Dominion Atlantic Railway

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Dominion Atlantic Railway
Reporting marks	DAR
Locale	Nova Scotia, Canada
Dates of operation	1894–1994
Track gauge	4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters	Kentville, Nova Scotia

The Dominion Atlantic Railway (DAR) was a historic Canadian railway which ran in the northwestern part of Nova Scotia, primarily through an agricultural district known as the Annapolis Valley.

The DAR's corporate headquarters were in London, United Kingdom and after 1912 Montreal, Quebec, but was operationally headquartered in Kentville, Nova Scotia where it retained a unique identity and a high degree of independence until the end of steam. The company is still legally incorporated and files annual returns with the Nova Scotia Registry of Joint Stock; its headquarters are now in Calgary, Alberta.

The Dominion Atlantic Railway was unusually diverse for a small regional railway, operating its own hotel and steamship lines. It is credited with playing a major role in developing Nova Scotia's tourism and agriculture industries.

[edit] Creation through merger

The DAR was created on October 1, 1894 through a merger of two end-to-end systems, the Windsor and Annapolis Railway and the Western Counties Railway. The W&A owned the track between its namesake port towns of Windsor and Annapolis Royal, and had also negotiated trackage rights to operate over the Intercolonial Railway's former Nova Scotia Railway "Windsor Branch" between Windsor Junction and Windsor, as well as on the IRC mainline from Windsor Junction into Halifax. The WCR on the other hand, operated between Yarmouth and Digby. The gap between Annapolis Royal and Digby was eventually closed in the early 1890s with government assistance.

The merger forming the DAR was for financial and operational reasons and permitted trains to operate continuously between Yarmouth and Halifax, the latter via trackage rights over the Intercolonial Railway from Windsor Junction. The transaction came about in 1893 when the W&A was authorized by the provincial legislature to purchase the WCR for $265,000.

Although the DAR technically connected to the Intercolonial Railway at Windsor, the IRC rarely operated on this line and left it to the DAR beyond the mainline connection at Windsor Junction. The DAR system also connected with the Midland Railway at Windsor, the Nova Scotia Central Railway and the Middleton and Victoria Beach Railway at Middleton, and the Halifax and Southwestern Railway at Yarmouth. The NSCR and M&VBR were both eventually purchased by the H&SW.

The DAR also had a branch north of Kentville to Kingsport, the former Cornwallis Valley Railway completed in 1889. A westward extension of this branch was started in 1905 on a line formally chartered as the North Mountain Railway from a junction on the Kingsport line at Centreville west to Weston. It was completed in 1914.

Also in 1905, the DAR purchased the Midland Railway, giving a more direct connection between Windsor and the Intercolonial Railway at Truro where lines headed east to Pictou and Cape Breton Island, and west to New Brunswick.

[edit] Passenger Service

The DAR exploited its steamship connections to develop a high level of passenger service not usually seen on regional railways. In addition to a busy schedule of mixed and express trains, the DAR operated several prominent named trains "The Flying Bluenose" and "the New Yorker" connecting with Boston and New York steamships in the summer. The railway bought the first Pullman parlour cars in all of Canada for this service. Influenced by promotional themes from Yarmouth steamship companies, the DAR developed an identity as "The Land of Evangeline Route" exploiting interest in Longfellow's poem about the Acadians. This promotion grew to include a whole series of posters, postcards, books, named locomotives and a prominent herald depicting Evangeline which was seen on all DAR publications and most locomotives. The DAR purchased and developed a park in Grand Pre dedicated to the memory of the Acadians which became not only a popular tourism destination but also a shrine to Acadian people.

[edit] Marine operations

The DAR maintained a strategic link between Halifax and the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine ports of Windsor, Digby and Yarmouth. A key component to the DAR's passenger and freight business was through the connections with various ferries that operated in these waters, mostly from Digby and Yarmouth. A smaller service also operated across the Minas Basin from the smaller ports of Kingsport and Wolfville.

In 1901, the DAR owned and operated 9 steamships in the Bay of Fundy and Minas Basin services, serving routes between Digby-Saint John, New Brunswick with connections to the CPR and IRC, and Kingsport-Parrsboro-Wolfville connecting at Parrsboro with the Cumberland Railway's line to Springhill; the MV Kipawo being the 13th and last vessel on this particular service. The service was terminated during World War II after the vessel was requisitioned by the Royal Canadian Navy.

In 1904, service was expanded to use 3 surplus steamships to include a Gulf of Maine operation between Yarmouth-Boston and Yarmouth-New York. These services launched the DAR into the forefront of Nova Scotia's nascent tourist industry and the railway subsequently built a resort hotel at Digby (the "Digby Pines") and the Cornwallis Inn in Kentville.

