AAR reporting
marks SCR) is a Canadian short-line railway operating in the eastern part
of Cape Breton County, Nova Scotia.
SCR operates from the international
coaling piers on Sydney Harbour in Sydney to the Lingan Generating
Station, a coal-fired electrical generating station near New Waterford.
The railway's trackage, the piers, and the generating station are owned by
Nova Scotia Power Incorporated, a subsidiary of Emera Inc..
History
The railway line was completed in 1895
by the Dominion Coal Company (DOMCO) between Sydney and Louisbourg. The
trackage was organized as the appropriately named Sydney and Louisburg
Railway (S&L) in 1910.
The S&L, along with other assets of the
corporate successor to DOMCO, Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation (DOSCO),
were expropriated by the Cape Breton Development Corporation (DEVCO) on
March 30, 1968. DEVCO operated the railway as an unincorporated department
of its Coal Division, however it was informally known as the Devco Railway
and used the Reporting mark DVR. DEVCO built a coal preparation and coal
wash plant and storage facility, along with new locomotive shops at
Victoria Junction, a location midway between Sydney and the Lingan
Generating Station near New Waterford.
On November 23, 2001, DEVCO closed its
last underground coal mine, the Prince colliery, after the company failed
to entice any private sector investors to purchase the mine. DEVCO was out
of the coal mining business, however for a period of approximately 1
month, it was in the coal importation business, with trains operating from
the international coaling piers to the storage facility and on to the
Lingan Generating Station.
The federal government moved swiftly to
sell off assets, transferring the mine properties and mineral rights back
to the provincial Department of Natural Resources. DEVCO subsequently
decommissioned the Victoria Junction coal wash plant and began to
immediately prepare remediation of the mine sites.
On December 18, 2001 DEVCO sold all
surface assets, including the international shipping piers, railway track,
railway rights-of-way, locomotives and rolling stock, and a coal storage
facility and locomotive shops at Victoria Junction to 510845 New Brunswick
Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of Emera Inc., the holding company
which owns Nova Scotia Power Incorporated and operator of the Lingan
Generating Station.
Emera subsequently contracted the
operation of its newly-acquired DEVCO surface assets to Logistec
Corporation. Logistec sub-contracted operation of the railway to the
Société des chemins de fer du Québec, a Quebec-based railway holding
company and short-line operating company. The new railway was called
Sydney Coal Railway, although ownership of the track and other assets
remains with Emera's subsidiary, 510845 New Brunswick Inc.
Despite SCR having been created by SCFQ
as an operating company in December 2001, the railway itself was actually
legally chartered to 510845 N.B. Inc. until January 1, 2003, when the
Sydney Coal Railway was formally recognized by the federal government.
Current
operations
Current SCR operations consist of
running coal imports which arrive at the international coaling piers on
Sydney Harbour by bulk carrier from the United States and South America.
Coal is transported to the Victoria Junction storage facility and then
delivered continuously to the Lingan Generating Station. SCR also
maintains an interchange connection with the North American railway
network at Sydney where it connects to the Cape Breton and Central Nova
Scotia Railway.
FROM WIKIPEDIA