History of
Railway Companies
in Nova Scotia

Contents:
•   #   Canadian Army Train in Nova Scotia, March 1942
•   #   Canadian National Railway
•   #   Canadian Pacific Railway
•   #   Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia Railway
              •  CIHM collection of historic NS railway documents
•   #   Coast Railway Company
•   #   Cornwallis Valley Railway
•   #   Davison Lumber Company
•   #   Dominion Atlantic Railway
•   #   Eastern Extension Railway
              •  ECO collection of historic NS railway documents
•   #   Egerton Tramway Company
•   #   European & North American Railway Company
•   #   General Mining Association
•   #   Great American & European Short Line Railway Company
•   #   Guysborough Railway
•   #   Halifax & Cape Breton Railway & Coal Company
•   #   Halifax & Eastern Railway
•   #   Halifax & South Western Railway
•   #   Intercolonial Railway
•   #   Inverness Railway & Coal Company
•   #   Mackenzie, Mann & Company
•   #   Montreal & European Short Line Railway
•   #   Musquodoboit Railway
•   #   North Mountain Railway
•   #   Nova Scotia Central Railway
•   #   Nova Scotia Railway
•   #   Oxford & New Glasgow Railway
•   #   Provincial & New England All Rail Line
•   #   Rhodes, Curry & Company
•   #   Silliker Car Company
•   #   Springfield Railway
•   #   Spring Hill & Parrsboro Coal & Railway Company
•   #   Sydney Coal Railway
•   #   Sydney & Louisburg Railway
•   #   Terminal City Railroad Company
•   #   Trenton Works
•   #   Western Counties Railway
•   #   Weymouth & New France Railway
•   #   Windsor & Annapolis Railway
•   #   Windsor & Hantsport Railway
•   #   Yarmouth Street Railway
•   #      Recent additions to this list
•   #      Railway Timetables & Station Photographs
•   #      Gross Earnings of Nova Scotia Railways, 1880 - 1882
•   #      Gross Earnings of Nova Scotia Railways, 1887 - 1892

The full, official, legal name of each company is given, except perhaps in a few cases where the legal name is not yet clear.  This list is known to be incomplete (I'm working on it).

Unless otherwise stated, "Act" means an Act of the Nova Scotia Legislature.
Where they appear below
      "NSL" refers to the Nova Scotia Legislature in Halifax,
      "DOM" refers to the Dominion Government in Ottawa (since 1867)
      "ULC" refers to the Government of the Province of Canada (1841–1867)

• Devco Railway was wholly owned by the Cape Breton Development Corporation, a crown corporation, and was operated as an unincorporated department within that corporation.
      — Canadian Transportation Agency Decision No. 571-R-1997

• On 18 December 2001, 510845 N.B. Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Emera Inc., Nova Scotia's largest electric utility company, acquired surface assets (railway track, rights-of-way, locomotives and other rolling stock, etc.) from the Cape Breton Development Corporation.  The company will use the railway, managed under contract by SCFQ, to transport large quantities of coal to NS Power generating stations.
      — Canadian Transportation Agency Decision No. 192-R-2002, 19 April 2002
      — Canadian Transportation Agency Decision No. 341-R-2002, 28 June 2002

• This property included the rail operation between the international pier on the waterfront in Sydney and the Lingan power generating plant, the rail lines through the coal storage facility at Victoria Junction, including the railway maintenance centre, and a portion of the Glace Bay rail line between the railway maintenance centre and the end of the Old Tank siding, Cape Breton Island. 

The sale of assets to 510845 N.B. Inc. did not include the trackage from Victoria Junction to Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.  This trackage has been functionally abandoned since the early 1990s when the sole customer ceased shipping coal by rail.  Most of the road crossings and trestles have been removed at the request of local Municipalities.
      — Canadian Transportation Agency Decision No. 341-R-2002

• On 1 January 2003, the operation of this railway was transferred from 510845 N.B. Inc. to Sydney Coal Railway Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Quebec Railway Corporation Inc. (Societe des Chemins de Fer du Quebec).
      — CTA Decisions No. 657-R-2002 and 683-R-2002

In 2005, it appears that ownership of this railway property lies with 510845 N.B. Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Emera Inc., and that the responsibility for the operation of this railway lies with Sydney Coal Railway Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Societe des Chemins de Fer du Quebec (Quebec Railway Corporation).

Overview of the Development of Railways
on the Sydney Coal Fields: 1720-1999
      http://web.archive.org/web/20071109082128/http://www.trainweb.org/canadianrailways/articles/SydneyCoalFields.html

3986250 Canada Inc. and Sydney Coal Railway Inc. were originally set up as separate corporations, both wholly-owned subsidiaries of Quebec Railway Corporation Inc. (Societe des Chemins de Fer du Quebec).  These two separate corporations were amalgamated in April 2004, and thereafter were known as Sydney Coal Railway Inc.
      — Canadian Transportation Agency Decision No. 233-R-2004, 6 May 2004

• On 1 January 2003, responsibility for the operation of this railway was transferred from 510845 N.B. Inc. to Sydney Coal Railway Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Quebec Railway Corporation Inc. (Societe des Chemins de Fer du Quebec).
      — Canadian Transportation Agency Decision No. 657-R-2002

• ...the CTA notes that 3986250 Canada Inc. proposes to acquire and/or operate, through sale, lease or right of access, the railway which was formally owned and/or operated by 510845 N.B. Inc... The CTA also notes that 3986250 Canada Inc. proposes to commence the operation of its railway on January 1, 2003...
      — Canadian Transportation Agency Decision No. 683-R-2002

NSL 1865 chapter   64 — Act to incorporate the Acadia Coal Co.
NSL 1867 chapter   57 —
NSL 1869 chapter   62 — Act to incorporate the Halifax Coal & Iron Co. Ltd.
NSL 1872 chapter   73 — Act to incorporate the Vale Coal, Iron, & Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
NSL 1874 chapter   70 —
NSL 1874 chapter   74 — Act to incorporate the Halifax Co. Ltd.
NSL 1875 chapter   72 —
NSL 1883 chapter   64 —
NSL 1886 chapter 126 —
NSL 1886 chapter 161 —
NSL 1886 chapter 162 — Act to carry into effect amalgamation of Acadia Coal Co. with Halifax Co. Ltd. and Vale Coal, Iron & Manufacturing Co.
NSL 1887 chapter 115 — Act to add "Limited" to name, etc.
NSL 1898 chapter 165 —
NSL 1900 chapter 180 —
NSL 1904 chapter 147 —
NSL 1906 chapter 165 —
NSL 1907 chapter 141 —
NSL 1908 chapter 140 —
NSL 1910 chapter 113 —
NSL 1938 chapter   76 — Amendment

NSL 1904 chapter 144 — Act to incorporate the Ainslie Mining & Railway Co. Ltd.

The Albion Mines Railway — between Albion Coal Mines (now named Stellarton) and New Glasgow, Nova Scotia — was officially opened on 19 September 1839. Operations had started in December, 1838, using the Timothy Hackwork steam locomotives Samson, Hercules and John Buddle imported from England.
Chronology of Important Dates in Canadian Railway History, by Colin Churcher and Rick Roberts
      http://globalgenealogy.com/globalgazette/List001/list23.htm

Reference: Federal Government Order in Council OIC 1883-1262, page 1 approved 30 May 1883

NSL 1898 chapter 127 — Act to incorporate the Amherst & Eastern Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1889 chapter 126 — Act to incorporate the Amherst Street Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1890 chapter 157 — Amendment

1891: — "It is proposed to open shortly an electric railway" between downtown Amherst and Fort Lawrence, near the New Brunswick border. This electric railway is planned in association with the new Chignecto Ship Railway now being built across the isthmus. The Tidnish terminus of the Ship Railway is reached by stagecoach from Amherst.

Excerpted from page 191 of "The Canadian Guide Book: The Tourist's and Sportsman's Guide to Eastern Canada and Newfoundland..." by Charles G.D. Roberts, published in 1891 by D. Appleton, New York.
Source: Early Canadiana Online http://www.canadiana.org/
page 191   http://www.canadiana.org/cgi-bin/ECO/mtq?id=73f2010914&display=56228+0263

NSL 1888 chapter   82 — Act to incorporate the Annapolis & Atlantic Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1890 chapter   76 — Time extended
NSL 1891 chapter 128 — Time extended
NSL 1892 chapter   69 — Amendment, providing for extension of line to Halifax or Dartmouth
NSL 1893 chapter   65 — Change name to Nova Scotia Southern Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1893 chapter 153 — Change of route
NSL 1894 chapter   76 —

This company operated a pole railway about three miles [5km] long at Clementsport, Annapolis County. The only mention of this railway (that I know of) is a few words — "The iron mine was situated three miles south of this location and ore transported in trucks drawn by horses on a railway with rails of maple wood." — on a bronze plaque at Clementsport.

Annapolis Iron Mining Company by P.L. Simmonds, 1872
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Simmonds-AnnapolisIronMiningCompany.htm

Annapolis Iron Mining Company by Abraham Gesner, 1849
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Gesner-AnnapolisIronMiningCompany.htm

Annapolis Iron Mining Company by Thomas C. Haliburton, 1829
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Haliburton-AnnapolisIronMiningCompany.htm

"A large and handsome stone bridge has lately been built across the river, at the joint expense of the (Annapolis Iron Mining) Company and the Province..."
Photographs of this "handsome stone bridge" December 2003
    http://ns1763.ca/annapco/annironm.html#stone-bridge-annapolis-iron-mining

NSL 1907 chapter 143 — Act to incorporate the Annapolis Valley Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1908 chapter 131 — Amendment

NSL 1906 chapter 154 — Act to incorporate the Arisaig & Country Harbour Iron & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1908 chapter 134 — Amendment
NSL 1911 chapter 106 — Amendment

No railway track was ever built by this company.

NSL 1906 chapter 155 — Act to authorize the amalgamation of Atlantic Grindstone, Coal & Railway Co. with Atlantic Grindstone Co. and Fundy Coal Co.

NSL 1896 chapter 86 — Act to incorporate the Atlantic & Inland Railway Co. Ltd.

The Atlantic & Inland Railway Co. was incorporated by chapter 86 of the Acts of 1896, to build a railway from Liverpool, via Caledonia, to Annapolis or New Germany or Springfield.
The Atlantic and Inland Railway Company of Nova Scotia by John R. Cameron
      http://web.archive.org/web/20000817012112/http://www.trainweb.org/canadianrailways/Features/AtlanticAndInlandRailway.htm

NSL 1893 chapter 153 — Act to incorporate the Atlantic & Inland Railway Co. of Nova Scotia Ltd.

The Atlantic & Inland Railway Co. of Nova Scotia was incorporated by chapter 153 of the Acts of 1893, to build a railway from Liverpool, via Caledonia, to Annapolis or New Germany.
The Atlantic and Inland Railway Company of Nova Scotia by John R. Cameron
      http://web.archive.org/web/20041011114257/http://www.trainweb.org/canadianrailways/articles/AtlanticAndInlandRailway.htm

NSL 1875 chapter   71 — Act to incorporate the East Joggins Mining Co.
NSL 1890 chapter 180 — Change name from East Joggins Mining Co. to Bay of Fundy Railway & Coal Co.

NSL 1907 chapter 144 — Act to incorporate the Bear River & Caledonia Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1911 chapter 110 — Amendment

Incorporated March 1898

NSL 1877 chapter 77 — Act to incorporate the Block House Coal Co.

NSL 1872 chapter 72 — Act to incorporate the Block House Coal & Railway Co.

NSL 1864 chapter 38 — Act to incorporate the Block House Mining Co.
NSL 1865 chapter 55 — Act to empower the Block House Mining Co. to guarantee bonds of the Sydney & Louisburg Railway Co.
NSL 1868 chapter 58 — Amendment, re borrowing money

NSL 1911 chapter 111 — Act to incorporate the Blomidon Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1913 chapter 165 — Amendment
NSL 1916 chapter   99 — Amendment

On March 31, 1911, an act to incorporate the Blomidon Railway Company Limited was passed by the Nova Scotia Legislature. The act indicates that the new railway would connect with the existing main line track of the Dominion Atlantic Railway at Wolfville, cross the Cornwallis River at Port Williams, and continue generally northward to Canning via Starr's Point and Canard.

At or near Canning there would be a connection with and crossing of the existing Cornwallis Valley Railway. The new Blomidon Railway would run northward from Canning, through Woodside, North Corner, Upper Pereau, and Delhaven. The plan was to build the track to the top of Cape Blomidon to the site of the National Park, and from there continue to Scott's Bay and then to Cape Split.

Mr. Coleman comments: "Today, an old trail of unclear origin runs from the park site straight through the woods to Scott's Bay; perhaps it is the right of way hewed out of the forest by the fledgling Blomidon Railway Company."

A number of prominent professional men and merchants were named in the act as the officers of the proposed line and "it's obvious from this list that the Blomidon Railway was a serious undertaking."

One of the officers, Kentville lawyer Harry H. Wickwire, came from a pioneer family that had long played a prominent role in Kings County.  Another officer, Leslie S. Macoun of Ottawa, was the son-in-law of Sir Frederick Borden.

Rumoured to have the blessing of Sir Frederick and with initial capital of a quarter million dollars, the plan to build the Blomidon Railway was far from a fanciful scheme.  The act gave the Company two years from the date of incorporation to start work on the railway, but there is no known record of any significant construction work having been done.

The Blomidon Railway was never built.

[Excerpted from Looking Back: The Blomidon Railway by Ed Coleman, 9 April 1999, one of his regular weekly columns in the Kentville Advertiser.]

NSL 1864 chapter   39 — Act to incorporate the Boston & Bridgeport Coal Mining Co. Ltd.
NSL 1866 chapter 116 — Amendment
NSL 1867 chapter   59 — Amendment

NSL 1893 chapter 147 — Act to incorporate the Boston & Nova Scotia Coal Co. Ltd.
DOM 1894 chapter   4 — Subsidy, Orangedale to Broad Cove

NSL 1887 chapter 56 — Act to incorporate the Boston, Parrsboro & Londonderry Railway & Steam Navigation Co. Ltd.

DOM 1894 chapter 64 — To incorporate the Boynton Bicycle Electric Railway Co. Ltd. to build a monorail railway from Winnipeg via Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Saint John to Louisburg in Nova Scotia

The two mile 3km Bridgeport Tramway, on Cape Breton Island, was opened in 1830 by the General Mining Association. It was abandoned in 1849.
Chronology of Important Dates in Canadian Railway History, by Colin Churcher and Rick Roberts
      http://globalgenealogy.com/globalgazette/List001/list23.htm

NSL 1905 chapter 134 — Act to incorporate the British American Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1906 chapter 157 — Amendment

NSL 1921 chapter 152 —
NSL 1928 chapter 142 —

These were primarily coal mining and steel manufacturing companies, but their extensive railway operations require that they be included in this history of railways in Nova Scotia.  Beginning in the 1890s and throughout the first half of the twentieth century these companies kept the railways in eastern Nova Scotia busy.  As late as the 1990s, and continuing into the spring of 2001, the steel and coal industry in the Sydney area generated about one thousand carloads per month of revenue traffic for the railway between Port Hawkesbury and Sydney, and corresponding traffic Hawkesbury - New Glasgow, and New Glasgow - Truro.  When the Sydney steel mill and the DEVCO coal mining operations closed in 2001, traffic over the Hawkesbury - Sydney main line railway declined abruptly from about 15,000 carloads annually to barely 2,000 – from five trains a week to one.

Brief Overview
British Empire Steel Corp.
Dominion Coal Co.
Dominion Steel Corp.
Dominion Steel & Coal Corp.
Dominion Iron & Steel Co.
Nova Scotia Steel Co.
Nova Scotia Steel & Coal Co.

After a visit to Boston by the Nova Scotian premier, W.S. Fielding, in 1893, the Henry M. Whitney syndicate of Boston and other Nova Scotia businessmen united the Gowrie, Schooner Pond, Clyde, Glace Bay, Caledonia, Reserve, Lorway, Emery, International, Bridgeport, Gardiner, Lingan, Victoria, and other small collieries into the Dominion Coal Company. Henry Whitney was the central figure in this business empire — the Sydney suburb Whitney Pier is named after him. This new company did not, however, contain the operations and coal leases for the north side of Sydney Harbour, which were retained by the General Mining Association until 1900, when they were sold to the Nova Scotia Steel Company of New Glasgow.

Prior to World War One, the Dominion Coal Company occupied a prominent position in the Canadian coal industry. By 1912, the Company had 16 collieries in full operation and its production accounted for 40 percent of Canada's total output.

The Dominion Iron & Steel Company Limited was developed in Sydney by Whitney and his associates to provide a customer for the slack (poor quality) coal which was the result of screening. It should be noted that the Dominion Coal Company and Dominion Iron & Steel Company would become subsidiaries of the Dominion Steel Corporation.

In 1901, Whitney sold control of Dominion Coal Company to a prominent Montreal capitalist, James Ross, and during this time the Dominion Iron & Steel Company was also delivered to Canadian interests, both controlled by Ross and his associates until 1903, when control of the Steel Company was acquired by J.H. Plummer of Toronto. For the next seven years, these two companies, Dominion Coal Co. and Dominion Steel Co., quarrelled until in 1910, Plummer won and the merger gained control over the Cumberland Railway & Coal Co.

Nova Scotia Steel & Coal Company was taken over by American financial interests in 1917.

In 1919, a group of financiers and a syndicate of British industrialists, headed by a Montreal entrepreneur, Roy M. Wolvin, began the takeover of Dominion Steel. Initially, Wolvin proposed to fashion a $500,000,000 merger that would unite Canadian coal, iron and steel resources with the British steel and shipbuilding industries. In 1921, Wolvin and the London shareholders who backed him were able to merge with Nova Scotia Steel.

Thus, it was in the early 1920s that the British Empire Steel Corporation began its operations. But new markets for Nova Scotia coal and steel were hard to find, and hopes of large profits soon faded. During its short eight-year history BESCO was in a permanent state of financial crisis, mainly because it required an annual operating profit of about eight million dollars just to meet financial commitments.