[edit] Apple Industry

The DAR was closley tied to the apple industry of Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley. The arrival of the railway in the 1860s transformed apples from a minor crop to a large export industry, eventually shipping millions of barrels every year as the major supplier of apples to the United Kingdom. After a brief slump in World War I, apple traffic reached its peak in the 1930s. Over 150 apple warehouses were built along the DAR mainline and branchlines. For many decades, the period from September to April saw heavy apple traffic on the DAR, moving apples from warehouses to ocean steamers at Halifax, often requiring double-headed specials. These exports were sharply curtailed during World War II and Nova Scotia never regained its market share in Europe. Nova Scotia's apple industry eventually stabilized after the war but on a smaller scale. The large Scotia Gold co-operative apple processing plant was built beside the DAR mainline at Coldbrook, Nova Scotia using the railway to ship apple and fruit products until the 1970s.

[edit] Canadian Pacific Railway ownership

On November 13, 1911 the DAR and all of its subsidiaries was leased by the Canadian Pacific Railway, which permitted the railway to retain its independence in operations and corporate identity for many decades. With its own steamships, hotels and branchlines, it was regarded by some as a "Canadian Pacific in miniature".

Throughout the First and Second World Wars, the DAR played an important wartime role. It shipped large numbers of troops from the major Canadian Army training base near Kentville (Aldershot Military Camp). A DAR relief train was one of the first trains to rush with help after the Halifax Explosion in 1917.^[1] The DAR's importance increased in the Second World War as it was the sole railway serving a Royal Canadian Navy training and operations base on Annapolis Basin (HMCS Cornwallis), a Royal Canadian Air Force operations base at Greenwood (RCAF Station Greenwood), a RCAF training base at Stanley (RCAF Station Stanley), as well as the Aldershot Military Camp. HMCS Cornwallis, Digby and Yarmouth were also important RCN operating ports.

In the post-war years the DAR moved to replace its steam locomotives with diesel-powered models, however the railway was relatively late among its North American counterparts in doing so (possibly owing to abundant coal being mined in Nova Scotia). The railway experimented with two diesel-electric ALCO S-3 switchers for several months, which were placed in service on July 1, 1956. Steam locomotives were not displaced until the arrival of ten EMD SW1200RS road switchers in April 1956. The SW1200RS' replaced the S-3's, and all but one steam locomotive, which was retained for a short time. The railway also saw CPR introduce two Budd Company Rail Diesel Cars in August 1956 to reduce operating costs of its passenger services which had previously been conventional trains hauled by steam locomotives. Its steamship services on Minas Basin and the Gulf of Maine were abandoned, although the company maintained the passenger/auto ferry connection between Digby and Saint John. The S-3's and the RDC's were lettered Dominion Atlantic, which makes them unique as the only diesel era equipment lettered for a Canadian Pacific subsidiary line. However, the SW1200RS' were lettered Canadian Pacific. Throughout the rest of the railway's existence, only maintenance of way vehicles, passenger timetables, tickets, stationary, and stations carried the DAR moniker.

By the 1970s, the DAR was starting to see its operations west of Kentville reduced to branchline status. The branchlines north of Kentville to Kingsport and Weston were abandoned for lack of traffic on January 31, 1961 and reduced to a three mile spur line to Steam Mill Village. CPR began reducing its passenger service to minimal levels between Halifax-Yarmouth and Windsor-Truro upon construction of the parallel taxpayer-funded all-weather Highway 101 between Halifax and Kentville after 1970. In a 1969 agreement with the provincial and federal governments, CPR built a new passenger/auto ferry for service between Saint John and Digby, while the governments built new ferry terminals and connecting highways. Both of the new ferry terminals were built away from the railway lines, so that neither permitted rail-side transfers at the dock from passenger train to ferry, causing the Dayliner or RDC service to suffer further declines in passenger numbers.

The only bright spot for DAR was in gypsum traffic, a mineral that was quarried just east of Windsor and hauled to expanded port facilities at Hantsport; it was in high demand throughout the post-war years during the North American housing construction boom. Prior to Hantsport's expansion, gypsum had also been hauled farther west to the Annapolis Basin at Deep Brook, however shipping operations were consolidated at Hantsport in the post-war years.

In 1978, financial responsibility for the Halifax-Yarmouth passenger services was transferred to the federally owned Crown corporation VIA Rail from the DAR/CPR. The Windsor-Truro mixed train passenger service was abandoned after being deemed non-essential, reducing that line to branch line freight status. Passenger service on the DAR began to rise, particularly after a 1983 schedule change which provided a daily return trip to Halifax from all points on the line, as well as improved connections to other VIA trains at Halifax. VIA also introduced refurbished Budd RDCs, and began a modest promotional campaign which included naming the train after its DAR roots, the Evangeline. By 1984, VIA reported that traffic in its Halifax-Yarmouth service had quadrupled to an average of more than 100 passengers per trip, eclipsing most of the decline experienced in previous decades.

