History Of Nova Scotia Railways
Atlantic and Inland Railway
(Information Required)
Canadian National Railway (CNR: 1923 - Present)
(In Progress)
Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway (CB&CNS: 1993 - Present)
The Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia’s mainline was once a secondary line owned by the Canadian National Railways. Canadian National placed the line on the selling block and it was purchased by Texas based RailTex Corporation in October of 1993. Under Canadian National, traffic on the line was in decline, but since the take-over, this has changed. RailTex has purchased new equipment and has taken every step to ensure the future viability of its railway.
The Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway operates between Truro, on mainland Nova Scotia, where it interchanges with Canadian National’s mainline to Halifax, and Sydney, on Cape Breton Island, where it interchanges with the SYSCO (Sydney Steel) Railway and DEVCO (the Cape Breton Development Corporation Railway).
The railway has two subdivisions: the 116.2 mile Hopewell Subdivision, running between Truro and Havre Boucher, and the 113.9 mile Sydney Subdivision, from Harvre Boucher to Sydney. This mainline runs though some very beautiful areas, for a total distance of about 230 miles. The railway operates one mainline freight train a day in each direction, but there is no VIA passenger service on the line.
Major traffic sources include the coal traffic from DEVCO, heading for Nova Scotia Power’s coal fired generating stations at Point Tupper and Trenton. Steel traffic to and from the Sydney Steel Mill. The mill receives scrap iron in gondolas and ships rails in specially designed rail carriers. North Sydney is the loading point for container shipments to and from the province of Newfoundland. At Point Tupper there is the Nova Scotia’s Power’s generating station and the Stora Forest Products pulp and paper mill. Trenton is home to a paper mill owned by the Kimberly-Clark Company, the Trenton Generating Station and the old Hawker-Sidley (now owned by a US firm) railway car manufacturer. Connections to the rest of the world are made at the Truro interchange yard that is Canadian National owned and operated.
The Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway has 13 units on its roster; eight M630’s used for mainline power (2003, 2015, 2016, 2029, 2032, 2034, 2035, 2039) and five RS18’s used for yard and local service (3627, 3675, 3716, 3842, 3852). The railway has a contract with DEVCO for locomotive maintenance, and the work is performed about one mile east of Sydney, at DEVCO’s Victoria Junction Shops.
The Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway maintains yards at Sydney, the location of their car repair facility; a small yard at North Sydney, for container transfer; Port Hawkesbury, the location of the main office and drop point for traffic going to the Point Tupper spur; Harve Boucher, mainly for storage; and at Stellarton, for traffic going to the Treton spur.
Cape Breton Development Corporation Railway (DEVCO: 1968 - Present)
When the Dominion Coal Company went out of business in 1968 the federal government took over operations of the local coal industry. This resulted in the formation of the Cape Breton Development Corporation. DEVCO’s mandate was to oversee the gradual
phase-out of the coal production in Cape Breton and to get the area away from its one industry economy.
Along with the mines, DEVCO also gained ownership of the former Sydney and Louisbourg Railway. These tracks were still the best method of transporting coal from the remaining mines in the area. The line to Louisbourg was in bad shape and was in need of some major upgrading.
These tracks had been laid to Louisbourg because it was the only habour in the area that remained ice-free year round. With the introduction of modern ice-breaking ships, there was now no need for this link. The section from Morien Junction to Louisbourg was removed and sold for scrap.
Eventually DEVCO moved it roundhouse and main yard, from their Glace Bay location, to Victoria Junction. Later a large coal preparation plant was also built at this site. DEVCO also modernized the International Coal Piers in Sydney.
At present, DEVCO still operates two mines in the area and several trains a day make the short trip to the shipping piers in Sydney. Nova Scotia Power, DEVCO’s biggest customer, uses Cape Breton coal in its generating stations at Lingan, Point Tupper and Trenton. The last two, receive coal via the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway.
Cape Breton Eastern Extension Railway (1901 - 1920)
This uncompleted line was to run from Louisbourg, on Cape Breton Island, to Halifax on mainland Nova Scotia, with a massive bridge spanning the Strait of Canso. Once completed, it was anticipated that Louisbourg harbour would become the leading port for all trans-Atlantic shipments.
Funding for the project began in 1984, but it wasn’t until 1901 that construction started on the first, and only, segment of the line. This thirty mile section, from Port Hawkesbury to St. Peters, was completed in 1903.
After this portion was finished, backers of the project believed traffic levels would not justify the high cost of completing the remaining sections. No more money was spent on the venture and the line ended at St. Peters. In 1920 the right-of-way was sold to the Canadian governmnet and became part of the Canadian National Railways.