Wolvin, with his directors, undertook a desperate attempt to save the corporation. The coal industry was expected to supply the funds for other areas of the faltering organization. It was at this time that BESCO began their campaign of wage reductions which was strongly opposed by the coal miners. In 1920, after intense lobbying by the company, the Liberal government decided that the provincial royalty on bituminous coal be set at 50 cents per ton, and the Duncan Report called for wider use of Canadian coke in Central Canada. Despite this, BESCO was unable to raise new capital or to return a satisfactory profit. As BESCO deteriorated, internal struggles and anxieties increased. Also prevalent was the labour strife that developed with the workers. Public opinion opposed to the practices of the company was partly responsible for the defeat of the provincial Liberal government which had been associated with the corporation.

After the spring of 1926, when short-term financing was refused him, Wolvin permitted Dominion Iron & Steel Company to slip into receivership. This marked the break-up of BESCO. In 1927, Dominion Steel was liquidated, but the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia declined to close BESCO. With a blunt refusal of reorganizational plans by shareholders, Wolvin sold his holdings and resigned as President of BESCO.

C.B. McNaught was Wolvin's successor. In 1928, J.H. McNaught visited the British investors and the group incorporated a new holding and operating company called the Dominion Steel & Coal Corporation, which took over the BESCO properties. In May 1930, BESCO ceased to exist.

Source:   http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/301/ic/cdc/coal/history/tdominon.html
Also see:   http://www.heritage.nf.ca/environment/mine/ch5p6.html

Overview of the Development of Railways
on the Sydney Coal Fields: 1720-1999
      http://web.archive.org/web/20050520080236/http://www.trainweb.org/canadianrailways/articles/SydneyCoalFields.html

This railway never reached the stage of having an Act of Incorporation passed by the Legislature (at least not under that name) but fairly extensive planning work was done during the first few years of the twentieth century.  The Broad Cove, Baddeck & North Sydney Railway was projected to be built from Broad Cove (now named Inverness) on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to a point near Broad Cove Mines in Inverness County, on to Southwest Margaree, then following the Southwest Margaree River to Margaree Forks.  From here the railway was to continue to Northeast Margaree, then turning nearly southward along the shores of the Lakes O'Law, then following Middle River until itreached Indian Bay on the Little Bras d'Or Lake, and along the shore of the Little Bras d'Or to Baddeck.  It was planned to cross the Big Bras d'Or Gut at Seal Island (this would have been a very expensive bridge), through the centre of Boularderie Island to Little Bras d'Or, and onward to Sydney Mines and North Sydney.

Source: page 332, Cape Breton, Canada, at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, (book) by C.W. Vernon, Nation Publishing Company, Toronto, 1903

The community at the planned northern terminal of this railway was named Broad Cove Shean, then Broad Cove Coal Mines.  In 1901 the name Broad Cove was officially changed to Inverness.

NSL 1923 chapter 140 — Act to incorporate Evangeline Lodge No. 350, Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen

NSL 1865 chapter 60 — Act to incorporate the Caledonia Coal & Railway Co.

Caledonia Mine to Port Caledonia, 2¼ miles, opened 1868.  The harbour at Port Caledonia was abandoned in 1893 and a railway was built from Caledonia Junction to a connection with the Glace Bay Mining Company near the Sterling Mine.  It was purchased by the Dominion Coal Company in March 1894 and the railway became part of the Sydney and Louisburg Railway.
  — Colin Churcher

NSL 1892 chapter 159 — Act to incorporate the Canada Coals & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1893 chapter 189 — Amendment
NSL 1904 chapter 140 — Amendment

On 1 November 1892, Canada Coals & Railway Co. purchased the assets of Joggins Coal & Railway Co.

Halifax, March 16th, 1893: — The Joggins Railway has changed hands, and is now being operated by the Canada Coals and Railway Company.
      (signed) Martin Murphy,
      Provincial Engineer
Source:
Report of the Provincial Engineer on the Subsidized Railways and
Other Public Works in the Province of Nova Scotia for the Year 1892
Appendix No. 7, page 8
Journals of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, 1893

Historical notes by Dara Legere
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Legere-MaritimeRailway.htm

Historical notes by Dara Legere
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Legere-MaritimeRailway.htm

ULC 10-11 Victoria (1847) chapter 122 — To incorporate the Canada, New Brunswick & Nova Scotia Railway Co. to build a railway from Drummondville in Quebec to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia

1851

Correspondence between the Colonial Department
and  Mr.  Josiah  Timmis  as  to  the
Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia Railroad (sic) Company
London : HMSO, 7 August 1851
ECO.canadiana.ca

—Source: Correspondence re the Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia Railroad Company 1851
http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_01004

1849

Prospectus of the Canada, New Brunswick,
and Nova Scotia Railway Company, 1849
9 June 1849
archive.org

“A daily Mail and Passenger Train will be established from Montreal, Quebec,
and Fredericton, to Halifax and Chedabucto Bay (Nova Scotia); whence a line
of Steamships will run weekly to Ireland, Milford Haven (Wales), or Liverpool
(England), thus linking this road, as the Great Highway of North American
intercourse, with Great Britain and the whole of Europe...”

—Source: Prospectus of the Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia Railway Company, 1849
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL16942514M/Prospectus_of_the_Canada_New_Brunswick_and_Nova_Scotia_Railway_Company

NSL 1854 chapter 1 —
NSL 1854 chapter 2 —
NSL 1855 chapter 6 —

DOM 1929 chapters 13-17 — Canadian National Railways (Lines acquired)

Canadian National Railway
Wikipedia

Canadian National Railway
The Chemistry Encyclopedia

List of companies included in the Canadian National Railways, by Pat Scrimgeour
About 670 companies have been taken into the CNR.  Those in Nova Scotia ranged from the Acadia Coal Company, and the Annapolis and Atlantic Railway, to the Vale Coal, Iron and Manufacturing Company.
Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20040604044522/http://pat.scrimgeour.ca/railways/cn_index_of_companies.htm

Canadian National Railway history
The Chemistry Encyclopedia

Port of Halifax Pier #21 and the Canadian Pacific Connection
by Don Scott

DOM 1892 chapter 36 —
NSL 1896 chapter   84 — Act to incorporate the Canso & Louisburg Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1898 chapter 131 — To amend and extend time
NSL 1900 chapter 169 — To further amend and extend time

NSL 1895 chapter 110 — Act to incorporate the Cape Breton Coal, Iron & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1898 chapter 164 — Amendment
NSL 1901 chapter 165 — Act to revive chapter 110 of 1895
NSL 1903 chapter 180 — Amendment
NSL 1905 chapter 132 — Amendment
NSL 1907 chapter 146 — Amendment
NSL 1908 chapter 136 — Amendment
NSL 1913 chapter 192 —
NSL 1915 chapter   91 —

Broughton Junction to Broughton, 2 miles, Broughton Junction to False Bay Head, 2½ miles.  Construction began in 1905 and was completed in 1906.  The entire project was abandoned in 1907 owing, it is said, to the opposition of the Dominion Coal Company which would not allow its Sydney and Louisburg Railway to carry the coal produced by the mine.
  — Colin Churcher

A long article, detailing this company's history, appeared in the Montreal Daily Star, 25 May 1907

Devco Railway was wholly owned by the Cape Breton Development Corporation, a crown corporation,
and was operated as an unincorporated department within that corporation.
— Canadian Transportation Agency Decision No. 571-R-1997
On 18 December 2001, 510845 N.B. Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Emera Inc., Nova Scotia's largest electric utility company,
acquired surface assets (railway track, rights-of-way, etc.) from the Cape Breton Development Corporation.
— Canadian Transportation Agency Decision No. 192-R-2002

NSL 1900 chapter 130 — Act to incorporate the Cape Breton Electric Tramway & Power Co. Ltd.
NSL 1901 chapter 159 — Change name to Cape Breton Electric Co. Ltd.
NSL 1902 chapter 183 — Amendment
NSL 1909 chapter 136 — Amendment
NSL 1911 chapter 115 — Amendment
NSL 1917 chapter 197 — Amend chapter 130 of 1900

NSL 1900 chapter 130 — Act to incorporate the Cape Breton Electric Tramway & Power Co. Ltd.
NSL 1901 chapter 159 — Change name to Cape Breton Electric Co. Ltd.
NSL 1917 chapter 197 — Amend chapter 130 of 1900

NSL 1902 chapter 132 — Act to incorporate the Cape Breton Northern Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1905 chapter 131 — Amendment

NSL 1885 chapter   97 — Act to incorporate the Cape Breton & Pictou Iron Co. Ltd.
NSL 1886 chapter 132 — Change name to Cape Breton & Pictou Iron & Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1885 chapter   97 — Act to incorporate the Cape Breton & Pictou Iron Co. Ltd.
NSL 1886 chapter 132 — Change name to Cape Breton & Pictou Iron & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1888 chapter 119 — Amendment

NSL 1886 chapter 76 — Act to incorporate the Cape Breton Railway & Annex Steamboat Co. Ltd.

NSL 1875 chapter 30 — Act to encourage the building of a railway from Strait of Canso to Louisburg
NSL 1878 chapter 55 — Act to incorporate the Cape Breton Railway, Coal & Iron Co. Ltd.
NSL 1878 chapter 56 —

NSL 1875 chapter   30 — Act to encourage the building of a railway from Strait of Canso to Louisburg
NSL 1884 chapter   70 — Act to incorporate the Cape Breton Railway Extension Co. Ltd.
NSL 1886 chapter   75 — Act to revive and amend chapter 70 of 1884
NSL 1890 chapter   72 — Act to incorporate anew
DOM 1894 chapter   4 —
DOM 1899 chapter   7 —
NSL 1899 chapter 126 — Act to incorporate anew
NSL 1900 chapter 168 — Amendment, to authorize CBR to build a branch railway near Barraso's
NS 1902 Order-in-Council — Name changed by deleting "Extension", to Cape Breton Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1902 chapter   67 — Act to authorize Cape Breton Municipality to borrow money for right-of-way for Cape Breton Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1902 chapter 122 — Act to authorize Richmond Municipality to borrow money for right-of-way for Cape Breton Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1902 chapter 123 — Re Richmond Municipality land appraisers
NSL 1902 chapter 190 — Act to amend chapter 126 of 1899, re Cape Breton Railway Extension Co. Ltd.
DOM 1903 chapter 57 —
DOM 1908 chapter 63 —
DOM 1915 chapter 16 —
NSL 1921 chapter 154 — Act to amend chapter 126 of 1899 and chapter 190 of 1902, re Cape Breton Railway Extension Co. Ltd.

On 24 November 1890, the Cape Breton Railway was officially opened for regular traffic.
[National Post, 24 November 2000]

The Cape Breton Railway ran from St. Peters, Richmond County, to its junction with the main line track of the Intercolonial Railway at Point Tupper, a distance of 31.0 miles 49.9 km.

Map showing location of the Castlereagh Pole Railway
About 10 miles 16 km long
Source: Nova Scotia highway map 1924

NSL 1891 chapter 125 — Act to incorporate the Central Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1895 chapter 125 —
NSL 1896 chapter   89 —
NSL 1896 chapter   90 — Act respecting the Central Railway Co. Ltd., the Nova Scotia Central Railway Co. Ltd., and the Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. of New York
NSL 1903 chapter    2 —

NSL 1892 chapter 131 — Act to incorporate the Central Short Line Railway Co. Ltd.

The Central Short Line Railway Company (1892, c.131) was chartered (notable incorporators included Fletcher Wade of the Nova Scotia Central, and Simon H. Holmes) to construct this railway line, from any point on the Intercolonial Railway to Dartmouth.  However, the Central Short Line Railway Company never laid any track.  The railway connecting Dartmouth to the Intercolonial at Windsor Junction was eventually built by the Intercolonial Railway.

See: Dartmouth Extension by John R. Cameron
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Cameron-DartmouthExtension.htm

DOM 1882 chapter 55 —
DOM 1882 chapter 76 —
DOM 1883 chapter 60 —
NSL 1883 chapter   42 —
NSL 1884 chapter   42 —
DOM 1886 chapter 18 —
DOM 1888 chapter   4 —
NSL 1889 chapter 102 —
NSL 1890 chapter 106 —
DOM 1891 chapter 12 —
DOM 1892 chapter 37 —
NSL 1898 chapter 144 —

Chignecto Ship Railway

Description published in 1891

From "The Canadian Guide Book: The Tourist's and Sportsman's Guide to Eastern Canada..." (pages 190-191)
1891, by Charles G.D. Roberts, Professor of English Literature at King's College, Windsor, Nova Scotia

from pages 190-191 of "The Canadian Guide Book..." by Charles G.D. Roberts, 1891
Source: Early Canadiana Online http://www.canadiana.org/
page 190   http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/mtq?id=bb2b4c9564&display=56228+0260
page 191   http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/mtq?id=bb2b4c9564&display=56228+0263

Reference:
Ketchum's Folly (book, 130 pages) by Jay Underwood, published in 1995 by Lancelot Press Limited, Hantsport, Nova Scotia. ISBN 0889995532
This is the most comprehensive history of the Chignecto Ship Railway, that I know of.

Chignecto Ship Railway Chignecto Marine Transport Railway Chignecto Marine Railway Chignecto Ship Railway by Sarah K. Chapman:  Eroded by time, only scattered remnants across the Chignecto isthmus stand as a monument to the dream of Henry George Clopper Ketchum...     http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/4016/chignecto_ship_railway.html The Wayback Machine has archived copies of this document: Chignecto Ship Railway by Sarah K. Chapman Archived: 1999 February 22    http://web.archive.org/web/19990222162802/http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/        Studios/4016/chignecto_ship_railway.html Archived: 1999 October 4    http://web.archive.org/web/19991004123011/http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/        Studios/4016/chignecto_ship_railway.html Archived: 2000 March 7    http://web.archive.org/web/20000307131914/http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/        Studios/4016/chignecto_ship_railway.html Archived: 2000 October 14    http://web.archive.org/web/20001014234027/http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/        Studios/4016/chignecto_ship_railway.html These links were accessed and found to be valid on 14 August 2012. Chignecto Ship Railway     http://web.archive.org/web/20010214231641/http://www.trainweb.org/           canadianrailways/articles/ChignectoShipRailway.htm The Chignecto Marine Transport Railway Nova Scotia Provincial Parks     http://parks.gov.ns.ca/brochures/TidnishDock04.pdf Chignecto Marine Railway, 1888 - 1891, Nova Scotia Industrial Heritage     http://www.gov.ns.ca/homa/muns/hert/indhert/chignect.htm The Wayback Machine has archived copies of this document: Chignecto Marine Railway, 1888 - 1891 Nova Scotia Industrial Heritage Archived: 1999 December 22 http://web.archive.org/web/19991222003922/http://www.gov.ns.ca/homa/muns/hert/indhert/chignect.htm Archived: 2000 March 9 http://web.archive.org/web/20000309144929/http://www.gov.ns.ca/homa/muns/hert/indhert/chignect.htm Archived: 2000 June 14 http://web.archive.org/web/20000614084508/http://www.gov.ns.ca/homa/muns/hert/indhert/chignect.htm These links were accessed and found to be valid on 14 August 2012.

NSL 1893 chapter 154 — Act to incorporate the Coast Railway Co. of Nova Scotia Ltd.
NSL 1894 chapter 102 — Act to amend, with power to extend
NSL 1895 chapter 124 — Amendment
NSL 1896 chapter 103 — Act to amend, with power to extend to Lockeport
NSL 1896 chapter 154 —
DOM 1897 chapter  4 —
NSL 1897 chapter   84 — Amendment
NSL 1897 chapter   85 — Amendment
NSL 1899 chapter 123 — Act to provide for reappraisal of land taken for right of way
NSL 1899 chapter 128 — Change name to Halifax & Yarmouth Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1904 chapter 136 — To amend chapter 128 of 1899, respecting the Coast Railway Co. of Nova Scotia Ltd.

The Coast Railway has commenced a regular train service.
[Digby Weekly Courier, 13 August 1897]

The business on the Coast Railway is away beyond the expectations of the management.
[Digby Weekly Courier, 20 August 1897]

Coast Railway begins operations, August 1897
    http://ns1758.ca/rail/railway02.html#coarns

NSL 1873 chapter 48 — Act to incorporate the Cobequid Iron, Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.

Colchester Coal & Railway Co. Ltd. was incorporated 26 Feb 1903 under the Nova Scotia Companies Act
NSL 1906 chapter   43 —
NSL 1906 chapter 109 — Act to authorize Colchester Municipality to exempt from taxation the Colchester Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1913 chapter 181 —

NSL 1889 chapter 117 — Act to incorporate the Colonial Iron, Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1892 chapter 177 — Act to revive and amend chapter 117 of 1889

DOM 1887 chapter 24 —
NSL 1887 chapter   59 — Act to incorporate the Cornwallis Valley Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1888 chapter   87 — Amend, and change route
DOM 1889 chapter   3 —
NSL 1889 chapter   82 — Amend, as to telephone line
NSL 1890 chapter   73 — Amend, as to Farmers' Loan and Trust Co. of New York
NSL 1890 chapter 105 — Act to authorize the Municipality of Kings County to borrow money to pay for land taken for CVR right of way
NSL 1891 chapter   94 — Amendment
NSL 1891 chapter 116 — Amendment, as to connection with the Nova Scotia Central Railway
NSL 1892 chapter 107 — To authorize the sale of the Cornwallis Valley Railway to Windsor & Annapolis Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1892 chapter 108 —
NSL 1893 chapter 102 —

The Cornwallis Valley Railway —
As sanctioned by the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders, held on June 24th, 1892, the purchase of the Cornwallis Valley Railway was duly effected, a moiety [one half] of the purchase money being payable in cash, and the balance in debentures [bonds] authorized by the said meeting. The transfer of the property was made on July 26th, 1892, since which date it has been an integral part of the Windsor & Annapolis Railway Company's system. The CVR branch, 14 miles 23 km long, has proved of service in stimulating business on the trunk line, and in consolidating generally the W&AR Company's interests.
Source:
Report of the Directors of the Windsor & Annapolis Railway Company for their fiscal year ending 30 September 1892, as quoted in:
Report of the Provincial Engineer on the Subsidized Railways and
Other Public Works in the Province of Nova Scotia for the Year 1892
Appendix No. 7, page 7
Journals of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, 1893

The Cornwallis Valley Railway —
The Cornwallis Valley Railway is now [March 1893] merged in the Windsor and Annapolis Railway Company.  The purchase was effected in June 1892, and the transfer was made on 26 July 1892.  Since that date it has been operated as part of the Windsor and Annapolis Railway Company's road.
      (signed) Martin Murphy,
      Provincial Engineer
Source:
Report of the Provincial Engineer on the Subsidized Railways and
Other Public Works in the Province of Nova Scotia for the Year 1892
Halifax, March 16th, 1893
Appendix No. 7, page 8
Journals of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, 1893

History of the Cornwallis Valley Railway
      http://web.archive.org/web/20140221121047/http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Smith-CornwallisValleyRailway.htm
Cornwallis Valley Railway and North Mountain Railway by John R. Cameron
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Cameron-CornwallisValleyRailwayAndNorthMountainRailway.htm


1949 DAR Passenger Train Schedule
Kingsport - Canning - Centreville - Aldershot - Kentville
    http://ns1758.ca/rail/railway05.html

Map showing the North Mountain Railway,
the Cornwallis Valley Railway, and the Dominion Atlantic Railway
Kings County, Nova Scotia

Cornwallis Valley Railway: (c.1930) apple warehouses
and station at Sheffield Mills
The photograph was taken by Edson Graham and published in the
book Some Economic Aspects of the Apple Industry in Nova Scotia
by Willard Longley, 1931.
Source: Dominion Atlantic Railway Wikipedia

DOM 1883 chapter   77 —
DOM 1884 chapter   77 —
DOM 1887 chapter   24 —
DOM 1887 chapter   86 —
DOM 1903 chapter   57 —
DOM 1908 chapter 100 —
DOM 1928 chapter   57 —

Musquodoboit Railway

NSL 1911 chapter 120 — Act of Incorporation
NSL 1914 chapter 170 — Extension of Completion Time

Dartmouth & Cow Bay Railway history by John R. Cameron
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Cameron-DartmouthAndCowBayRailway.htm

April 1908

NSL 1890 chapter 189 — Act to incorporate the Dartmouth Tram & Power Co. Ltd.
NSL 1908 chapter 138 — Act to revive and amend chapter 189 of 1890

NSL 1904 chapter 146 — Act to incorporate the Davison Tramway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1905 chapter 135 — Change name from Davison Tramway Co. Ltd. to Springfield Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1906 chapter 158 —
NSL 1915 chapter   95 —
NSL 1920 chapter 182 —

The Davison Tramway Co. and the Springfield Railway Co. were closely associated with the Davison Lumber Company, headquartered in Bridgewater.