The Evangeline would continue operating until January 15, 1990 following a massive cut in funding to VIA's branchline services ordered in the 1989 federal budget.

[edit] Railway decline in southwestern Nova Scotia

In 1981, Canadian National Railway, successor to the Halifax and Southwestern Railway, abandoned its trackage which connected to the DAR at Yarmouth and Middleton. On May 22, 1986 the DAR abandoned its tracks between Truro and Mantua, just east of Windsor where it continued to serve a gypsum quarry. In 1988, CPR announced that all of its money-losing services east of Montreal would be grouped under a new internal marketing division called Canadian Atlantic Railway (of which the DAR was one component, along with CPR properties in New Brunswick, Maine, and the Eastern Townships of Quebec).

The fate of any possible resurgence in freight and passenger traffic on the tracks west of Kentville was sealed with the construction of final links in the all-weather Highway 101 between Kentville and Yarmouth in the mid to late 1980s; in addition, there were several large steel bridges which required major expenditures. By 1989, almost the only trains using this portion of the DAR were the VIA RDCs, which was experiencing passenger declines due to recent highway expansion and competing bus services, as well as changes to VIA connecting train schedules. In the January 15, 1990 cuts to VIA Rail by the government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, the RDC service between Halifax and Yarmouth was abolished.

On March 27, 1990, CPR abandoned the DAR's trackage west of Kentville to Yarmouth, concentrating efforts on the more-profitable eastern end of the DAR which hauled gypsum and served a concentration of industries in New Minas as well as a short remnant of the Kingsport line between Kentville and Steam Mill. On September 16, 1993 the DAR operated the last freight train in Kentville and by October had reduced its western-most trackage to New Minas. The locomotive shop facilities were moved that month from Kentville to Windsor.

[edit] Selling the DAR

Also in 1993 CPR announced that it was selling its entire Canadian Atlantic Railway subsidiary, including the DAR. Although the New Brunswick-Quebec section of CAR would actually be abandoned for a short period at the end of December 1994, the DAR was sold to Iron Road Railways, owner of the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad. The DAR operated its last four trains on Friday, August 26, 1994, just 36 days short of one hundred years.

Its successor, the Windsor and Hantsport Railway, has successfully maintained service on the remnants of the DAR between Windsor and New Minas, including the "Windsor Branch" to Windsor Junction and a connection with CN's mainline between Halifax and Montreal. The Windsor Branch remains under a long-term lease to the new owner.

[edit] Railway Heritage

A number of DAR stations were restored for adaptive re-use such as a town library in Wolfville and restaurant in Bridgetown.

Only one DAR steam locomotive was preserved, No. 999 Fronsac, at the Canadian Railway Museum in Delson, Quebec. The DAR's business car Nova Scotia is preserved privately as a restaurant in Orillia, Ontario while a passenger coach, No. 1303 Micmac, is preserved at the Canada Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa, Ontario. A snowplow and combine car (used for the Windsor-Truro mixed train service until 1978) are preserved at the Musquodoboit Railway Museum in Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia.

Strangely, the town of Kentville, Nova Scotia, once headquarters to the DAR, has shown little interest in the railway's legacy and turned down all offers to preserve equipment or buildings. The DAR's large wooden headquarters station, one of the oldest in Canada was demolished in 1990. In May 2007, the town of Kentville revealed plans to demolish the town's last surviving railway structure, the ten-stall roundhouse. The move triggered a protest movement as it was the last such structure in all of Nova Scotia and one of the last in Canada; it was still in remarkably good condition and many organizations felt it could be converted for public or commercial purposes. Unfortunately it was demolished on 9-10 July 2007.

[edit] External links

• Library and Archives Canada: Dominion Atlantic Railway
• Railways of Canada Archives: Dominion Atlantic Railway (DAR 1900-1990
• Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative Wiki Project
• Nova Scotia Railway Heritage Society DAR Stations: List and Photos
• History of Railway Companies in Nova Scotia
• Dominion Atlantic Railway Passenger Train Schedules 1936 to 1949
• Kentville Roundhouse

[edit] References

• Ness, Gary W. Canadian Pacific's Dominion Atlantic Railway, Vol. 1. Calgary, Alberta: B.R.M.N.A., 1988.
• Ness, Gary W. Canadian Pacific's Dominion Atlantic Railway, Vol. 2. Calgary, Alberta: B.R.M.N.A., 1995.