Central Railway (1893 - 1903)
This line was incorporated in 1873 as the Nictaux and Atlantic Railway. It was to run from Lunenburg to Middleton with a branch from Bridgewater to Liverpool. In 1875, after a change in ownership, its name also changed to the Nova Scotia, Nictaux and Atlantic Central Railway.
Construction began in 1877 at the Lunenburg end of the line. Between 1878 and 1885, due to financial difficulties, only small advaces were made. In 1886 there was another change in ownership and with it came another change in name. The new Nova Scotia Central Railway Company received government assistance and with the additional funding, work was completed in 1889. A year later the company went bankrupt and the line was sold at a public auction.
The new owners changed its name to the Central Railway in 1893. Over the next nine years of operation, the line was able to turn a modest profit. This was due mainly to the iron traffic from the Torbrook mines. The Central Railway changed hands for the last time in 1903, when purchased and merged with the Halifax and South Western Railway.
Chignecto Marine Railway (1888 - 1991)
This uncompletd railway, owned by Henry Ketchum, was to run from Amherst on the Bay of Fundy, to Tidnish on the Northumberland Strait. Its purpose was to transport ships across the Isthmus of Chignect, near the New Brunswick border. This project would then allow ships to cross this 17-mile stretch of land, avoiding a five hundred mile voyage around Nova Scotia.
Plans for the line called for two set of parallel tracks. Forty-foot wide flatcars, equipped with sixty-four wheels, would provide a cradle for the ship. With three of these specially designed cars pulled by a locomotive on each track, ships up to 230 feet could be transported.
Construction of the line began in 1888 employing more than four thousand men. By 1991 a shortage of money put the project on hold. Another one and a half million dollars was need to finish last quarter of the work. Ketchum tried for more than five years to raise the capital, but was unsucessful and his dream was never realized.
Coast Railway (1893 - 1895)
Incorporated in 1893, as a narrow gauge line, the Coast Railway was to run the 100 miles from Yarmouth to Lockeport. The line was soon changed to standard guage so it would qualify for government grants. It only reached Pubnico, a distance of about twenty-eight miles, before it ran out of money in 1895. The line was reorganized and its name was changed to the Halifax and Yarmouth Railway in 1899. (see Halifax and Yarmouth Railway)
Cornwallis Valley Railway (CVR: 1889 - 1892)
Construction began, on this fourteen mile line from Kentville to Kingport, in 1889 and was completed in 1890. The railway leased its equipment (one locomotive, eight box cars, twelve flat cars and one passenger car) from the Windsor and Annapolis Railway.
It was built to transport agricultural products and materials from the productive Canning area to a shipping port on the Bay of Fundy. By 1891 it had carried over ten thousand tons of freight and almost twenty thousand passengers.
The Cornwallis Valley Railway was purchased by the Windsor and Annapolis Railway in 1892.
Dominion Atlantic Railway (DAR: 1894 - )
The Dominion Atlantic Railway was created in 1894 after the Windsor and Annapolis Railway was renamed. By this time, the WAR had puchased both the Western Counties Railway and the Cornwallis Valley Railway. DAR’s mainline now stretched from Windsor Junction to the busiest port on the western side of the province.
In 1897, the DAR purchased three ferries to transport passenger between Nova Scotia and the United States. DAR was soon runnig ferry service from both Yarmouth to Boston and from Digby to Saint John. Not long after, DAR’s ferries carried the majority of all passengers making both these crossing.
In 1905, the DAR made another major purchase, when it bought the Midland Railway, which ran between Windsor and Truro. This was a strategically placed line that had connection to the Intercolonial at both of its terminals.
In 1911, the DAR entered into a 999 year lease with the Canadian Pacific Railway. Although the CPR was its new owner, that name would remain unchange. The DAR would go on to become one of the province’s most notable railways.
Up until now, any CPR trains going to Halifax had to be turned over to Intercolonial Railway crews a Saint John, New Brunswick, for the remainder of the trip. With this arrangement with the DAR, Saint John became the CPR’s eastern terminus, with all passengers being ferried accross the Bay of Fundy to Digby. The DAR, using its running rights, would then take these passengers to Halifax.
(Work In Progress)
Eastern Extension Railway (1877 - 1883)
This was to be constructed to connect the Sydney coal fields in Eastern Cape Breton with the Intercolonial Railway at New Glasgow. The line would consist of a railway from New Glasgow to Canso. At Canso, there would be a ferry operation over the Strait of Canso to another section of railway from Point Tupper to Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island.
Construction was started in 1877 at the New Glasgow end of the line, under the name Halifax and Cape Breton Railway and Coal Company. The company was plagued with troubles, and by 1883 only the eighty mile segment from to Canso was completed. At this time the provincial government bought the line. It then sold it to the Dominion government and the completed portion became part of the Intercolonial Railway. (see Intercolonial Railway)
Great American And European Shortline Railway (1882 - 1885)
A charter obtained in 1882 for a planned 764 mile line from Montreal, Quebec to Louisbourg, on Cape Breton Island. The proposed line was to consist of 417 miles of existing railways and remaining would be constructed. The finished line would be part of a great transportation system between Canada and Ireland.