Davison Lumber Company
    http://www.antique-engine.ns.ca/davison.html

Springfield Railway
    http://www.tallships.ca/crossburn/history.htm

Devco Railway was wholly owned by the Cape Breton Development Corporation and was operated
as an unincorporated department within that corporation.
— Canadian Transportation Agency Decision No. 571-R-1997

NSL 1879 chapter 65 — Act to authorize the Government to aid a Railway between Digby and Yarmouth

NSL 1893 chapter 141 —
NSL 1893 chapter 142 —
NSL 1893 chapter 143 —
DOM 1894 chapter 69 —
DOM 1895 chapter 47 — To incorporate the Dominion Atlantic Railway Co. Ltd.
DOM 1895 chapter 69 —
DOM 1898 chapter   8 —
DOM 1900 chapter 59 —
NSL 1901 chapter 114 — To authorize the Town of Kentville to borrow money for bonus to the Dominion Atlantic Railway Co. Ltd.
DOM 1903 chapter 57 —
DOM 1905 chapter 85 —
NSL 1905 chapter 130 — Act respecting the purchase of the Midland Railway by the Dominion Atlantic Railway Co. Ltd.
DOM 1907 chapter 40 —
DOM 1908 chapter 101 —
DOM 1910 chapter 51 —
DOM 1910 chapter 88 —
NSL 1910 chapter 134 —
NSL 1910 chapter 135 —
NSL 1910 chapter 136 — Act respecting the North Mountain Division of the Dominion Atlantic Railway
DOM 1911 chapter 72 —
DOM 1912 chapter 86 —
NSL 1912 chapter 201 — Amendment
DOM 1914 chapter 84 —
NSL 1916 chapter   87 — Act to change the name of Kingston Station, Kings County
NSL 1977 chapter   93 — Act to authorize the Town of Wolfville to purchase property of the Dominion Atlantic Railway

DAR's First Through Train,
Yarmouth to Halifax
1 October 1894

Dominion Atlantic Railway history by Jim Simmons
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Simmons-DominionAtlanticRailway.htm

Passenger Services at Digby
July-August 1897

The Steamship
Prince Edward
Sails from Yarmouth for Boston
every Monday and Thursday
immediately on arrival of
Flying Bluenose

Big and Fast

Halifax to Boston in 23 Hours

The Dominion Atlantic Railway station at Windsor, Nova Scotia
This postcard was postmarked in February 1914.
The tall  smokestack  seen in the distance  at the
left side  of this photograph  is beside  the factory
of Nova  Scotia  Textiles  Limited.  This smokestack
was a prominent landmark in Windsor into the 1990s.

Business at the Berwick Station has been pretty lively lately  Besides the ordinary traffic there has been shipped some thirty tons of cucumbers, and already about thirty-five hundred barrels of apples have gone, besides plums galore.  At present the rush is in potatoes although the price is rather small.
—  Berwick Register, 28 September 1898

The Dominion Atlantic Road

Halifax, N.S. April 15, 1893 — Among the competing routes for New England and Western Canadian travel was the Windsor and Annapolis, better known as the "Land of Evangeline" Line, running from Halifax to Annapolis, thence by the Western Counties Railway to Yarmouth, a total rail distance of 217 miles [349km], and thence by steamer to Boston.  It was only a year ago that the missing link between Annapolis and Digby, twenty miles, was completed by the Dominion Government, at a cost of $500,000.  Previous to that the twenty-mile gap was covered by steamer, thus making four changes between Halifax and Boston.

The Western Counties Road between Digby and Yarmouth has long been in litigation.  Last year it passed into the hands of an English syndicate, who were compelled to carry out their agreement with the local stock and bondholders and the municipality of Yarmouth to purchase the road.  General Manager Campbell of the Windsor and Annapolis has long had an eye on the Western Counties Road, and during the past Winter has steadily worked to control it.  He has just succeeded in completing negotiations for its purchase, and hereafter the two roads will be operated under his management under the name of the Dominion Atlantic Railway.  The capital of the new company, composed of English capitalists, will be $5,000,000.

The Western Counties section will be relaid with steel rails, its wooden bridges will be replaced with iron structures, and the road will be equipped with new rolling stock.  "The Flying Bluenose," the fast vestibule train hitherto run on the Windsor and Annapolis Road for American tourists, will hereafter run through between Halifax and Yarmouth, where connection will be made with the steamships Boston and Yarmouth, so that Boston passengers will be landed in Halifax in twenty-four hours.  Under its reorganized management, the Dominion Atlantic Railway will keenly compete with all existing routes for all Nova Scotia business with New England and the Western Canadian provinces via Boston.

— Source: New York Times, 16 April 1893

DAR Passenger Train Timetables

1936 DAR Passenger Train Schedule
  Truro - South Maitland - Kennetcook - Scotch Village - Windsor
    http://ns1758.ca/rail/railway11.html

1949 DAR Passenger Train Schedule
Kingsport - Canning - Centreville - Aldershot - Kentville
    http://ns1758.ca/rail/railway05.html

1949 DAR Passenger Train Schedule
  Halifax - Windsor - Kentville - Annapolis Royal - Digby - Yarmouth
    Showing connections at Digby to/from Boston, Montreal, Toronto
    http://ns1758.ca/rail/railway06.html

1949 DAR Passenger Train Schedule
  Kentville - Hantsport - Windsor - Kennetcook - South Maitland - Truro
    http://ns1758.ca/rail/railway04.html

1949 DAR-CNR Connecting Passenger Train Schedule
  Windsor - Wolfville - Middleton - New Germany - Bridgewater
    http://ns1758.ca/rail/railway07.html

1949 DAR-CNR Connecting Passenger Train Schedule
  Yarmouth - Digby - Annapolis Royal - Middleton - New Germany - Bridgewater
    http://ns1758.ca/rail/railway08.html

1949 DAR-CNR Connecting Passenger Train Schedule
  Kingsport - Canning - Kentville - Middleton - New Germany - Bridgewater
    http://ns1758.ca/rail/railway09.html

1949 DAR Passenger Train Schedule
  Kingsport - Canning - Kentville - Hantsport - Windsor - Halifax
    http://ns1758.ca/rail/railway10.html

1949 CNR-DAR Connecting Passenger Train Schedule
  Sydney - Antigonish - Truro - Kennetcook - Windsor - Kentville - Digby - Yarmouth
    http://ns1758.ca/rail/railway12.html

1949 CNR-DAR Connecting Passenger Train Schedule
  Sydney - Antigonish - Truro - Windsor - Middleton - New Germany - Bridgewater
    http://ns1758.ca/rail/railway13.html

Canadian Transportation Agency
Decision No. 350-R-1989
13 July 1989

IN THE MATTER OF the application by Canadian Pacific Limited for authority to abandon the operation of the portion of the Kentville Subdivision (of the Dominion Atlantic Railway) from Kentville (mileage 4.6) to Annapolis Royal (mileage 58.4) and the entire Yarmouth Subdivision (of the Dominion Atlantic Railway) from Annapolis Royal (mileage 0.0) to Yarmouth (mileage 86.6), a total distance of 140.4 miles (225.9 km), in the Province of Nova Scotia.

End of the Windsor Branch

Notice of Discontinuance
Canadian National Railway    Windsor Subdivision
Halifax Chronicle-Herald, 5 February 2013, page C3

Thanks to G. Clarke.

“The Windsor Subdivision... was transferred to the Windsor & Hantsport Railway Company” in August 1994.

“By reason of the instrument by which it was transferred, the railway line was returned to Canadian National Railway Company (CN) on December 31, 2012.”

The railway between Windsor and Windsor Junction was leased from the Government of Canada (the Intercolonial Railway) for 99 years from January 1, 1914.  The lease was transferred to the Windsor & Hantsport Railway in August 1994, when it bought the remnants of the Dominion Atlantic Railway.  This 99-year lease expired on December 31, 2012, and the Windsor Branch right-of-way and track reverted to Canadian National Railway Company (successor to the Intercolonial Railway).

Brief History of the Windsor Branch
(a.k.a. the Windsor Subdivision)

Last Train to/from Windsor Junction

On 2 November 2010, the last train operated over the Windsor Branch (a.k.a. the Windsor Subdivision) between Windsor and Windsor Junction.  Eastbound toward the Junction it consisted of two diesel locomotives pulling eleven empty grain hoppers, and one hopper still loaded with corn for animal feed that had not been emptied before the last train departed.  The return trip westbound to Windsor consisted of the two locomotives "running light" (no cars).  The two engines were WHRC 1968 and WHRC 4079, both B23-7s painted Conrail blue.

Demolition of D.A.R. Roundhouse

Photographs of the old Kentville Roundhouse demolished by the Town of Kentville in July 2007
    http://ns1763.ca/rail/kenround.html

Demolition of Two D.A.R. Bridges

Bid 60140711 for Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal:
Tender for demolition of abandoned railway bridges on the Nova Scotia Trail System for two projects in Digby County:
        Project 1: Bear River Railway Bridge.
        Project 2: Sissiboo River Railway Bridge.
Issued: 06 October 2010
Closed: 28 October 2010 @ 02:00 PM

        1. McNally Construction Inc           $5,777,250.00
        2. Dexter Construction Co. Ltd.       $5,310,000.00
        3. Western Specialty Contracting ULC  $4,456,590.00
        4. Concrete USL Ltd                   $3,650,000.00
        5. RJ MacIsaac Construction Ltd       $2,888,000.00

   https://www.gov.ns.ca/tenders/

Moose River Bridge Dominion Atlantic Railway
    http://newscot1398.net/rail/dar-bridge-mooseriv.html

Bear River Bridge Dominion Atlantic Railway
    http://ns1758.ca/rail/dar-bridge-bearriv.html

Sissiboo River Bridge Dominion Atlantic Railway
    http://ns1758.ca/rail/dar-bridge-sissiboo.html

Sissiboo River railway bridge

Weymouth, Digby County, Nova Scotia

Dominion Atlantic Railway    Sissiboo River Bridge    30 November 2010

In November 2010 the  bridge  structure  was  still  complete.
It appears here the same as it has for the last hundred years.

November 2010 (above)
March 2012 (below)

Dominion Atlantic Railway    Sissiboo River Bridge    12 March 2012

The railway bridge that stood here for a hundred years has disappeared.

Sissiboo River bridge Dominion Atlantic Railway
    http://ns1758.ca/rail/dar-bridge-sissiboo.html

NSL 1893 chapter 145 — Act to incorporate the Dominion Coal Co. Ltd.
NSL 1905 chapter   61 —
NSL 1906 chapter 159 — Act respecting bridges on Dominion Coal Company's railway in Sydney
NSL 1919 chapter 142 — Act to incorporate Dominion Coal Workers' Relief Association
NSL 1933 chapter 134 —
NSL 1949 chapter 128 —
NSL 1952 chapter 114 —
NSL 1970-71 chapter 116 — Act to amend chapter 142 of 1919
NSL 1976 chapter   85 — Act to further amend chapter 142 of 1919
NSL 1984 chapter   13 — Act to repeal chapter 142 of 1919

• The Dominion Coal Company was incorporated on 16 February 1893 with an authorized capital of $18,000,000.  The first directors were:
• Henry M. Whitney, Boston, President
• Sir Donald A. Smith, Montreal
• Henry F. Dimock, New York
• Hugh McLennan, Montreal
• F.S. Pearson, Boston
• William Cornelius van Horne, Montreal
• Robert Winsor, Boston
• William Ross, Q.C., Halifax
• Alfred Winsor, Boston
—Source: page 192, Cape Breton, Canada, at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, (book) by C.W. Vernon, Nation Publishing Company, Toronto, 1903

By March 1st, 1894, the Dominion Coal Company had acquired and paid for in full about seventy square miles 180 square kilometres of coal lands.  These included the following collieries (mines) in the Galce Bay - Sydney area:
• Caledonia [404] formerly owned by the Caledonia Coal & Railway Co.
• International [247] formerly owned by the International Coal Co.
• Gardiner [350] formerly owned by Burchell Bros., Sydney
• Glace Bay [343] formerly owned by the Galce Bay Mining Co.
• Old Bridgeport [165] formerly owned by the International Coal Co.
• Reserve [347] formerly owned by the Sydney & Louisburg Coal & Railway Co.
• Gowrie [350] formerly owned by the Gowrie Coal Mining Co.
• Victoria [—] formerly owned by the Low Point, Barrasios & Lingan Mining Co.
(Note: In [square brackets] are the number of men employed at each colliery, as reported in the Dominion Coal Company's first annual report, 31 December 1893.)
Source: page 192, Cape Breton, Canada, at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, (book) by C.W. Vernon

History of the Dominion Coal Company
    http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/301/ic/cdc/coal/history/dominon.html

Overview of the Development of Railways
on the Sydney Coal Fields: 1720-1999
      http://web.archive.org/web/20050520080236/http://www.trainweb.org/canadianrailways/articles/SydneyCoalFields.html

DOM 1897 chapter  4 —
NSL 1897 chapter  81 — Act to incorporate the Dominion Eastern Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1898 chapter 130 — Amendment
NSL 1899 chapter 131 — Amendment

NSL 1899 chapter 139 — Act to incorporate the Dominion Iron & Steel Co. Ltd.
NSL 1900 chapter   66 —
NSL 1900 chapter 118 —
NSL 1928 chapter   69 —
NSL 1928 chapter   70 —
NSL 1954 chapter   68 —
NSL 1976 chapter   68 —

Dominion Steel & Coal Co. Ltd (DOSCO)
Dominion Iron & Steel Company (DISCO)
Coke Ovens Sydney
Slag Handling Sydney

NSL 1928 chapter 141 — Act to incorporate the Dominion Steel & Coal Corp. Ltd.
NSL 1932 chapter 131 —
NSL 1939 chapter 107 —

NSL 1921 chapter 152 —
NSL 1928 chapter 142 —

NSL 1889 chapter 121 — Act to incorporate the East Bay Railway Co.

NSL 1907 chapter 147 —
NSL 1913 chapter 100 —
NSL 1913 chapter 114 —
NSL 1947 chapter 113 —

Eastern Car Company by Andrew Merrilees (written in 1963)
http://www.nakina.net/other/builders/builders1.html#ECC

The first car order processed through this plant was one for 2,000 steel-framed wood-sheathed, wood-roofed box cars for the Grand Trunk Railway in 1913.  For these cars almost all the steel was rolled next door – in the mill of the parent company Nova Scotia Steel & Coal Company – including the heavy bar stock for the arch-bar trucks, then the standard truck for freight cars.  Orders from most of the major Canadian railways quickly followed, and in 1915 the plant also secured a large export order for box cars for the Czarist Russian government.  The Trenton plant, often referred to as the “Trenton Works,” was in continuous operation from 1913 until 2007, owned first by the Eastern Car Company and later by several successor companies.  In the late 1950s, Dominion Steel & Coal Corporation (DOSCO), the parent company of Eastern Car Company, was taken over by Avro Canada a Canadian company closely associated with A.V. Roe, a large British aircraft manufacturer.  In the early 1960s, Avro Canada (including DOSCO with Trenton Works) was taken over by Hawker Siddeley (Canada) Limited, a large British aircraft concern and holding company.  [NOTE: I'm not making this up.]  On March 9, 1995, Trenton Works was purchased by a joint partnership of Canadian and American businessmen with the latter, Greenbrier Company of Lake Oswego, Oregon acquiring the majority interest.  The plant was renamed TrentonWorks Limited and became part of the Greenbrier Companies.  Greenbrier closed TrentonWorks permanently in 2007.  During its working life, 1913-2007, Trenton Works produced well over 70,000 railway freight cars.

