The Albion Mines Railway was Nova Scotia’s first and Canada’s second railway. Albion Mines Railway opened as a steam powered coal-hauling line in 1840. Public conveyance started in 1856 with the beginning of the Nova Scotia Railway between Halifax and Truro. The shrill of the steam locomotive whistle caused excitement in the land and spurred economic and social development. Today’s remaining railways specialize in long-distance shipment of containerized goods and bulk commodities, little remains of branch lines criss-crossing the province. Many of the former lines have been converted to hiking and cycling trails. A visit to Nova Scotia would be incomplete without a map of the more than 50 railway heritage sites along these trails, check out www.novascotiarailwayheritage.com One portion of the former Dominion Atlantic Railway still operates as a tourist excursion, the Windsor and Hanstport Railway through the Land of Evangeline and Minas Basin.
Tatamagouche is home of the award winning Train Station Inn. Here delectable meals are served on railway china in a historic dining car. You can dream the night away in an attractively decorated railway caboose, there are 7 in various themes, décor and antiques, each has it’s own bathroom. In addition there are four tastefully decorated bedrooms upstairs in the station. The century old railway station captures the historical essence of railway days gone by in the railway museum café—check out www.trainstation.ca
The Memory Lane Museum in the 1917 DAR Station and Freight Shed in Middleton is filled with pictures, signs and models of railroading in the Annapolis Valley. The Museum of Industry in Stellarton tells the story of famous Nova Scotia industrialists Samuel Cunard and Cyrus Eaton. Canada’s oldest locomotive “Samson”is on display. Orangedale, made famous by the Rankin Family song the “Orangedale Whistle” is a Victorian style station built in 1886 by the Intercolonial Railway. Visiting today, one can only imagine the six passenger trains and twenty freights each day in the 30’s and 50’s.
Words, pictures and artifacts tell the story in and around the Sydney & Louisbourg Station at Fort Louisbourg; the station is immaculate and also home to the Tourist Information Centre. (Photo left)
Musquodoboit Harbour Museum is an opportunity to examine posters, maps and photographs of the Canadian Northern Railway in their 1918 station. Hurricane Juan hit the museum site last September; falling trees narrowly missed a CN caboose, snowplow, DAR Combine and a GE 44-tonner. Liverpool is home to the Hank Snow Country Music Centre. This former Halifax & South Western Station features local railway lore and memorabilia of Hank Snow as a lad in Liverpool and his rise to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. The French village of Upper Tantallon, this 1901 Canadian Northern 3rd. Class station survives with little modification.
Hubbards lost it’s passenger train in 1969 and it’s CN station on 1977, but a replica was constructed in 2000. Another Halifax & South Western station remains in Chester having served Mackenzie and Mann’s Canadian Northern and Canadian Nation Railway for ninety years. A unique Tudor Style station at Lunenburg was built by the CNR in 1923.
These are but a few of the cherished landmarks Nova Scotian’s treasure; several large trestles and bridges also remain. Today’s operations include VIA and CN from Amherst to Halifax, VIA’s Bras D’Or train from Halifax to Sydney, Cape Breton and the Cape Breton & Nova Scotia Railway (Railink) with connections to CN at Stellarton.