Work began on the section of this railway between Oxford Junction and Pictou. One year later, after very little work had been completd, the promoters of this line vanished. The Dominion government was asked to step in and cover the companies unpaid bills.
In 1887 Parliment authorized the completion of the line. Once completed it was turned over to be operated by the Intercolonial Railway. (see Intercolonial Railway)
Halifax and Cape Breton Railway and Coal Company
(See Eastern Extension Railway)
Halifax and South Western Railway
Halifax and Guysborough Railway
(See Musquodoboit Railway)
Halifax and Yarmouth Railway (1899 - 1900)
This was the new name of the Coast Railway (see Coast Railway) after its reorganization in 1899. Another twenty-two miles of track were completed from Pubnico to Barrington Passage before funds again ran out in 1900.
Intercolonial Railway
(Work In Progress)
Inverness Railway (1899 - 1923)
The sixty mile Inverness Railway ran from Port Hastings to Inverness, where it served the Inverness colliery. Work on the line began in 1899 and was completed in 1901. Ownership of the line changed in 1902 and its name became the Inverness Railway and Coal Company.
The railway was one of the few lines not to become part of the Canadian National Railways. It survived up until the First World War, when the coal mines played out,
rail service was then taken over by Candian National.
Canadian Naional operated the line until the late 1980’s, when the line’s biggest custom, the Evan’s Coal Mine, was shut down due to flooding.
Liverpool and Milton Tramway (1897 - 1923)
The Liverpool and Milton Tramway Company was incorporated in 1896 and opened for business on February 1, 1897. The line was constructed from tidewater at Liverpool through Milton, to the pulp mill of the Milton Pulp company.
The line’s only steam locomotive was a English made, 0-4-0 saddle tanker with and overall passenger cab named "Mersey". Mersey hauled an average of 40 tons of freight (lumber, pulpwood and pulp) and 150 passengers on its four daily trips over the five mile route.
The Liverpool and Milton Tramway was purchased by the Halifax and South Western Railway Company in 1907. Freight continued to move over the line for another 20 years, although passenger service was eliminated. In 1923 the line became part of the new Canadian National Railways system.
In 1929, when the Mersey Paper Mill was built in Brooklyn to replaced the on-line pulp mills that provided most of its traffic, the rails of the former Liverpool and Milton Railway were removed.
Middleton and Victoria Beach Railway
(Information Required)
Musquodoboit Railway (1898 - 1916)
The Musquodoboit Railway was incorporated in 1896 as the Halifax and Guysborough Railway. If built as planned, the 120 line would have ran from Halifax to the town of Guysborough on Chedabucto Bay.
Two year were spent trying to find the need capital, but the plan proved financially unrealistic and work never began. The company was then reorganized and its name was changed to the Musquodoit Railway in 1898.
The new scheme was to construct a seventy-mile line from Halifax to Dean’s Settlement in Musquodobit Valley. Even funding for this smaller proposal was difficult to find. And in 1902, the railway merged with the Nova Scotia Eastern Railway, a railway incorporated in 1901 to build a line from New Glasgow to Guysborough.
The combined forces of the two railways were not enough to get construction started. And in 1906, the Nova Scotia and Eastern Railway transferred it rights to a new company, the Halifax and Eastern Railway. The Halifax and Eastern was no better off and when construction didn’t begin the government stepped in.
Eventually the only section that was built was the Musquodoboit Railway. This line only went as far as Upper Musquodoboit where construct was stopped in 1916, six miles short of the proposed route to Dean’s Settlement. This line lead nowhere and would eventually be taken over by the Intercolonial Railway.
Midland Railway
(Information Required)
Nictaux and Atlantic Railway
(See Central Railway)
Nova Scotia, Nictaux and Atlantic Central Railway
(See Central Railway)
Nova Scotia Central Railway Company
(See Central Railway)
Nova Scotia Eastern Railway
(See Musquodoboit Railway)
Nova Scotia Southern Railway
(Information Required)
Springhill and Parrsboro
Sydney and Louisbourg Railway (S&L: 1895 - 1968)
One of the first coal mines in North America was opened by the French at Port Morien in 1720, and little more than a century later some of the first railroad track on the continent was laid to facilitate the removal of Nova Scotia's coal to local shipping wharves. The mining industry developed rapidly during the latter 19th century. In a thirty-six year period 30 new mines were opened, including those around Sydney Mines and Glace Bay, which resulted in construction of collieries with the shipping ports.
