Torbrook Mines

Small-scale iron mining began in the Torbrook area in the mid-1800s, followed by a significant
development of mines in 1890.

The Torbrook Iron Company established three mines, including the Wheelock and Leckie Mines
and built a three-mile spur north from Torbrook Mines to Wilmot on the Windsor and Annapolis
Railway (later the Dominion Atlantic Railway) in the fall of 1891 to the mines at Torbrook. The
Wheelock mine was on the property of Whit Wheelock and had a 4 to 5’ wide vein of ore. Until
about 1907, the iron ore shipments travelled via the DAR and Canadian Government Railways to
ironworks at Londonderry in Colchester County. (On November 21, 1901, the Torbrook Iron
Company was purchased by the Londonderry Iron Company.) The spur included a wye and
loading siding at the mine sites in Torbrook. Ore shipments on the spur between 1903-1907
totalled 88,834 tons. A high phosphorus content in the ore yielded poor-quality iron, and the
mines closed as the customer sought raw materials elsewhere.
Another two mines were opened in Torbrook by the Canadian Iron Company in about 1905.
They shipped their ore by wagon to the railway at Nictaux, but in 1910, a 4.07-mile-long branch
line of the Halifax & South Western Railway opened from Nictaux east to Torbrook Mines. The
branch line crossed the Nictaux River on a high trestle on concrete piers, which are still visible
(see coordinates 44.90833244244229 & 65.03091033912231) and followed a curving route from
Nictaux to Torbrook Mines to ensure easy grades. By 1910 the Canada Iron Company's No. 2
(Martin) Mine at Torbrook Mines was employing 120 men to produce 11,000 tons of iron ore
annually. In October 1910, 2,200 tons of ore were shipped to smelters in Londonderry and
Ferrona in Pictou County. Canada Iron shipped ore to Nictaux and then 42.8 miles on the
Middleton Subdivision to Port Wade. In 1909, the railway constructed a large ore loading facility
with a 7,000-ton storage bin on the government wharf at Port Wade to transfer iron ore from the
iron mines onto ships. In peak years, three iron ore trains a day left Torbrook Mines for Port
Wade to fill the storage hoppers on the pier until a ship arrived. The volume of ore shipments did
not grow as expected, and the mines closed in August 1913. Most of the branch line to the mines
was dismantled in 1918, leaving a 0.66-mile stub from Nictaux across the Nictaux River.
Canadian National removed the remaining track in 1923.
Although iron mining at Torbrook Mines was short-lived, it played an essential role in
stimulating the development of railways in Western Nova Scotia. It helped make the Middleton
area a railway hub.
Sources: Middleton Railway Museum, Macdonald Museum, DAR and H&SW wiki pages and historicnovascotia.ca Bill Linley,
Archivist, Middleton Railway Museum Society July 30, 2023