NSL 1874 chapter 62 — Act to incorporate the Eastern Counties Railroad Co.
NSL 1876 chapter 71 — Act to amend, and extend time

NSL 1876 chapter   3 —
NSL 1876 chapter   4 —
DOM 1877 chapter 46 —
NSL 1878 chapter 47 — Payment for land for right of way
DOM 1879 chapter 12 —
NSL 1879 chapter 66 —
NSL 1883 chapter 19 —
NSL 1883 chapter 21 — Act to confirm agreements with Halifax & Cape Breton Railway & Coal Co. Ltd.respecting the Eastern Extension Railway
NSL 1883 chapter 73 — Respecting the claims of Charles C. Gregory
NSL 1884 chapter   1 — Act to authorize the transfer of the Eastern Extension Railway to the Government of Canada
DOM 1884 chapter  5 —
NSL 1905 chapter   3 — Act respecting claims of municipalities for refund relating to land taken for right of way

Order in Council 1876-1042
Subject: Proposed transfer of the Intercolonial Railway's Pictou and Truro Branch to a Company to build a railway from New Glasgow to the Strait of Canso (the Eastern Extension)...
The undersigned [Minister of Public Works, Ottawa] has the honor to report that an Order in Council was passed on the 7th February 1876, authorizing notice being sent to the Government of the Province of Nova Scotia that the Dominion Government would be prepared to submit a proposition to Parliament for the transfer of the Truro & Pictou Branch Railway to a Company which might undertake, in consideration thereof, the construction of a railway line to the Straits of Canso, and thence to West Bay, at the head of the Bras D'Or Lake, including a Steam Ferry across the Straits...
OIC 1876-1042, page 1
OIC 1876-1042, page 2
OIC 1876-1042, page 3
OIC 1876-1042, page 4
OIC 1876-1042, page 5
OIC 1876-1042, page 6
OIC 1876-1042, page 7
OIC 1876-1042, page 8
OIC 1876-1042, page 9
OIC 1876-1042, page 10
OIC 1876-1042, page 11
OIC 1876-1042, page 12
OIC 1876-1042, page 13
Approved:   9 November 1876
— Source:   Ottawa, Federal Government Orders in Council
      http://www.collectionscanada.ca/02/020157_e.html

Proceedings of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia —
Halifax, 19 April 1883: —
"I congratulate you (the Members of the Nova Scotia Legislative Assembly) on the passage of legislation to take over the Eastern Extension Railway, together with the Pictou Branch of the Intercolonial Railway.  These properties will, it is confidently believed, prove of great value to the Province, and it is hoped will be the means of materially assisting in carrying out further railway extension, especially in the Island of Cape Breton."
The above is the fourth paragraph of the speech at the closing of the 1883 session of the Nova Scotia Legislative Assembly, by Lieutenant-Governor Adams George Archibald, 19 April 1883.
Source:   Page 131 of the 1883 section of:
Debates and Proceedings of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, 1883-90

NSL 1870 chapter 59 — Act to incorporate the Eastern Railway Co.
NSL 1871 chapter 62 — Amendment re grant of land
NSL 1876 chapter   3 — To amend the Acts relating to Eastern Railway Extension
NSL 1876 chapter   4 — Act to confer certain privileges on parties tendering for the construction of the Eastern Railway
NSL 1879 chapter 66 — To amend the Acts relating to Eastern Railway Extension

NSL 1875 chapter   71 — Act to incorporate the East Joggins Mining Co.
NSL 1890 chapter 180 — Change name to Bay of Fundy Railway & Coal Co.

NSL 1902 chapter 137 — Act to incorporate the Egerton Tramway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1903 chapter 234 — Amendment
NSL 1904 chapter 133 — Act respecting assessment of the Egerton Tramway in New Glasgow, Stellarton, and Westville
NSL 1906 chapter 160 — Amendment
NSL 1909 chapter 142 — Act to confirm contract between New Glasgow Electric Co. Ltd. and Egerton Tramway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1909 chapter 143 — Amendment and name changed
NSL 1910 chapter 163 — Amendment
NSL 1916 chapter 105 — Amendment
NSL 1952 chapter 135 —

On 18 December 2001, 510845 N.B. Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Emera Inc., Nova Scotia's largest electric utility company,
acquired surface assets (railway track, rights-of-way, etc.) from the Cape Breton Development Corporation.
— Canadian Transportation Agency Decision No. 192-R-2002
510845 N.B. Incorporated's railway operated trains to carry coal from the international pier on the waterfront in Sydney to
a coal storage facility in Victoria Junction, and from Victoria Junction to the Lingan power generating plant
owned by Nova Scotia Power Inc., on Cape Breton Island.

DOM 1875 chapter 71 —

NSL 1908 chapter 71 — Act to provide for establishment of Sir Sanford Fleming Park
NSL 1910 chapter 17 — Amendment

NSL 1903 chapter 202 — Act to incorporate the Fundy Coal Co. Ltd.
NSL 1906 chapter 155 — Act to authorize the amalgamation of Atlantic Grindstone, Coal & Railway Co. with Atlantic Grindstone Co. and Fundy Coal Co.

NSL 1836 chapter 87 — Act to incorporate the General Mining Association
NSL 1841 chapter 14 — To incorporate again
NSL 1851 (page 156) —
NSL 1858 chapter   1 — Act for giving effect to the surrender to Her Majesty by the legal representatives of the late Duke of York and Albany, and by the GMA and their trustee, of the Mines in Nova Scotia...
NSL 1858 chapter   2 —
NSL 1858 chapter 48 — To amend chapter 1 of 1858, as to clerical errors, &c.
NSL 1870 chapter 95 — To revive and continue the Act of incorporation, as amended
NSL 1871 chapter 61 — To amend, adding to the name the word Limited
NSL 1874 chapter 69 —
NSL 1889 chapter 120 —

...The General Mining Association built and operated six tramways or railways in the province of Nova Scotia:
•  the South Pictou Railroad from Albion Mines (Stellarton) to the Loading Ground of Pictou harbour;
•  the Bridgeport Tramway, from the Bridgeport pits to the bar of Indian Bay;
•  the Sydney Mines Railway, from Sydney Mines to North Sydney;
•  the Lingan Colliery Railway, from Lingan to the bar of Indian Bay;
•  a short incline plane at Joggins; and
•  the Victoria Mines Railway, from Victoria Mines to the South Bar of Sydney River...
Source: Railroads of the General Mining Association: Part One Bulletin of the Canadian Railroad Historical Association, n6, August 1938, page 2

Railroads of the General Mining Association: Part One pages 2-8

Railroads of the General Mining Association: Part Two pages 2-3

Locomotives of the General Mining Association pages 3-5

NSL 1868 chapter 53 — Act to incorporate the Glasgow & Cape Breton Railway Co.

The Glasgow & Cape Breton Coal and Railway Company operated the first Canadian 3-foot (91cm) gauge railway from 1871 to 1893 with 41 miles (70 kilometres) of branch lines linking several mines to Sydney.

NSL 1872 chapter 71 — Act to incorporate the Glasgow & Cape Breton (Nova Scotia) Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.

A company organized (incorporated) in England, and known as the Gowrie & Blockhouse Colliery Company of Newcastle, is now (1903) mining about 150 tons of coal a day from the Gowrie and Blockhouse Colliery near Port Morien, Cape Breton.  It has erected a shipping pier with storage bins able to hold 800 tons of coal in readiness for transfer to ships.  The coal is conveyed from the mine to the pier by an aerial ropeway system, the rope travelling at a speed of five miles eight km per hour.
Source: pages 227 and 278, Cape Breton, Canada, at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, (book) by C.W. Vernon, Nation Publishing Company, Toronto, 1903

NSL 1891 chapter 126 — Act to incorporate the Granville Valley & Victoria Beach Railway Co. Ltd.

Historical notes by John Cameron
      http://web.archive.org/web/20000817012304/http://www.trainweb.org/canadianrailways/Features/MiddletonAndVictoriaBeachRailway.htm

NSL 1897 chapter   82 — Act to incorporate the Granville & Victoria Beach Railway & Development Co. Ltd.
NSL 1899 chapter 129 — Amendment
NSL 1901 chapter 160 — Act to revive and amend chapter 82 of 1897, re Granville & Victoria Beach Railway & Development Co. Ltd.
NSL 1903 chapter 175 — Act to revive and amend chapter 82 of 1897, re Granville & Victoria Beach Railway & Development Co. Ltd.

Historical notes by John Cameron
      http://web.archive.org/web/20000817012304/http://www.trainweb.org/canadianrailways/Features/MiddletonAndVictoriaBeachRailway.htm

NSL 1882 chapter 23 — Act to incorporate the Great American & European Short Line Railway Co.
NSL 1884 chapter   7 — Amentment as to arbitrators
NSL 1885 chapter 39 — Act to confirm agreement with the North American Construction Company, the Great American & European Short Line Railway Company, and William Stewart and W.H. Chisholm

Proceedings of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia —
Halifax, 9 April 1883: — "The Great American & European Short Line Railway bill was referred back to select committee for further consideration."
Halifax, 10 April 1883: — "Hon. J.B. Dickie, as chairman of the Select Committee to whom were referred the bill to amend the Act to Incorporate the Great American & European Short Line Railway bill reported, that the committee had reconsidered the bill and recommended the same to the favourable consideration of the House without amendment."
Source:   Page 94 of the 1883 section of
Debates and Proceedings of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, 1883-90

NSL 1909 chapter 147 —
NSL 1910 chapter 142 — Act changing name, etc.

The Greenbrier Companies
Wikipedia

NSL 1877 chapter   74 — Act to incorporate the Whitehaven Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1886 chapter 164 — Act to change name to Guysborough & Atlantic Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1889 chapter 123 — Amendment
NSL 1890 chapter   78 — Change name back to Whitehaven Railway Co. Ltd.

Deadline for Tenders for Construction of
Guysboro Railway
15 September 1911

Department of Railways and Canals
Branch line of Railway from Guysboro to Sunny Brae
through Country Harbor Cross Roads with an extension from
Country Harbor Cross Roads to Deep Water of Country Harbor

Sealed Tenders addressed to the undersigned and endorsed "Tender for Guysboro - Country Harbor line" will be received at this office until 16 o'clock, on Friday, September 15th, 1911, for section No. 1 of the above line of railway, comprising that portion extending from Guysboro to Country Harbor Cross Roads and from the latter point to Deep Water, Country Harbor.

Plans, profiles, specifications and form of contract to be entered into can be seen on or after the 15th instant [August 15, 1911] at the office of the Chief Engineer of the Department of Railways and Canals, Ottawa; at the office of the Chief Engineer of the Intercolonial Railway, Moncton; and at the office of the Board of Trade, Halifax.  Forms of tender may be procured from the Chief Engineer of the Intercolonial Railway.  Parties tendering will be required to accept the fair wages schedule prepared or to be prepared by the Department of Labor, which schedule will form part of the contract.

Contractors are requested to bear in mind that tenders will not be considered unless made strictly in accordance with the printed forms, and in the case of firms, unless there are attached the actual signature, the nature of the occupation, and the place of residence of each member of the firm.

An accepted [certified] bank cheque for the sum of $100,000, made payable to the order of the Minister of Railways and Canals must accompany each tender, which sum will be forfeited if the party tendering declines entering into contract for the work, at the rates stated in the offer submitted.  The cheque thus sent in will be returned to the respective contractors whose tenders are not accepted.  The cheque of the successful tenderer will be held as security, or part security, for the due fulfilment of the contract to be entered into.  The lowest or any tender will not necessarily be accepted.

By order, L.K. Jones, Secretary
Department of Railways and Canals, Ottawa

[Halifax Morning Chronicle, 22 August 1911]
and reprinted in Addresses delivered by Hon. James Cranswick Tory, LL.D. (book) published by The Mortimer Company Limited, Ottawa, 1932.  Mr. J.C. Tory was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia 1911-1923, and Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia 1925-1930.

Tenders Accepted for Construction of
Guysboro Railway
and
Musquodoboit Railway

On October 5th, 1911, an announcement appeared in the two daily Halifax newspapers, as follows:

An Order-in-Council has been passed awarding the contracts for the extensions of the Intercolonial Railway in Nova Scotia for which money was unanimously voted by Parliament last June, and for which the tenders were received over a month ago.  The lowest tenderer in each case is awarded the contract.  The branch from Dartmouth to Deans will be built by M.P. Davis, and the Guysboro County line will be built by the Nova Scotia Construction Company.  The Government in awarding the contracts have simply complied with the mandate of Parliament and have followed the usual procedure in concurring in the recommendation of the Departmental Engineers as to the lowest figures submitted by the various firms tendering.

[Halifax Morning Chronicle, 5 October 1911]
[Halifax Herald, 5 October 1911]
and reprinted in Addresses delivered by Hon. James Cranswick Tory, LL.D. (book) published by The Mortimer Company Limited, Ottawa, 1932.

NSL 1876 chapter   4 —
NSL 1876 chapter 74 — Act to incorporate the Halifax & Cape Breton Railway & Coal Co. Ltd.
NSL 1878 chapter 47 — Payment for land for right of way
NSL 1879 chapter   6 —
NSL 1879 chapter 70 — To amend chapter 74 of 1876, as to proceedings taken by Harry Abbott
NSL 1883 chapter 19 —
NSL 1883 chapter 21 — To confirm agreements with Halifax & Cape Breton Railway & Coal Co. Ltd.respecting the Eastern Extension Railway
NSL 1886 chapter 55 — Respecting the claims of Charles C. Gregory

NSL 1863 chapter 83 — Act to incorporate the Halifax City Railroad Co.
NSL 1866 chapter 98 — Amend, Province may assume ownership
NSL 1870 chapter 99 — Amendment

NSL 1899 chapter 127 — Act to incorporate the Halifax & Colchester Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1901 chapter 170 — Amendment

NSL 1874 chapter   74 — Act to incorporate the Halifax Co. Ltd.
NSL 1875 chapter   72 —
NSL 1886 chapter 126 —
NSL 1886 chapter 161 —
NSL 1886 chapter 162 — Act to carry into effect amalgamation of Acadia Coal Co. with Halifax Co. Ltd. and Vale Coal, Iron & Manufacturing Co.

NSL 1870 chapter 58 — Act to incorporate the Halifax Cotton Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

NSL 1906 chapter 161 — Act to incorporate the Halifax & Eastern Railway Co.
DOM 1912 chapter   2 —
DOM 1929 chapter 34 —

NSL 1895 chapter 107 — Act to incorporate the Halifax Electric Tramway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1896 chapter   87 — Amendment
NSL 1902 chapter 180 — Act to amend chapter 107 of 1895
NSL 1906 chapter   66 — Act respecting taxation by City of Halifax
NSL 1911 chapter   11 — Of Street Railway Companies
NSL 1912 chapter 209 —
NSL 1912 chapter   78 —
NSL 1913 chapter 194 —

NSL 1897 chapter 92 — Act respecting amalgamation of Halifax Gas light Co. with People's Heat & Light Co.

Electric Streetcars Begin Operating in Halifax
13 February 1896

"The first trolley car started out on February 13, 1896," according to a technical paper Halifax Electric Tramway Plant and Steam Engineering read on May 7, 1907, by Philip A. Freeman, Chief Engineer of the Halifax Electric Tram Company, before the Nova Scotia Society of Engineers.  It is unclear whether this was a test run or the beginning of regular service, but it is certain that the electric street railway was able to operate at least one car on the track on this day.

NSL 1886 chapter 2 — Act to incorporate the Halifax & Great Western Railway Co.

Nova Scotia Legislature, Chapter 2, 1886
Act to incorporate the
Halifax & Great Western Railway Company
Passed on 11 May 1886

...Be it therefore enacted by the Governor, Council and Assembly, as follows:—

Jasper Wilson Johns, M.P., William Eckersley, George Wells Owen, Richard Gervase Elwes^NOTE 1, Brinsley de Courey Nixon, Robert John Price, Adam West Watson, and Francis Taylor Piggott, all of Great Britain, and the Honourable Loran E. Baker, M.L.C., Jacob Bingay, Hyacinthe H. Fuller, John S. Maclean, William Esson, Adam Burns, Edward Farrell, M.D. and Charles Armstrong Scott, all of Nova Scotia, and such other persons as shall become shareholders in the company hereby created, their successors and assigns, are hereby constituted a body politic and corporate by the name of “The Halifax and Great Western Railway Company.”

...The objects for which the Company is established are:—

...The acquisition, wholly or in part by purchase or otherwise... of the existing railways whether finished or not, between Windsor Junction and Yarmouth, both in the Province of Nova Scotia...

The acquisition of running powers over and use of the railway between Windsor Junction and Halifax...

  NOTE 1: Richard Gervase Elwes (d.1906) — whose name appears prominently
in the history of the  Halifax  &  Great  Western  Railway — was educated for the
engineering profession at King's College,  London,  and entered the Public Works
Department of India in 1860 as an Assistant Engineer.  After 14 years' service, he
retired on account of ill-health in 1874.  He was a partner with David Wells-Owen
in Messrs. Wells-Owen & Elwes of  Westminster,  England.  He designed sections
of the  Hindustan  and  Tibet  Road,  the  Koksar  Bridge,  and  the  bridges  on the
Grand Trunk road near Umballa, the water supply of Umballa and the Sirhind Canal.
He designed the first railroad in the Himalayas.  He also acted for short periods
as an Assistant Secretary and as Secretary for Public Works, Hyderabad.

1886

Halifax & Great Western Railway,
report of negotiations at Ottawa
1886
archive.org

—Source: Halifax & Great Western Railway, report of negotiations at Ottawa 1886
http://archive.org/details/cihm_08306

NSL 1896 chapter 83 — Act to incorporate the Halifax & Guysborough Railway Co.
NSL 1897 chapter 86 — Amendment, authority to build branch to Canso
NSL 1906 chapter   1 — Act to provide for construction of Halifax & Guysborough Railway
NSL 1911 chapter 28 — Amendment

NSL 1887 chapter 53 — Act to incorporate the Halifax & North Eastern Railway Co. Ltd.