The Nova Scotia government recognized the need for an outlet in Louisbourg which would link the various railroads around Sydney with Louisbourg's harbour and permit the shipment of coal at any time during the year. The first attempt in 1873 was a poorly-built narrow gauge line which failed to meet the needs of the coal companies. Few trains ever made the run to Louisbourg over this road, and in 1883 a forest fire destroyed a major portion of the roadbed.
In 1894 H.M. Whitney, a Boston financier, came to Cape Breton to establish the Dominion Coal Company, later the Dominion Coal and Steel Company, which consolidated ownership of both the numerous local coal mines and the railroads which served them. Construction began on a new railroad to Louisbourg and upon its completion in 1895 the Sydney and Louisbourg Railway was one of the most modern lines in Canada.
The volume of freight hauled by the S&L rose sharply during its early years. By the 1950's the S&L had 31 steam locomotives operating over 116 miles of track, 39 miles of which was main line. The railroad employed 400 men - hauled 4,000,000 tons of freight annually chiefly coal, any more per mile than any other railroad in Canada. The number of passengers on the S&L, mainly employees of the mines going to and from work, reached a peak of 176,000 in 1913. The coming of automobiles reduced this traffic until passenger trains were eliminated after World War II, although mixed trains continued to run daily, except weekends.
The S&L was a neighbourly and unpretentious railroad, and it operated on a personal basis that meant a lot to the people it served. The railroad ran picnic excursions and "blueberry specials" that would stop anywhere to let passengers off, and pick them up in the evening. It took little for a hunter or vacationer to flag a train and get on, and the crews always took a lively interest in the latest news along the line. Many times, often in foul weather and blizzards, the S & L sent out a locomotive and car to take a doctor somewhere, or bring someone into hospital. There may have been more pranks and practical jokes played by S & L men than on any other line in the country, but they were tough and competent railroaders – in the early days, before air brakes, they spent many runs climbing over the icy tops of coal hoppers to brake the trains – and they moved an enormous amount of coal.
During both world wars the ports of Sydney and Louisbourg were staging areas for Atlantic convoys, and the S&L was a vital link in the supply of fuel and steel manufacture. Until the advent of regular air service to Newfoundland both ports were a terminus for rail and passenger traffic between Newfoundland and the rest of Canada.
Due to the availability of coal for fuel, the first diesel engine was not placed in service on the S&L until 1961, and the last steam locomotive was not retired until 1966. The demise of the railroad soon after resulted from the crises affecting Cape Breton's coal industry in the 1960's. The loss of industrial markets meant less coal shipped from Cape Breton and less need for the rail link to Louisbourg. At present coal is still shipped from Sydney, and several trains daily still pass over the route from the new Lingan mine to Sydney.
Weymouth and New France Railway
(Work In Progress)
Western Counties Railway (WCR: 1870 - 1894)
Incoporated in 1870, with work beginning in 1873, the line was to run from Yarmouth to Annapolis Royal. To encourage its completeion, the government offer a grant of its Windsor Branch to anyone connecting these two points.
In 1874, after the Windsor and Annapolis was in arrears on its lease, the goverment transfer the Windsor Branch to the WCR, with the condition that the line to Annapolis Royal be finished within five years. During this time, the Windsor and Annapolis Railway was granted temporary running rights on the government branch.
Construction of the WCR was very sluggish, and by 1879 had only crossed the sixty-seven miles to Digby, before running out of money. There was still a twenty mile gap when the five year deadline expired. The government cancelled the transfer of the Windsor Branch and it leased it once again to the Windsor and Annapolois Railway.
The gap between Digby and Annapolis was built by the government in 1991, over which the WCR was granted running rights. In 1993 the WCR was reorganized as the Yarmouth and Annapolis Railway. In 1994, after the company failed, the line was sold to the Windsor and Annapolis Railway.
Windsor and Annapolis Railway (WAR: 1869 - 1894)
This line opened in 1869 and was built to serve the Annapolis Valley between Annapolis Royal and Windsor. It was granted running rights on the government owned Windsor Branch of the Intercolonial Railway. Passenger and freight had to be tranfer to ICR trains at Windsor Junction to continue their trip to Halifax.
In 1974, after the WAR failed to make its lease payments, the government transfer ownership of their branch to the Western Counties Railway, to encouage completion of its line from Yarmouth to Annapolis Royal. After the Western Counties Railway failed to meet the deadline for its completion, the Windsor Branch was once again turned back over to the WAR in 1879.
The owners of the Windsor and Annapolis purchased the Cornwallis Valley Railway in 1892. Then in 1894 purchased the former Western Counties Railway, by this time it had been renamed the Yarmouth and Annapolis Railway. Once the purchase was completed, the WAR changed its name to the Dominion Atlantic Railway. (see Dominion Atlantic Railway)
Yarmouth and Annapolis Railway
(See Western Counties Railway)
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