Incorporated May 1867

NSL 1884 chapter   62 — Act to incorporate the Halifax Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1886 chapter 123 — Amendment

NSL 1902 chapter    1 — Act respecting the Halifax & South Western Railway Co.
NSL 1902 chapter    2 — Act confirming charter
DOM 1903 chapter 57 —
NSL 1903 chapter   75 — To enable the City of Halifax to contribute toward the cost of land for right of way
NSL 1903 chapter   83 — To enable Halifax Municipality to contribute toward the cost of land for right of way
NSL 1903 chapter 152 — To authorize Chester Municipality to borrow money to pay for land taken for H&SWR right of way
NSL 1904 chapter   34 — Act to authorize extension of time
NSL 1904 chapter   53 — Amendment
NSL 1904 chapter   54 — Amendment
NSL 1904 chapter   55 — Amendment
NSL 1904 chapter 109 — To authorize Town of Bridgewater to borrow money to pay for land taken for H&SWR right of way
NSL 1904 chapter 135 — Amendment
NSL 1905 chapter    1 — Act relating to Halifax & South Western Railway Co. and Halifax & Yarmouth Railway Co. and Middleton & Victoria Beach Railway Co.
NSL 1905 chapter 122 — Act respecting crossing of streets in Shelburne
DOM 1906 chapter 43 —
NSL 1906 chapter 129 —
NSL 1907 chapter   11 —
NSL 1907 chapter   12 — Amendment
NSL 1907 chapter   14 — Act relating to Liverpool & Milton Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1907 chapter   80 — Act respecting Patrick Kehoe, damages by H&SWR Co. Ltd.
DOM 1908 chapter 63 —
NSL 1908 chapter 127 — Act respecting H&SWR right of way
NSL 1909 chapter    7 — Act respecting unfinished work, etc.
DOM 1910 chapter 51 —
NSL 1911 chapter   27 — Amendment
NSL 1912 chapter   27 —
NSL 1913 chapter   64 —
DOM 1914 chapter 20 —
DOM 1917 chapter 24 —
DOM 1919 chapter 13 —

NSL 1891 chapter 162 — Act to incorporate the Halifax Street Carette Co. Ltd.

NSL 1886 chapter 124 — Act to incorporate the Halifax Street Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1890 chapter 193 — Act to empower Nova Scotia Power Co. Ltd. to purchase the property of Halifax Street Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1891 chapter 158 — Amend chapter 193 of 1890, and extend powers
NSL 1892 chapter 184 — Amendment

NSL 1889 chapter 135 — Act to incorporate the Nova Scotia Power Co. Ltd.

NSL 1970 chapter 94 —

NSL 1893 chapter 154 — Act to incorporate the Coast Railway Co. of Nova Scotia Ltd.
NSL 1899 chapter 128 — Change name to Halifax & Yarmouth Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1900 chapter 105 — Relating to reassessment of land in the Municipality of Barrington taken for right of way
DOM 1901 chapter  7 —
NSL 1901 chapter    3 —
NSL 1904 chapter 136 — To amend chapter 128 of 1899
NSL 1905 chapter    1 — Act relating to Halifax & South Western Railway Co. and Halifax & Yarmouth Railway Co. and Middleton & Victoria Beach Railway Co.
NSL 1906 chapter 128 — Act respecting assessment of land taken in Argyle Municipality for right of way for Halifax & Yarmouth Railway Co.

NSL 1887 chapter 54 — Act to incorporate the Hants Central Railway Co.
NSL 1890 chapter 74 — Amendment

Hazel Hill, Nova Scotia:–
A project is on foot to run an electric railway from Hazel Hill to Canso, Nova Scotia, a distance of three miles [5 km].
(This is the entire item.)
—  The Electrical World, New York, v24 n4 11 July 1894

NSL 1908 chapter 86 —
NSL 1908 chapter 93 — Act to authorize the Town of North Sydney to grant concessions to the Illinois Steel Solid Forge Car Wheel Co. Ltd.

NSL 1866 chapter 110 — Act to incorporate the Intercolonial Coal Mining Co.
NSL 1867 chapter   51 — Amendment
NSL 1872 chapter   68 — Amendment
NSL 1877 chapter   79 — Amendment
NSL 1900 chapter 182 — Amendment
NSL 1903 chapter 236 — Amendment
NSL 1904 chapter 122 — Amendment
NSL 1904 chapter 159 — Amendment
NSL 1908 chapter 142 — Amendment
NSL 1921 chapter 171 — Amendment
NSL 1923 chapter 149 — Amendment

NSL 1868 chapter 50 — Act to incorporate the Intercolonial Iron & Steel Co. Ltd.

The construction of the Intercolonial Railway
was the biggest Canadian public works project
of the nineteenth century.

NSL 1863 chapter   21 — Act to provide for the construction and management of the Intercolonial Railway
NSL 1863 chapter   22 — To authorize construction of a further section of Provincial Railway from Truro
NSL 1888 chapter   88 — Act respecting the right of way, station grounds, and terminal facilities for the North Sydney Branch Railway
NSL 1888 chapter   89 — Act respecting the right of way for railway extension in the Town of Sydney
DOM 1899 chapter    5 — Intercolonial Railway Extension to Montreal Act
DOM 1907 chapter  18 — Amendment to Chapter 5, 1899
NSL 1909 chapter   98 — Act respecting the cost of extension of I.C.R. into the Town of North Sydney
NSL 1910 chapter   94 — Amendment
NSL 1911 chapter   76 — Amendment
NSL 1912 chapter 121 — Amendment
NSL 1913 chapter 106 — Amendment

NSL 1886 chapter 145 — Act to authorize International Coal Co. Ltd. to operate a Railway to Bridgeport and Sydney
NSL 1889 chapter 162 — Amendment

NSL 1864 chapter   42 — Act to incorporate the International Coal & Railway Co.
NSL 1865 chapter   65 — Amendment
NSL 1865 chapter   66 — Amendment
NSL 1866 chapter 115 — Amendment
NSL 1867 chapter   53 — Amendment, extending time
NSL 1869 chapter   61 — Amendment

In 1869, A. C. Morton was President of the International Coal & Railway Company.

NSL 1883 chapter 52 —
NSL 1883 chapter 75 — Act to incorporate the International Coal & Transportation Co. Ltd.

NSL 1891 chapter 133 — Act to incorporate the International Mining & Transportation Co. Ltd.

Halifax, March 16th, 1893: — The International Railway & Coal Company have been doing work as public carriers over their railway line from Sydney to Bridgeport.  Besides carrying 71,492 tons of coal and freight, they carried 17,606 passengers and a regular mail service during 1892.  Trains run at regularly appointed hours and all the necessary accommodation is provided by the Company to trade and travel between these ports.
      (signed) Martin Murphy,
      Provincial Engineer
Source:
Report of the Provincial Engineer on the Subsidized Railways and
Other Public Works in the Province of Nova Scotia for the Year 1892
Appendix No. 7, page 6
Journals of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, 1893

NSL 1874 chapter   63 — Act to incorporate the Inverness Railway Co.
NSL 1875 chapter   67 —
NSL 1876 chapter   75 — Change name to Inverness Coal, Iron & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1878 chapter   57 —
NSL 1879 chapter   71 —
NSL 1886 chapter 146 —
NSL 1898 chapter 107 — To confirm an agreement between Municipality of Inverness County and the Inverness Coal, Iron & Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1890 chapter 190 — Act to incorporate the Inverness Mining & Transportation Co. Ltd.
NSL 1895 chapter 131 — Act to change the name to Nova Scotia Coal & Gypsum Co. Ltd.
NSL 1899 chapter 163 — Act to change the name to Mabou Coal Mining Co. Ltd.
NSL 1900 chapter 179 — Act to repeal chapter 163 of 1899
NSL 1907 chapter 153 —

NSL 1887 chapter   60 —
NSL 1888 chapter   78 —
NSL 1888 chapter   79 —
NSL 1889 chapter   83 —
DOM 1890 chapter   2 —
NSL 1890 chapter   68 —
NSL 1890 chapter   70 —
DOM 1892 chapter   5 —
NSL 1892 chapter 105 —
NSL 1894 chapter   94 —
NSL 1896 chapter 105 —
NSL 1897 chapter   89 —
NSL 1898 chapter 107 —
NSL 1899 chapter 133 —
DOM 1900 chapter   8 —
NSL 1900 chapter   41 —
NSL 1900 chapter   85 —
DOM 1901 chapter   7 —
NSL 1901 chapter 107 —
NSL 1902 chapter 162 —
DOM 1903 chapter 57 —
NSL 1903 chapter   97 —
DOM 1908 chapter 63 —
NSL 1909 chapter   92 —
DOM 1910 chapter 51 —
NSL 1924 chapter 126 —
NSL 1925 chapter 168 —
DOM 1929 chapter 13 —

Inverness Railway crossing, Highway 4, c.1960
Source: http://members.kos.net/sdgagnon/syda.html
The two  Budd RDC cars  are stopped at  a red light
on the CNR main line, waiting for the swing bridge
at the eastern end  of the new  Canso Causeway
to close.  There is a second railway track visible
beside the CNR main line.  This second track
is the main line of the Inverness Railway,
here seen at its crossing of highway 4.

NSL 1874 chapter   63 — Act to incorporate the Inverness Railway Co.
NSL 1875 chapter   67 —
NSL 1876 chapter   75 — Change name to Inverness Coal, Iron & Railway Co. Ltd.

Inverness Railway by Colin Churcher
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Churcher-InvernessRailway.htm

NSL 1897 chapter   83 — Act to incorporate the Inverness Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1898 chapter 132 — Change name to Inverness Coal Co. Ltd.
NSL 1899 chapter 132 — Amendment

Inverness Railway by Colin Churcher
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Churcher-InvernessRailway.htm

NSL 1902 chapter 162 — Act respecting Inverness & Richmond Railway Co. Ltd. and Inverness-Richmond Collieries & Railway Company Limited of Canada

NSL 1887 chapter   60 — Act to incorporate the Inverness & Richmond Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1888 chapter   78 —
NSL 1888 chapter   79 —
NSL 1888 chapter   83 —
NSL 1889 chapter   83 —
NSL 1890 chapter   68 —
NSL 1890 chapter   69 —
NSL 1890 chapter   70 —
NSL 1892 chapter 105 — To amend, as to limitation of time for work, etc.
NSL 1894 chapter   94 — To further amend, as to limitation of time for completion
NSL 1896 chapter 105 — To further amend, as to time for completion
NSL 1897 chapter   89 —
NSL 1898 chapter 107 —
NSL 1899 chapter 133 —
NSL 1900 chapter   41 —
NSL 1900 chapter   81 —
NSL 1900 chapter   85 —
NSL 1900 chapter   86 —
NSL 1901 chapter 107 —
NSL 1902 chapter 103 —
NSL 1902 chapter 162 — Act respecting Inverness & Richmond Railway Co. Ltd. and Inverness-Richmond Collieries & Railway Company Limited of Canada
NSL 1903 chapter   97 —

NSL 1887 chapter 57 — Act to incorporate the Inverness & Victoria Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1891 chapter 84 — To amend, extending time for completion

NSL 1871 chapter   59 — Act to incorporate the Joggins Coal Mining Co. Ltd.
NSL 1873 chapter   44 — Amendment
NSL 1883 chapter   76 — Act to incorporate the Joggins Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1888 chapter   85 — Change name to Joggins Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1889 chapter 102 —
NSL 1890 chapter 106 —

The Joggins Coal & Railway Co. was formed in 1888 by the amalgamation of the Joggins Railway Co. with the Joggins Coal Mining Co.  In 1892 the Joggins Coal & Railway Co. was sold to the Canada Coals & Railway Co.
Historical notes by Dara Legere
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Legere-MaritimeRailway.htm

Note 3:   In 1915 this railway was owned and operated by the Maritime Coal, Railway & Power Company.

NSL 1883 chapter 65 —
NSL 1883 chapter 76 — Act to incorporate the Joggins Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1888 chapter 85 — Change name to Joggins Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.

The Joggins Railway Co. was incorporated in 1883 by Act of the Nova Scotia Legislature. It was opened for regular operation on 3 November 1887.
Historical notes by Dara Legere
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Legere-MaritimeRailway.htm

Joggins Railway Ticket (1910)
http://web.archive.org/web/20040823122739/http://www.trainweb.org/
canadianrailways/PrototypeData/Tickets/Joggins1910.htm

NSL 1871 chapter   35 — Act for establishing the Lennox Passage Ferry
NSL 1872 chapter   80 —
NSL 1886 chapter 112 —
NSL 1887 chapter   44 —
NSL 1893 chapter 156 — Act to incorporate the Lennox Bridge & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1893 chapter 194 —

NSL 1872 chapter 62 — Act to incorporate the Liverpool Branch Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1911 chapter 131 — Act to incorporate the Liverpool & Caledonia Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1912 chapter 228 — Time extension

NSL 1896 chapter   88 — Act to incorporate the Liverpool & Milton Tramway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1900 chapter 176 — Act to change name to Liverpool & Milton Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1907 chapter   14 — Act relating to Liverpool & Milton Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1910 chapter 151 — Authorization to build a railway from Milton through Greenfield and Caledonia to Bear River

Historical notes by Robert Chant and Colin Churcher
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Chant-LiverpoolAndMiltonRailway.htm

Historical notes by John R. Cameron
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Cameron-LiverpoolAndMiltonRailway.htm

NSL 1896 chapter   88 — Act to incorporate the Liverpool & Milton Tramway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1897 chapter   87 — Amendment
NSL 1900 chapter 176 — Act to change name to Liverpool & Milton Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1907 chapter 155 — Amendment
NSL 1910 chapter 151 — Amendment
NSL 1910 chapter 152 — Amendment

Historical notes by Robert Chant
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Chant-LiverpoolAndMiltonRailway.htm

Historical notes by John R. Cameron
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Cameron-LiverpoolAndMiltonRailway.htm

NSL 1916 chapter 112 — Act to incorporate the Lockeport Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1873 chapter 42 — Act to incorporate the Logan Mining & Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1887 chapter 61 — Act to incorporate the Peninsular Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1890 chapter 77 — Act to change name to Londonderry & West Shore Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1872 chapter 17 — Act to grant Crown lands to the Louisburg Extension Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1872 chapter 63 — Act to incorporate the Louisburg Extension Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1875 chapter 66 — Act to incorporate anew, the Louisburg Extension Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1898 chapter 156 — Act to incorporate the Louisburg Mining & Transportation Co. Ltd.
NSL 1899 chapter 138 — Change name to Nova Scotia Mining & Development Co. Ltd.
NSL 1902 chapter 185 — Change name to Nova Scotia Development Co. Ltd.

NSL 1864 chapter 36 — Act to incorporate the Louisburg Railway Co.

NSL 1891 chapter 127 — Act to incorporate the Louisburg Railway Co.
NSL 1892 chapter   84 — Amendment

NSL 1911 chapter   97 — To authorize Lunenburg Municipality to pay for land for Lunenburg Electric Railway right of way
NSL 1911 chapter 133 — Act to incorporate the Lunenburg Electric Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1911 chapter 134 — Amendment
NSL 1913 chapter 185 — Extend time
NSL 1919 chapter 168 — Extend time

NSL 1908 chapter 135 — Act to incorporate the Mabou Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1910 chapter 153 — Amendment

NSL 1902 chapter 134 — Act to incorporate the Mabou & Gulf Railway Co. Ltd.
DOM 1903 chapter 57 —
NSL 1903 chapter   98 — Act to authorize Inverness Municipality to give aid to Mabou & Gulf Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1904 chapter   96 — Act to authorize Inverness Municipality to borrow money to pay for land for Mabou & Gulf Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1905 chapter   98 —

Mabou and Gulf Railway
by John R. Cameron

Four miles six km of Mabou & Gulf Railway track was built "from the coal mines at Traban to a junction with the Inverness & Richmond Railway", and the remaining portion "along the shore of Lake Ainslie to Whycocomagh and thence to Orangedale" was "in the course of construction" in 1903.
The quotes are from page 332, Cape Breton, Canada, at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, (book) by C.W. Vernon, Nation Publishing Company, Toronto, 1903

The history of railways in Canada was strongly influenced by the working partnership between William Mackenzie and Donald Mann, the legendary "Mackenzie and Mann." Mackenzie, Mann & Company was an unincorporated private contracting partnership that was active in promoting and constructing railways in the 1890s.  Eventually it became necessary for William Mackenzie and Donald Mann to convert their working relationship to a more formal legal structure, and in 1902 Mackenzie, Mann & Company Limited was formed.

The first business relationship between Mackenzie and Mann came about in 1888.  Donald Mann obtained contracts from the Canadian Pacific Railway for the construction of two sections of track on the "short line" that the CPR was building across the state of Maine between Quebec and New Brunswick.  He discovered that William Mackenzie had the contracts for the two sections adjacent to his own on the Maine short line.  The two discussed the situation and agreed to pool their resources and work the four sections together.  This initial working arrangement was successful, and the two men worked together as railway contractors and promoters for the next thirty years.

Mackenzie and Mann maintained a remarkable construction record — they built an average of a mile 1.6 km of railway a day, including weekends and holidays, over a period of 21 years.  Of course this was not a mile completed each and every day, because railway construction went much better in summer than in winter and railway promotion was much more active in some years than in others, but in the 21-year period 1896 to 1917 they built 7700 miles 12,300 km of track — including all the associated infrastructure such as culverts, trestles, bridges, tunnels, signals, telegraph lines, water tanks, station buildings, etc. — in less than 7700 days.

In Nova Scotia, Mackenzie and Mann completed the Halifax & South Western Railway, partly by acquisition and partly by construction.  They purchased the Nova Scotia Central Railway Company on 1 July 1902 for $525,000; in the late 1880s the NSCR had built the railway from Middleton through New Germany, Bridgewater and Mahone Bay to Lunenburg.  On 11 April 1903, Mackenzie and Mann acquired the Nova Scotia Southern Railway Company, which had no track constructed but under whose charter 22 miles was built in 1903 between New Germany in Lunenburg County and Caledonia in Queens County.  On 15 May 1905 they bought two railways, the Halifax & Yarmouth Railway Company which was operating trains over 50 miles of track between Yarmouth and Barrington, and the Middleton & Victoria Beach Railway which had built no track but under whose charter 29 miles was built in 1907 from Middleton to Port Wade in Annapolis County.  On 25 April 1907 they bought the Liverpool & Milton Railway Company.  In most of these purchases the equity shares of the acquired company was purchased by Mackenzie, Mann & Company Limited and then exchanged for shares in the Halifax & South Western Railway Company. The Halifax & South Western Railway was generally considered to be a part of the Canadian Northern Railway system, mainly because its bonds had been guaranteed by CNoR.

In Cape Breton, Mackenzie and Mann acquired the railway between Inverness and Port Hastings on the Strait of Canso.

There were several historically significant men who worked with Mackenzie and Mann in their railway and financial dealings; these include Zebulon Acton Lash and David Blythe Hanna.

Source:
Excerpted from The Canadian Northern Railway, by T.D. Regehr, published by the Macmillan Company of Canada, 1976, ISBN 0770512852

NSL 1897 chapter   83 —
NSL 1904 chapter 143 — Act to incorporate the Margaree Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1905 chapter   99 —
NSL 1906 chapter 123 — Act to authorize Inverness Municipality to pay a bonus to Margaree Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1906 chapter 124 — Time extended
NSL 1906 chapter 148 — Act to authorize Richmond Municipality to provide aid (free right of way) to Margaree Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1907 chapter   13 — Act to authorize and confirm agreement of Margaree Coal & Railway Co. Ltd. with the Government of Nova Scotia providing a subsidy of $4,000 per mile
NSL 1907 chapter 156 — Amendment
DOM 1907 chapter 40 —
DOM 1908 chapter 63 —
NSL 1908 chapter 111 — Time extended
NSL 1909 chapter   46 — Time extended
NSL 1909 chapter   93 — Time extended
NSL 1909 chapter 159 — Time extended
DOM 1910 chapter 51 —
NSL 1910 chapter   43 — Amendment
NSL 1910 chapter   74 — Time extended
NSL 1911 chapter 136 — Time extended
DOM 1913 chapter 46 —
NSL 1914 chapter 145 — Time extended
NSL 1916 chapter 118 — Time extended

NSL 1904 chapter 153 — Act to incorporate the Maritime Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1904 chapter 154 — Amendment
NSL 1906 chapter 162 — Amendment
NSL 1909 chapter 160 — Amendment
NSL 1910 chapter 154 — Amendment
NSL 1911 chapter 138 — Amendment

NSL 1871 chapter   59 — Act to incorporate the Joggins Coal Mining Co. Ltd.
NSL 1873 chapter   44 — Amendment
NSL 1883 chapter   76 — Act to incorporate the Joggins Railway Co. Ltd.
DOM 1886 chapter 10 —
DOM 1887 chapter 24 —
NSL 1888 chapter   85 — Change name to Joggins Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.
DOM 1889 chapter   3 —
NSL 1889 chapter 102 —
NSL 1890 chapter 106 —
NSL 1892 chapter 159 — Act to incorporate the Canada Coals & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1893 chapter 189 —
DOM 1894 chapter   4 —
DOM 1903 chapter 57 —
NSL 1903-04 chapter 140 —
DOM 1908 chapter 63 —
DOM 1921 chapter 64 —
NSL 1930 chapter 144 —

Maritime Coal, Railway & Power Co. Ltd. [RJSC ID#1755312] was incorporated (reincorporated?) on 6 October 1912.  In 1962, its registered agent was Norman T. Avard of Amherst.
Source: Nova Scotia Registry of Joint Stock Companies
    http://www.gov.ns.ca/snsmr/business/rjsc/

In 1907, Maritime Coal, Railway & Power Co. bought the assets — a short-line railway and a coal mine — of Canada Coals & Railroad Co. MCR&P continued to operate the railway until 23 September 1961, when it ceased operation forever.  At the time of the shutdown, the railway had three steam locomotives.  Locomotives #9 and #10 were sold for scrap; locomotive #5 went to the Canadian Railway Museum at Delson, Quebec, where it remained in 2000.

In the 1930s, Maritime Coal, Railway & Power Co. was controlled by the Utilities Power & Light Corporation of Chicago.
Utilities Power & Light Corporation was a large holding company that in the 1920s bought electric utility operations in a dozen or more of the United States, along with several Canadian utilitiy companies.  Indianapolis Power & Light Co. and Indianapolis Light & Heat Co. were two of UP&LCO's subsidiary companies in Indiana.  UP&LCO went bankrupt in the mid-1930s and disappeared in 1939 when its remaining assets were acquired by the Ogden Corporation. On 14 March 2001, Ogden Corporation changed its name to Covanta Energy Corporation.

Maritime (Joggins) Railway by Dara Legere
http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Legere-MaritimeRailway.htm

Maritime (Joggins) Railway (1887-1961) by Dara Legere
http://web.archive.org/web/20021123113631/http://
www.geocities.com/dblegere/maritimerailway.html

History of the Town of Joggins by Dara Legere
http://web.archive.org/web/20050328092122/http://
www.geocities.com/dblegere/home.html

Maritime Railway & Joggins Mines History by Dara Legere
http://web.archive.org/web/20021003214630/http://
www.geocities.com/dblegere/joggins.html

The Railway by Dara Legere
http://web.archive.org/web/20021017194121/http://
www.geocities.com/dblegere/railway.html

Joggins Railway
http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/MorningHerald-JogginsRailway.htm

Joggins Railway by John R. Cameron
http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Cameron-JogginsRailway.htm

Maritime Coal Railway & Power Company by Dara Legere
Joggins Railway Company, Joggins Coal and Railway Company...
http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Legere-MaritimeRailway.htm

DOM 1900 chapter   8 —
DOM 1901 chapter   7 —
DOM 1903 chapter 57 —
NSL 1903 chapter 175 —
NSL 1904 chapter 142 — To Authorize changes in location of track
NSL 1905 chapter    1 — Act relating to Halifax & South Western Railway Co. and Halifax & Yarmouth Railway Co. and Middleton & Victoria Beach Railway Co.
NSL 1906 chapter    2 — To confirm mortgage on Middleton & Victoria Beach Railway Co.

In 1905, the Middleton & Victoria Beach Railway was purchased by the Halifax & South Western Railway.
Historical notes by John Cameron
      http://web.archive.org/web/20000817012304/http://www.trainweb.org/canadianrailways/Features/MiddletonAndVictoriaBeachRailway.htm

NSL 1887 chapter 55 — Act to incorporate the Midland Great Western Railway Co. of N.S. Ltd.
NSL 1889 chapter 86 — Amendment
NSL 1890 chapter 75 — Change the route and extend the time

NSL 1896 chapter  85 — Act to incorporate the Midland Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1898 chapter  85 —
DOM 1899 chapter   7 —
NSL 1899 chapter  88 — Act to authorize Town of Truro to pay bonus to Midland Rly. Co.
NSL 1899 chapter  98 — Act to authorize Municipality of West Hants to pay for land taken for Midland Railway right-of-way
NSL 1899 chapter 101 — Act with respect to payment of Railway Damages by the Town of Windsor
NSL 1899 chapter 102 — To authorize Municipality of East Hants to pay for land taken for Midland Railway right-of-way
NSL 1899 chapter 130 — Amendment
NSL 1901 chapter   91 — To authorize the Town of Truro to pay a bonus to the Midland Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1902 chapter 175 — To amend chapter 85 of 1896
DOM 1903 chapter 57 —
NSL 1903 chapter 121 — To authorize Colchester Municipality to borrow money to pay for land taken for Midland Railway right-of-way
NSL 1903 chapter 233 — To amend chapter 85 of 1896
NSL 1905 chapter 130 — Act respecting the purchase of the Midland Railway by the Dominion Atlantic Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1976 chapter   17 — Act to repeal chapter 88 of 1899, and chapter 91 of 1901

Order in Council, Ottawa, 1896
Subject: Midland Railway

Subject: Midland Railway - contract for Railway from Newport or Windsor to Truro, Nova Scotia, Stewiacke, Eastville, Musquodoboit to Dartmouth Branch Intercolonial Railway and bridge over Shubenacadie River - Minister of Railways and Canals
OIC 1896-2441
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/orders/001022-119.01-e.php?sisn_id_nbr=121901&page_sequence_nbr=1&interval=50&page_id_nbr=232118&PHPSESSID=a9od159btsrve1lc8jldco6e66

(Page 4) Midland Railway: Grahams Siding to Eastville, Windsor to Grahams Siding and Grahams Siding to Truro, Specification and Description – The Railway shall be a single track line with gauge four feet eight and one-half inches... the maximum grade not to exceed sixty-five feet to the mile, and the minimum curvature not to be of less radius than 881 feet... The Railway must be enclosed except where it passes through stretches of forest lands with substantially-built legal fences, of wire or wood, with the necessary gates and crossings to accomodate the farmers... The rails shall be of steel, weighing not less than 56 pounds per lineal yard... The sleepers (ties) to be 8 inches face by 6 inches thick and 8 feet long, 2,600 to the mile...
(Page 5) ...That the Governor in Council may grant: For 90 miles of the Railway from Newport or Windsor to Truro, or to a point between Truro and Stewiacke, and from a point on the said Railway to a point at or near Eastville, and from Eastville through the Valley of the Musquodoboit River towards a point on the proposed Dartmouth Branch of the Intercolonial... a subsidy not exceeding $3,200 per mile; and also for a railway bridge over the Shubenacadie River on the line of the said Railway, a subsidy of 15 per cent on the value of the structure... not exceeding in the whole $300,000... provided that the line of Railway shall be commenced within two years from the first day of August 1894, and completed within a reasonable time, not to exceed four years...

Shipment of Rails

Midland Railway Passenger Train Schedule

Beginning 12 October 1903

Wolfville Acadian, 8 April 1904

The Midland Railway Company
On and after October 12th, 1903,
passenger trains will run as follows,
connecting at Truro with Intercolonial Railway trains and
at Windsor with trains of the Dominion Atlantic Railway.
Leaves Truro at 7:00am, arrives in Windsor at 9:05am
Leaves Truro at 3:15pm, arrives in Windsor at 5:25pm
Leaves Truro at 5:15am, arrives in Windsor at 9:00am
Leaves Windsor at 7:35am, arrives in Truro at 10:10am
Leaves Windsor at 10:45am, arrives in Truro at 2:45pm
Leaves Windsor at 5:45pm, arrives in Truro at 7:55pm
H.V. Harris
General Manager

(These trains were powered by coal-burning steam locomotives.)

Midland Railway bridge across the Shubenacadie River at South Maitland,
Nova Scotia. This bridge straddled the boundary between
Colchester County (far end) and Hants County (near end).

This postcard was postmarked at Truro in July 1910.

Truro's Railway Debt

NSL 1856 chapter 72 — Act to incorporate the Milton Railroad Co.

NSL 1872 chapter 64 — Act to incorporate the Milton Tramway Co.

NSL 1902 chapter 140 —
NSL 1903 chapter 190 — Act to incorporate the Minudie Coal Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1873 chapter 55 — Act to incorporate the Minudie Mining & Transportation Co. Ltd.

NSL 1887 chapter 63 — Act to incorporate the Minudie Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1888 chapter 80 — Amendment to extend time
DOM 1887 chapter 24 —
DOM 1889 chapter   3 —
DOM 1894 chapter   4 —
DOM 1903 chapter 57 —

DOM 1884 chapter   8 —
DOM 1887 chapter 25 —
DOM 1889 chapter   8 —

DOM 1882 chapter 14 —
DOM 1882 chapter 73 —
DOM 1883 chapter 25 —
DOM 1883 chapter 77 —
DOM 1884 chapter   8 —
DOM 1884 chapter 55 —
DOM 1887 chapter 27 —

Legislative Council of Nova Scotia
Halifax, 17 April 1885

Short Line Railway

            New York, April 14, 1885
To Hon. W.S. Fielding:
            We have just learned that the lower house of your legislature have passed a bill legalizing a certain paper signed by our chief engineer under pressure of threatened injury to person and property amounting to duress, which paper was entirely beyond his authority to act for, and has never been approved by the company.  We have done and are doing all in our power to pay arrears to our sub-contractors and go on with the construction of the road, and again have a good prospect of early success in raising necessary funds.  We realize that they are to be paid out of the first money obtained, and are ready to make any reasonable obligation to secure them in that result.  We protest against the bill becoming a law as violating every principle of common law and equity, and damaging to our efforts to accomplish a great work under adverse circumstances, alike damaging to the credit of your province and calculated to defeat the object it seeks to promote.
            (signed) Norvin Green
            President M. and E. Short Line Ry. Co.


Norvin Green
            President M. and E. Short Line
            Railway Co., New York
            Telegram received.  When the proposed legislation was applied for the promoters were required by our government to give notice to all concerned, which was done.  Notice to you was mailed on the third of March.  It is to be regretted that, if you had objections, you did not offer them until now.  The government of Nova Scotia have no desire to act against your company, but they feel bound to protect as far as possible, the contractors and laborers whom your company has left unpaid.  The government, while assisting to carry the bill in question, have provided that it shall not become law until proclaimed by them and published in the Royal Gazette.
            If you promptly make arrangements satisfactory to the government of Nova Scotia for paying the company's debts and going on with the construction of the road, as you say you intend to do, the bill will not be brought into operation.
            The government can see no excuse whatever for the company's action in leaving the contractors and laborers unpaid.
            (signed) W.S. Fielding
            Provincial Secretary

NSL 1898 chapter 126 — Act to incorporate the Musquodoboit Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1901 chapter 130 — Act to incorporate the Nova Scotia Eastern Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1901 chapter 131 — Act to revive the incorporation of Musquodoboit Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1902 chapter 136 — Act to amalgamate Musquodoboit Railway Co. Ltd. with Nova Scotia Eastern Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1903 chapter 213 — Amendment
NSL 1904 chapter 138 — Amendment
NSL 1905 chapter 129 — Amendment

Musquodoboit Railway

Deadline for Tenders for Construction of
Musquodoboit Railway
15 September 1911

Department of Railways and Canals
Branch line of Railway from Dartmouth to Deans

Sealed Tenders addressed to the undersigned and endorsed "Tender for Branch Line, Dartmouth to Deans" will be received at this office until sixteen o'clock, on Friday, September 15th, 1911.

Plans, profiles, specifications and form of contract to be entered into can be seen on and after the 15th instant [August 15, 1911] at the office of the Chief Engineer of the Department of Railways and Canals, Ottawa; at the office of the Chief Engineer of the Intercolonial Railway, Moncton; and at the office of the Board of Trade, Halifax.  Forms of tender may be procured from the Chief Engineer of the Department of Railways and Canals, or from the Chief Engineer of the Intercolonial Railway.

Parties tendering will be required to accept the fair wages schedule prepared or to be prepared by the Department of Labor, which schedule will form part of the contract.

Contractors are requested to bear in mind that tenders will not be considered unless made strictly in accordance with the printed forms, and in the case of firms, unless there are attached the actual signature, the nature of the occupation, and the place of residence of each member of the firm.

An accepted [certified] bank cheque for the sum of $150,000, made payable to the order of the Minister of Railways and Canals must accompany each tender, which sum will be forfeited if the party tendering declines entering into contract for the work, at the rates stated in the offer submitted.  The cheque thus sent in will be returned to the respective contractors whose tenders are not accepted.  The cheque of the successful tenderer will be held as security, or part security, for the due fulfilment of the contract to be entered into.

The lowest or any tender not necessarily accepted.

By order, L.K. Jones, Secretary
Department of Railways and Canals, Ottawa

[Halifax Morning Chronicle, 14 August 1911]
and reprinted in Addresses delivered by Hon. James Cranswick Tory, LL.D. (book) published by The Mortimer Company Limited, Ottawa, 1932.  Mr. J.C. Tory was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia 1911-1923, and Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia 1925-1930.

Tenders Accepted for Construction of
Guysboro Railway
and
Musquodoboit Railway

On October 5th, 1911, an announcement appeared in the two daily Halifax newspapers, as follows:

An Order-in-Council has been passed awarding the contracts for the extensions of the Intercolonial Railway in Nova Scotia for which money was unanimously voted by Parliament last June, and for which the tenders were received over a month ago.  The lowest tenderer in each case is awarded the contract.  The branch from Dartmouth to Deans will be built by M.P. Davis, and the Guysboro County line will be built by the Nova Scotia Construction Company.  The Government in awarding the contracts have simply complied with the mandate of Parliament and have followed the usual procedure in concurring in the recommendation of the Departmental Engineers as to the lowest figures submitted by the various firms tendering.

[Halifax Morning Chronicle, 5 October 1911]
[Halifax Herald, 5 October 1911]
and reprinted in Addresses delivered by Hon. James Cranswick Tory, LL.D. (book) published by The Mortimer Company Limited, Ottawa, 1932.

Musquodoboit Railway

The Musquodoboit Railway, officially known as the Dartmouth Subdivision, between Caldwell Road (mile 20.50) and Upper Musquodoboit (mile 81.87) was officially authorized abandoned on 28 August 1983 by Board Order R-32623.  In October 1991 this abandoned section was sold "en bloc" to the Province of Nova Scotia for $107,750 based on an area of 735 acres at the overall rate of $146.50 per acre.

NSL 1889 chapter 129 — Amend the Act to incorporate the New Glasgow Electric Co. Ltd.

Chapter 129, Acts of 1889 Passed the 17th day of April, 1889 §23   (The New Glasgow Electric Company) shall have the exclusive right and privilege of constructing, maintaining, and operating a line or lines of street railway, with all the necessary side tracks, switches, and turnouts, and all other appliances for the passage of cars, carriages, or other vehicles upon and along the streets of New Glasgow town, and of the towns of Stellarton and Trenton, and between any point in the one to any point in the other of the said towns for the period of eight years from the coming into force of this Act... §26   The cars shall be drawn or propelled by horses, or electricity, or any other motive power approved by the directors of the company...

NSL 1888 chapter 126 — Act to incorporate the New Glasgow Iron, Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1891 chapter 176 — Amendment, grant from Pictou County
NSL 1892 chapter 174 — Amendment, issue of Preference Shares
NSL 1895 chapter 123 — Act to confirm the sale of the property of NGIC&R to the Nova Scotia Steel Co. Ltd.

The New Glasgow Iron, Coal & Railway Company's line —
Eureka to Sunny Brae in Pictou County, 13 miles 21 km, 12½ miles 20 km of which is said to be completed, leaves the New Glasgow Branch of the Intercolonial Railway at Ferrona Junction, crosses the West Branch of the East River to Ferrona, where the smelting works of the company are located, and runs up the Valley of the East Branch to Sunny Brae.  The first 10½ miles 17 km was opened for traffic to the public on July 1st, 1892, and the remainder has been in operation since November, 1892.

The company applied for payment of subsidy according to contract with the Provincial Government — (See Appendix No. 17, page 15, Journals of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, 1891), the conditions being: —
        (a)   "They shall have completed, equipped and put in operation the said line of railway."
        (b)   "They shall have paid, or cause to be paid, the wages due to the workmen employed, and all charges for materials supplied for the construction of the said railway."
        (c)   "They shall have constructed, completed and put in operation at some place within the County of Pictou, a blast furnace for the smelting of iron ores."
        (d)   "They shall have established to the satisfaction of the Governor-in-Council, that they have bona fide expended in cash in the construction of said railway and blast furnace a sum of $400,000."

All these conditions the company claims to have fulfilled, and to have carried them into effect before the time stipulated for completion, viz. the 31st day of December, 1892, and further, that they have constructed the line of railway in accordance with the specification and all other conditions of contract.

On 30th day of December, 1892, I received formal instructions to examine the contract, to inspect the works, and to report accordingly.  Since that time an inspection could not be made with any degree of reliability owing to the covering of snow that concealed and prevented all surface examination; as soon as the ground is clear it will receive immediate attention.

      (signed) Martin Murphy,
      Provincial Engineer
Source:
Report of the Provincial Engineer on the Subsidized Railways and
Other Public Works in the Province of Nova Scotia for the Year 1892
Halifax, March 16th, 1893
Appendix No. 7, pages 8-9
Journals of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, 1893

NSL 1872 chapter 17 —
NSL 1874 chapter 12 —
NSL 1875 chapter 21 —
NSL 1876 chapter 3 —
NSL 1876 chapter 4 —
NSL 1878 chapter 32 —
NSL 1879 chapter 66 —

NSL 1888 chapter 131 — Act to incorporate the New York & Nova Scotia Iron & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1889 chapter 119 — Act to change name to Nova Scotia Midland Railway & Iron Co. Ltd.

NSL 1873 chapter 40 — Act to incorporate the Nictaux & Atlantic Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1875 chapter 70 — Act to change name to Nova Scotia, Nictaux & Atlantic Central Railway
NSL 1886 chapter    1 — Act to provide for completion and consolidation of Railways between Halifax and Yarmouth

NSL 1890 chapter   64 — Act to incorporate the North Colchester Railway Co. Ltd. to build a railway from Brule or Tatamagouche (on the Northumberland Strait) to Truro
NSL 1903 chapter 121 — Empower the Municipality of Colchester to pay for right of way
NSL 1905 chapter 130 — Authorizes the Dominion Atlantic Railway to build between Truro and the Northumberland Strait

NSL 1902 chapter 130 — Act to incorporate the North Mountain Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1904 chapter 137 — Amendment
NSL 1906 chapter 163 — Amendment
NSL 1908 chapter 132 — Act respecting Kings Municipality and the North Mountain Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1908 chapter 133 — Amendment

Blueprint (partial): North Mountain Railway, April 1912
Horizontal scale: 40 feet = one inch
Vertical scale: 20 feet = one inch

NSL 1888 chapter 88 — Act respecting the Right of Way, Station Grounds, and Terminal facilities for the North Sydney Branch Railway

NSL 1890 chapter 169 — Act to incorporate the North Sydney Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1895 chapter 111 — Act to incorporate the North Sydney Mining & Transportation Co. Ltd.

NSL 1911 chapter 41 — Act to authorize the City of Halifax to assist Nova Scotia Car Works Ltd.

NSL 1873 chapter   40 — Act to incorporate the Nictaux & Atlantic Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1875 chapter   70 — Act to change name to Nova Scotia, Nictaux & Atlantic Central Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1886 chapter   17 — Act to change name to Nova Scotia Central Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1887 chapter    3 — Amendment
NSL 1888 chapter   77 — Amendment
NSL 1889 chapter   79 — Amendment
NSL 1889 chapter   80 — Act respecting depot grounds of NSCR at Bridgewater
NSL 1889 chapter   81 — Act to empower NSCR extension to Margaretville
NSL 1890 chapter   65 — Amendment
NSL 1890 chapter   66 — Amendment
NSL 1890 chapter   67 — Amendment
NSL 1891 chapter   67 — Amendment
NSL 1891 chapter   93 — Act respecting payment of balance of subsidy to NSCR
NSL 1892 chapter 114 — Act to appoint Commissioners to hear appeals re land damages
NSL 1892 chapter 115 — Amendment
NSL 1893 chapter   47 — Amendment
NSL 1893 chapter 116 — Act to authorize a highway from the Mahone Bay station

NSL 1873 chapter 47 — Act to incorporate the Nova Scotia Coal-field Iron-works, & Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1900 chapter 117 — Act to incorporate the Nova Scotia Coal, Iron, Copper & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1902 chapter 191 — Act to amend chapter 117 of 1900

NSL 1889 chapter 115 — Act to incorporate the Nova Scotia Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1892 chapter 179 — Amendment

NSL 1882 chapter 69 — Act to incorporate the Nova Scotia Cotton Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
NSL 1884 chapter 30 — Act to confirm location of Railway Siding from Richmond to NSCMCo.
NSL 1885 chapter 50 — Act to enable Halifax City to carry out an agreement with NSCMCo.
DOM 1888 chapter 3 —

Cotton Factory Siding Petition

Nova Scotia Legislative Council
April 1885

To the Honorable the President and Members of the Legislative Council of the Province of Nova Scotia:

The memorial of the undersigned ratepayers of the City of Halifax
HUMBLY SHEWETH, That your memorialists have learned that there is now before your Honorable House a bill providing that the sum of $9,000 should be borrowed on the credit of the City of Halifax, to be paid to the Nova Scotia Cotton Manufacturing Company in aid of the construction of a railway siding to the works of the said company.

Your memorialists beg to call the attention of your Honorable House to the fact that the proposed grant is in the nature of a subsidy to a private manufacturing company which has already been heavily subsidized by the City of Halifax by means of an exemption from municipal taxes and the grant of a free supply of water amounting, in the aggregate, to a very large annual value.

Your memorialists consider that the financial condition of the city, now heavily indebted, the annually increasing volume of civic taxation, and the serious depression under which all branches of business are now suffering, all combine to render it highly inexpedient that if any legislation should pass, that would add to the burden of taxation under which the ratepayers are now laboring.

Your memorialists learn that the promoters of the said measure represent that the passage thereof is necessary to enable the City of Halifax to carry out its agreement, and thus keep faith with the said company.  In answer to this your memorialists would humbly request that at the time said agreement was entered into, the city council had no authority to bind the citizens by any such agreement, and in the said agreement expressly recognized their inability to do so by inserting a proviso, making the performance of the agreement contingent upon the approval of the legislature.  Under this proviso your memorialists maintain that the whole question now comes before your honorable house purely upon the original merits of the application, and without reference to any question of a breach of faith with the said company, and your memorialists, for the reasons above mentioned, humbly pray that your honorable body will not assent to the passage of the proposed measure, and your memorialists, &c., &c.

NSL 1898 chapter 156 — Act to incorporate the Louisburg Mining & Transportation Co. Ltd.
NSL 1899 chapter 138 — Change name to Nova Scotia Mining & Development Co. Ltd.
NSL 1902 chapter 185 — Change name to Nova Scotia Development Co. Ltd.

NSL 1901 chapter 130 — Act to incorporate the Nova Scotia Eastern Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1902 chapter   59 — Act to authorize Halifax Municipality to borrow money to assist Nova Scotia Eastern Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1902 chapter 136 — Act to amalgamate Musquodoboit Railway Co. Ltd. with Nova Scotia Eastern Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1903 chapter    1 — Act to confirm contract between Nova Scotia Eastern Railway Co. Ltd. and Government of Nova Scotia
NSL 1903 chapter 213 — Amendment
NSL 1904 chapter 138 — Amendment
NSL 1905 chapter 129 — Amendment

NSL 1893 chapter 148 — Act to incorporate the Nova Scotia Iron & Coal Co. Ltd.
NSL 1895 chapter 136 — Amendment
NSL 1898 chapter 161 — Amendment

NSL 1890 chapter 132 — Act to incorporate the Nova Scotia Steel & Iron Co. Ltd.
NSL 1891 chapter 175 — Change name to Nova Scotia Iron Co. Ltd.

NSL 1898 chapter   80 —
NSL 1898 chapter 137 — Act to incorporate the Nova Scotia Iron & Steel Co. Ltd.
NSL 1900 chapter   72 — Act to authorize the Town of North Sydney to expropriate land to provide a location for the Nova Scotia Iron & Steel Co. Ltd.
NSL 1900 chapter 172 —

NSL 1888 chapter 131 — Act to incorporate the New York & Nova Scotia Iron & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1889 chapter 119 — Act to change name to Nova Scotia Midland Railway & Iron Co. Ltd.
NSL 1892 chapter 185 — Amendments

NSL 1898 chapter 156 — Act to incorporate the Louisburg Mining & Transportation Co. Ltd.
NSL 1899 chapter 138 — Change name to Nova Scotia Mining & Development Co. Ltd.
NSL 1900 chapter 170 — Amend, time limited, authorization to increase Capital Stock
NSL 1902 chapter 185 — Change name to Nova Scotia Development Co. Ltd.

NSL 1890 chapter 133 — Act to incorporate the Nova Scotia Mining, Mineral & Transportation Co. Ltd.
NSL 1891 chapter 132 — Act to incorporate anew the Nova Scotia Mining, Mineral & Transportation Co. Ltd.

This company, "incorporated under the laws of England", owned the railway between Moncton and Amherst – often known as the "Eastern Extension Railway" – during the time of its construction, August 1865 to January 1870.

NSL 1873 chapter 40 — Act to incorporate the Nictaux & Atlantic Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1875 chapter 70 — Act to change name to Nova Scotia, Nictaux & Atlantic Central Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1877 chapter 27 — Amendment, extension from Bridgewater to Lunenburg
NSL 1879 chapter 67 — Amendment
NSL 1878 chapter 23 — Amendment
NSL 1882 chapter 20 — Act for the Consolidation of Nova Scotia Railways
NSL 1882 chapter 22 — Amendment
NSL 1883 chapter 19 — Act to Authorize a Provincial Loan, section 1b
NSL 1884 chapter   3 — Act to Authorize a Provincial Loan, section 2a
NSL 1884 chapter   6 — Amendment
NSL 1885 chapter 38 — Amendment
NSL 1886 chapter 17 — Act to change name to Nova Scotia Central Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1902 chapter 133 — Act to incorporate the Nova Scotia Northern Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1904 chapter 139 — Amendment
NSL 1905 chapter 133 — Amendment

NSL 1853 chapter   1 — Act to incorporate the Nova Scotia Railway Co.
NSL 1853 chapter   2 — Act to authorize the construction of certain railways
NSL 1853 chapter   3 — Act to authorize a Loan for the construction of certain Public Works
NSL 1880 chapter 69 — Act to incorporate the Nova Scotia Railway Company Limited
NSL 1882 chapter 20 — Act for the consolidation of the Nova Scotia Railways
NSL 1884 chapter   1 — Act to authorize the Transfer of certain Railways and Property to the Government of Canada
NSL 1886 chapter    1 — Act to provide for completion and consolidation of Railways between Halifax and Yarmouth

Nova Scotia Railway Wikipedia

Nova Scotia Railway advertisement

Source: McAlpine's Nova Scotia Directory for 1868-69

Avard Longley (1823-1884)
Railway Commissioner

Page 1

Page 2

Large view of both pages

“...the lands so taken shall not be less than four rods
nor more than six rods in breadth for the track...”
For  many  centuries, continuing into the 1970s, the
rod was a  standard  measure of length or distance.
It was/is legally defined as being equal to 16½ feet.
Four rods = 66 feet = 20.12 metres
Six rods = 99 feet = 30.18 metres

1859

Rules and regulations to be observed
by the officers and men in the service of the
Board of Commissioners, Nova Scotia Railway
April 1859
—Source: Nova Scotia Railway Rule Book 1859
http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.94286

1863


(1) Report of an Inspection of the Nova Scotia Railway: page 01 (pdf 08)
— Earthwork
— Culverts
— Cattle Guards and Public Road Crossings
— Bridges
— Permanent Way
— Fencing and Stations
(2) Report of Inspection of Rolling Stock N.S. Railway: page 17 (pdf 24)
1863
—Source: Report of an Inspection of the Nova Scotia Railway 1863
http://www.archive.org/details/cihm_53183

NSL 1882 chapter 20 — Act For the Consolidation of the Nova Scotia Railways
NSL 1886 chapter   1 — Railways Aid and Consolidation Act 1886 (Act to authorize certain grants in aid of railways, and provide for the completion and consolidation of the railways between Halifax and Yarmouth)

1882

 
Nova Scotia Syndicate examined and exposed
Edmund Walter Plunkett,
Simon Hugh Holmes
and associates
1882
On matters relating to
— Halifax and Cape Breton Railway and Coal Company
— Nictaux and Atlantic Railway Company
— Western Counties Railway Company
— Windsor and Annapolis Railway Company
—Source: Nova Scotia Syndicate examined and exposed 1882
http://archive.org/details/cihm_92924

Also see:
The Nova Scotia Railway Syndicate
(Plunkett, Holmes & Co.)  Examined and Exposed
Classic Reprint paperback, August 2012

1882

Nova Scotia Railway Syndicate, some additional remarks
1882
—Source: Nova Scotia Railway Syndicate, some additional remarks 1882
http://archive.org/details/cihm_25568

1882

Speech of Hon. S.H. Holmes, provincial secretary,
on railway consolidation, delivered in the
House of Assembly of Nova Scotia
January 26th and 27th, 1882
Simon Hugh Holmes
—Source: Speech of Hon. S.H. Holmes, provincial secretary, January 26-27, 1882
http://archive.org/stream/cihm_07242/cihm_07242_djvu.txt

NSL 1886 chapter   1 — Nova Scotia Railways Aid and Consolidation Act

1886

Nova Scotia Railways Aid and Consolidation Act
1886
—Source: Nova Scotia Railways Aid and Consolidation Act 1886
http://archive.org/stream/statutesnovasco01scotgoog/statutesnovasco01scotgoog_djvu.txt

 

Charles Edward Church
Richard Gervase Elwes
[L.S.] stands for “Legal Seal”

...By the 1850s the changed nature of the Society (Charitable Irish Society of Halifax), which was by then less conservative, could be seen clearly during the presidency of William Condon, at the height of the Crimean War.  Irish Nova Scotians soon came to decry the hostilities publically...

The period of the 1850s boiled over into an unseemly, impassioned and nasty politico-religious struggle which pitted the “loyal” Protestant against the seemingly “disloyal” Catholic Irish.  As if the Crimean War were not enough of an issue, that matter became meshed with the construction of the Nova Scotia Railway.  Stabbings, lawlessness, strikes and the famous Gourly Shanty Riot were all a part of this violent period of our history.  Needless to say, and almost unavoidably, the Charitable Irish Society, due to its growing Irish Catholic and less conservative nature, was at the centre of the controversy.  The two chief opposing personalities were presidents of the Society – Condon and Howe.

Joseph Howe, in 1855, was Chief Commissioner of Railways for Nova Scotia.  Under the guise of finding railway workers for Nova Scotia, he was also carrying on clandestine recruiting, in the United States, for the British army.  His recruiting of men for the “N.S.R.” – which could mean either Nova Scotia Railway or Nova Scotia Regiment – caused William Condon, the president of the C.I.S. in 1855, to expose Howe's efforts for what they were.  A vindictive struggle followed which would stain Howe's reputation, would contribute to the defeat of a government, and would have political consequences for a generation in Nova Scotia.  The presidency of the Charitable Irish Society would never again be as political.  In future, the Society would, in general, revert to the position reflected in its first sixty years, as that of a social, charitable and loyal institution...

Source: Black Beans, Banners and Banquets: The Charitable Irish Society of Halifax at Two Hundred

NSL 1888 chapter   82 — Act to incorporate the Annapolis & Atlantic Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1890 chapter   76 — Time extended
NSL 1891 chapter 128 — Time extended
NSL 1892 chapter   69 — Amendment, providing for extension of line to Halifax or Dartmouth
NSL 1893 chapter   65 — Change name to the Nova Scotia Southern Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1893 chapter 153 — Change of route
NSL 1894 chapter   76 — Act to reincorporate the Nova Scotia Southern Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1895 chapter 133 — Amendment
NSL 1897 chapter   88 — Amendment
NSL 1898 chapter 129 — Amendment
NSL 1899 chapter 134 — Amendment, providing for railway lines from Sand Point and Indian Gardens
NSL 1900 chapter 185 — Amendment, providing for a railway line from the Central Railway to Chester and Halifax, and extending time
NSL 1903 chapter    3 — To amend chapter 76 of 1894
NSL 1909 chapter    7 — Act respecting unfinished railway work, etc.

NSL 1921 chapter 152 —
NSL 1928 chapter 142 —

NSL 1888 chapter 126 — Act to incorporate the New Glasgow Iron, Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1895 chapter 123 — Act to confirm the sale of the property of New Glasgow Iron, Coal & Railway Co. to the Nova Scotia Steel Co. Ltd.
NSL 1895 chapter 159 —
NSL 1896 chapter   92 —
NSL 1898 chapter   80 —

NSL 1890 chapter 132 — Act to incorporate the Nova Scotia Steel & Iron Co. Ltd.
NSL 1890 chapter 186 —
NSL 1891 chapter 175 — Change name to Nova Scotia Iron Co. Ltd.

NSL 1914 chapter 180 — Act to incorporate the Nova Scotia Tramways & Power Co. Ltd.
NSL 1915 chapter 104 — Amendment
NSL 1917 chapter   53 — Amendment
NSL 1917 chapter 183 — Amendment
NSL 1919 chapter 171 — Amendment
NSL 1920 chapter 203 — Amendment
NSL 1921 chapter 181 — Amendment
NSL 1928 chapter 144 — To amend Act of incorporation
NSL 1947 chapter 120 — To further amend Act of incorporation

In 1928, Nova Scotia Tramways & Power Co. Ltd. changed its name to Nova Scotia Light & Power Co. Ltd.

NSL 1924 chapter   97 —
NSL 1973 chapter 100 —

Oxford & New Glasgow Railway, a.k.a. The Short Line
(Great American & European Short Line Railway Company)
Right-of-way plan 1891: crossing the Wallace River

Wallace River Railway Swing Bridge
https://eapps.ednet.ns.ca/HPIPublic/PropertyDisplay.aspx?Fid=00PNS0260

NSL 1887 chapter 61 — Act to incorporate the Peninsular Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1888 chapter 86 — Amendment
NSL 1890 chapter 77 — Act to change name to Londonderry & West Shore Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1894 chapter 88 — Act to incorporate the Pictou Development & Mining Co. Ltd.

NSL 1884 chapter    1 — NSL 1886 chapter 106 — Act respecting the Right of Way and Station Gorunds for the Pictou Town Branch Railway
NSL 1889 chapter   84 — Respecting payment for land for right of way for the Pictou Town Branch Railway

NSL 1907 chapter 164 — Act to incorporate the Port Breton Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1903 chapter 181 — Act to incorporate the Port Hood-Richmond Railway Coal Co. Ltd.
NSL 1905 chapter 138 — Amendment
NSL 1907 chapter 165 — Amendment
NSL 1909 chapter 173 — Amendment
NSL 1910 chapter 165 — Amendment

NSL 1875 chapter 75 — Act to incorporate the Protheroe Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.

The Provincial and New England All Rail Line was not a railway in the usual sense.  It was a working agreement among three railways to operate regular scheduled passenger trains between Boston and Saint John, New Brunswick, over tracks that were owned and maintained by three separate individual railways – but each train ran from one end to the other as if a single railway was running it, with no requirement that the passengers get off to change trains as they moved from one company's territory to another.  The locomotives and their crews were supplied by each individual railway and were changed when the train crossed into a different company's territory.  The passenger and baggage cars, and the sleeping cars in the night trains, remained in the train for the entire trip.  The sleeping car staff were employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company – they stayed with their cars no matter which railway they happened to be travelling on.  The three railways were the New Brunswick Railway, the Maine Central Railroad, and the Boston and Maine Railroad.  Three trains operated daily each way between Saint John and Boston.  Day train leaves Saint John and Boston daily, Sundays excepted.  Night train leaves Saint John daily, Saturdays excepted.  Night train leaves Boston daily, but on Saturday night runs only to Bangor.  Pullman Sleepers were included on all night trains.
— Source: McMillan's agricultural and nautical almanac for 1888
     Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions
      http://www.archive.org/stream/cihm_27649/cihm_27649_djvu.txt

The Provincial and New England All Rail Line (PNEARL) is included in this history of Nova Scotia railways because it was an important connecting link for people who wanted to travel between Nova Scotia and New England in the 1880s and 1890s, continuing into the 1950s.  The Intercolonial Railway's passenger trains between Halifax and Saint John were scheduled to connect at Saint John with the PNEARL trains from and to Boston.  The Windsor & Annapolis Railway published a connection of its Halifax to Annapolis train with PNEARL trains via its ferry between Annapolis and Saint John.  A W&AR advertisement in the Kentville Western Chronicle, 12 March 1890, included this statement: “Trains of the Provincial and New England All Rail Line leave St. John for Bangor, Portland and Boston at 6:40 and 7:00am and 8:45pm, daily except Saturday evening and Sunday morning.”  There was enough business in 1890 to support the operation of eighteen passenger trains both ways – eighteen from Boston and eighteen from Saint John – each week.

Bangor, Maine, December 3, 1880 — At a conference of railroad officers representing the Maine Central, European and North American, and St. John and Maine Railways, this afternoon, an alliance was formed under the name of the “Provincial and New England All Rail Line.”  An agency will be established at St. John and active agents appointed to ascertain the wants of the traveling public, as well as freight shippers between New England and the maritime Provinces.  The first move in this direction will be a night Pullman train between this city and St. John.  It is not impossible that a fast passenger service will be established between St. John and Boston during the Summer of 1881, the trains to make a run* of 451 miles [726km] in from 14 to 16 hours.
— Source: New York Times, 4 December 1880

*NOTE: A trip of 451 miles in 15 hours means that the train accomplished an average speed of 30 miles per hour (48 km/h), including all stops at stations for passengers to get off and on, and all "meets."  (A "meet" was the manoeuvre required to enable two trains traveling in opposite directions on the same track to pass each other, by diverting one train into a siding to clear the main line for the other train to go by – this caused a significant delay for the train that took the siding, but when performed properly did not delay the other train.  The matter of which train was of lower priority and thus was ordered into the siding, leaving the main line clear for the higher-priority train, was determined by a fairly complex set of rules that was understood by all employees concerned with train operations.  There was a lot of train traffic between Boston and Maine in those days — during a one-way trip between Boston and Saint John, a passenger train could expect to "meet" more than twenty opposing freight and passenger trains.)  This was a respectable average speed for that time, which required competent management of the complex interaction of the many tasks that had to be performed at closely-scheduled times, day and night, regardless of weather conditions, at the many locations along the route that had to accomplish their required tasks at the right time and in the right way while maintaining adequate safety for the passengers and train crews.  The complexity of the operation included the fact that there was no radio or telephone communication technology in those days.  The only communication between points along the line was by means of Morse-code telegraph – also the fact that the only way for the members of the train crew to communicate between the engine and the far end brakemen at night was by waving hand-held kerosene lanterns (see http://www.powaystation.org/Article%20Lanterns.html#anchor369660).

Source: The Official railway guide: North American freight service edition
by American Association of Passenger Traffic Officers
National Railway Publication Co., Philadelphia, 1881

Google Books
http://books.google.ca/books?id=6I5XgcduNQYC&pg=RA1-PA329-IA67&lpg=RA1-PA329-IA67&dq=railroad+timetable+NO'N&source=bl&ots=UNONDS48Fp&sig=hB7VNtZiL2Di3JQE-Us_o8v-TlQ&hl=en&ei=szSUTPXpGtOfngezrpTWCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCgQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

1881

Daily passenger train service
between
Nova Scotia and New England

Provincial and New England All Rail Line

Schedule in effect September 1881

NOTE 1: There are several appearances in this published timetable (and in numerous other railway timetables published in the 1880s in eastern North America) of time notations “NO'N” and “N'MT”.  These notations disappeared from use long ago, and their meaning is not now known.  They always appear in association with times in the hour just before or just after noon or midnight.  They appear in the original timetable, but have been omitted in the transcribed timetable (above).
NOTE 2: There is an obvious mistake in the published timetable, which shows this train's scheduled departure from Vanceboro ten minutes before its scheduled arrival at Vanceboro.  The schedule should show at least twenty minutes delay at Vanceboro because of the change of locomotives there – take off the incoming SJ&M engine and put on the outgoing E&NA engine.  An inspection of the scheduled running times inbound and outbound suggests that the scheduled departure time of this train at Vanceboro should be about 2:00am.

Intercolonial Railway
Halifax to Saint John: 276 miles  [444km]

European and North American Railway
Saint John to Vanceboro: 91 miles  [147km]
(In 1955, Maine Central bought the E&NA line from
Bangor to Vanceboro which it had leased in 1882.)

Maine Central Railroad
Vanceboro to Portland

Eastern Railroad (see image below)
Portland to East Boston: 108 miles  [174km]


This detail (within yellow rectangle)) from the published timetable clearly
identifies the  Eastern  Railroad  as the  company  that handled the
Boston to Portland section of the PNEARL passenger trains.

---

Fixed Signals In The United States In 1875
Maine Central apparently used a confusion of ball signals:
black  balls  with  red  lights,  red  balls  with  red  lights,
white balls with white lights, black balls with white belts
and red lights were used with different meanings at
different locations, even on the same railroad...

Provincial and New England All Rail Line

Schedule in effect September 1881

NOTE 1: There are several appearances in this published timetable (and in numerous other railway timetables published in the 1880s in eastern North America) of time notations “NO'N” and “N'MT”.  These notations disappeared from use long ago, and their meaning is not now known.  They always appear in association with times in the hour just before or just after noon or midnight.  They appear in the original timetable, but have been omitted in the transcribed timetable (above).

"NO'N" and "N'MT" time notation
1881 timetable, Provincial and New England All Rail Line

NOTE 3: The published 5:30am time of arrival at Bangor seems to be a mistake.  It is at least half an hour too early.  An arrival time somewhere between 6:15am and 6:30am appears to be a much better fit – the true time is unknown.

1873

Daily passenger train service
between
Nova Scotia and New England

A precursor to the Provincial and New England All Rail Line

Source: The Official railway guide: North American freight service edition
by American Association of Passenger Traffic Officers
National Railway Publication Co., Philadelphia, 1874

Google Books
http://books.google.ca/books?id=L5S_LgD7o8EC&ots=hYxNKbhWwQ&dq=Official%20railway%20guide%3A%20North%20American%20freight&pg=PP9#v=onepage&q&f=true

1907: 600 Trains Depart Each Day

Note: In the above ad "New Route to the Maritime Provinces" the following statement appears – "Through tickets for sale... at the Eastern Railroad station, Causeway Street."  This Eastern Railroad station was part of the North Union Station on Causeway Street in Boston (not to be confused with the modern North Station) which was demolished in 1927.  A 1907 travel guidebook described: "North Union Station, on Causeway Street, between Nashua and Haverhill streets, is used by the several divisions of the Boston and Maine System.  It will, therefore, be seen that all trains from Northern New England, from Canadian points, and from the West, by way of the Hoosac Tunnel, Grand Trunk or Canadian Pacific lines, and from all suburbs north, northeast and northwest of Boston arrive and depart from this station.  Some idea of the capacity of the North Union Station is gained by the statement that six hundred trains depart from this station every day in the year."  [This would be a 24-hour average of one train departure every 2½ minutes.  At rush hour the departure intervals would be much shorter.  Of course, there would be an equal number of arrivals – the daily passenger train traffic in the vicinity of this North Boston location was enormous.]

NSL 1872 chapter 61 — Act to incorporate the Pugwash & Spring Hill Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1874 chapter 61 — Amendment
NSL 1877 chapter 73 — Amend, and extend time
NSL 1879 chapter 69 — Amend, and further extend time

NSL 1849 chapter 9 — Act to empower the Commissioners for building the Main Line of Railway from Halifax to Quebec to construct same within the boundaries of Nova Scotia
NSL 1851 chapter 2 — Act to make provision for the construction of a Main Line Railway through British North America
NSL 1851 chapter 3 — Act to authorize borrowing £1,000,000 Sterling for the construction of a railway from Halifax to Quebec
NSL 1852 chapter 8 — Act to authorize raising £800,000 Sterling for the construction of a railway from Halifax to Quebec
NSL 1852 chapter 9 —

NSL 1910 chapter 166 — Act to incorporate the Queens Central Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1912 chapter 228 — Amendment

NSL 1909 chapter 174 — Act to incorporate the Queens County Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1912 chapter 229 — Amendment
NSL 1917 chapter 188 — Amendment

NSL 1872 chapter 97 — Act to incorporate Rolling Stock Co. of Nova Scotia

NSL 1891 chapter 146 — Act to incorporate Rhodes & Curry Co. Ltd.
NSL 1903 chapter 247 — Amendment
NSL 1905 chapter 158 — Amendment
NSL 1907 chapter 159 — Amendment
NSL 1908 chapter 149 — Amendment

Rhodes, Curry & Company's entry into the railway car building business dated from their purchase in 1893, of the plant machinery and inventory of the firm of James Harris & Company, Saint John, N.B., and its removal from Saint John to Amherst, N.S.

Rhodes, Curry & Co. already had a millwork and building supply business in Amherst, and it was felt that the car business, purchased from the estate of the late James Harris of Saint John, would form a profitable sideline to their main effort.  It was to do so to such an extent as to dwarf to insignificance the original enterprise.

The capacity of the plant in 1893 was about 3 or 4 cars per day, but by 1909 it could turn out 20 freight cars per day and 5 passenger cars per month.  The annual output in 1891 was 331 cars; in 1908 it was 2044 cars.

Essentially, it was a large wood car building plant, and included wheel, grey iron and malleable iron foundries, axle and machine shops, planing and rolling mills, cabinet shops and erecting and painting shops.  It was also the largest woodworking factory in the Canadian Maritime provinces, and its property covered about 40 acres.

The company also owned 20,000 acres of timber limits in fee simple, at Little Forks, 16 miles from Amherst, equipped with saw and planing mills, necessary stores, dwellings, etc.

In addition to the car works, a profitable business was done in constructing buildings of all classes, and in the manufacture and sale of building materials.  At Sydney, N.S., the company owned a woodworking factory, a lumber yard and wharf property, and at Halifax a lumber yard and warehouse for supplying building materials.

The location of the plant in the centre of the timber producing provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, guaranteed an unfailing supply of spruce and other local woods at low prices, whilst the proximity to tidewater on the Bay of Fundy enabled the importation of southern pine, oak and raw materials at favourable prices.  From Springhill and Sydney the plant was able to obtain its supplies of coal and steel at low cost.

Rhodes, Curry & Co. sold rolling stock to practically all the railways of Canada, not only in the Maritimes, but also to the larger roads further west, and they rivalled the Crossens of Cobourg as the largest Canadian wooden car builder in the early years of the century.

The Canadian Northern, Canadian Pacific and Grand Trunk Pacific were all customers, as were the Temiskaming & Northern Ontario and other smaller Ontario roads. Even the far away Morrisey, Farnie & Michael Railway in British Columbia had some miners' coaches which were Rhodes Curry products — exact counterparts of some similar ones which the firm has supplied the Nova Scotia Steel & Coal Co. in Cape Breton.

Rhodes, Curry built 34 open and closed street cars for use in Halifax, two for Moncton and six for Sherbrooke — all of the single truck variety, plus five large double truck cars for use in Montreal.

Most, if not all, of the four wheel coal “jimmies” which until fairly recent years were so much a feature of Cape Breton, were built by Rhodes, Curry and its predecessor, James Harris & Company.

Probably the most elegant car ever constructed by Rhodes, Curry was the ALEXANDRA, built in 1905 for the use of the Governor General of Canada.  It is the writer's good fortune to possess the original specification for this car, the interior of which was entirely of selected St. Jago mahogany.  The car still exists as a Canadian National business car in greatly-altered form. It now has a steel underframe, and is steel plated, completely altering its former appearance.

The Canadian Pacific gave Rhodes, Curry an order for ten first-class coaches in 1903, and also several early freight car orders, but by no means could the firm be said to have been extensive builders for the Canadian Pacific, who were noted adherents of Crossens of Cobourg.

The highly-successful partners in this enterprise were Nathaniel Curry and Nelson A. Rhodes of Amherst.  Edgar Rhodes, who later became a premier of Nova Scotia and Dominion Minister of Fisheries, was a son of Mr. Nelson A. Rhodes.

By 1908, the business had grown to extremely large proportions, and 1,000 men were employed throughout the year, compared with 250 in 1893.  The company's real estate, buildings, machinery and timber limits at Halifax, Sydney, Athol and Amherst were valued in March 1907 at $908,339.  Current assets as of March 31, 1908 were $1,387,558, and current liabilities on the same date were $380,927, but the advent of the steel car was looming on the horizon and Mr. Nathaniel Curry moved with remarkable foresight.

He first incorporated his firm in August 1909 as the Rhodes, Curry Co., Limited with an authorized capital of three million dollars.  Then, later in the same year, he engineered a merger of his firm with the Dominion Car & Foundry Co. and Canada Car Co. of Montreal.  The ensuing new company was known as the Canadian Car & Foundry Co. and Mr. Curry moved to Montreal and became its first president.

The move was made only in the nick of time, because it may be doubted if the Rhodes Curry wooden car building plant in the Maritimes would have been much use to the merger a few years later, after the steel car had gained widespread acceptance.

Canadian Car & Foundry operated the Amherst plant on a steadily decreasing basis until 1931, when it was closed altogether, the last car work being the overhaul of several linesmen's boarding cars for the Western Union Telegraph Company.

The plant today (April 1963) is the bar stock rolling mill of Enamel & Heating Products Limited, whose head office is in the neighbouring town of Sackville, New Brunswick.

Source:
    http://members.rogers.com/iancranstone2001/builders1.html#Rhodes

The above is an excerpt from an unpublished manuscript written by Andrew Merrilees in 1963, which can be found as part of the Merrilees collection at the National Archives of Canada and at the Archives of Ontario.  The introduction to this unpublished book is signed by
Andrew Merrilees, President
Andrew Merrilees Ltd. and Merrilees Equipment Limited
Dealers in Rails, Track Supplies, Locomotives, Freight Cars for Industrial Railways
May 28, 1963
189 Old Weston Road, Toronto 9, Ontario

NSL 1914 chapter 165 — Act to authorize the Rock Plaster Co. to build and operate a tramway

The Sable River Railway was located near Sable River, Shelburne County and operated for ten to fifteen years.  In 1904 a five mile long pole railway was built using wooden poles as rails.  The Sable Lumber Company was incorporated on June 21, 1907 with a head office in York Village, Maine.  During the fall and winter that followed lumbering operations began under the directions of William S. Hall, the Company's Nova Scotia agent... Construction of a proper railway began with the arrival of used 56 pounds per yard [27.8 kilograms per metre] rail from a dealer in Saint John, N.B.  The main line was twenty miles in length and ran from Wilkins Siding on the H&SW inland to several mill sites.  Short spurs, built for temporary use, were constructed up to two miles in length.  When the timber was exhausted on one site, the rails were taken up and a new spur built...
Sable River Railway by Colin Churcher
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Churcher-SableRiverRailway.htm

Colin Churcher's website
    http://www.railways.incanada.net/

NSL 1911 chapter 152 — Act to incorporate the Shelburne & Bear River Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1907 chapter 70 —
NSL 1908 chapter 73 —
NSL 1911 chapter 41 —

Silliker Car Company Halifax
http://ns1758.ca/rail/railway14.html

Silliker Car Company Halifax
http://www.nakina.net/other/builders/builders1.html#Silliker

NSL 1898 chapter 135 — Act to incorporate the Sissiboo Pulp & Paper Co. Ltd.
NSL 1899 chapter 170 — Amendment
NSL 1900 chapter 167 — Amendment, to authorize the company to construct a Trolley or Tramway near Weymouth
NSL 1900 chapter 171 — Amendment

NSL 1914 chapter 176 — Act to incorporate the Skye Mountain Railway Corporation
NSL 1917 chapter 169 — Amendment

NSL 1892 chapter 130 — Act to incorporate the South Shore Railway Co.

The South Shore Railway Company was incorporated on 30 April 1892, comprising twelve members (shareholders) from Yarmouth and Shelburne Counties, with the intention of building a railroad from Yarmouth to Shelburne. Exactly a year later, on 29 April 1893, after that company had spent a whole year in discussing what route it was to follow, a new company was formed, the Coast Railway Company, comprising five Americans, mostly from Philadelphia, who wanted to build a railroad from Yarmouth to Lockeport. In a letter dated 24 January 1894, from Philadelphia, there is mentioned a plan to build electric railways in Nova Scotia...
— The Railroad Era by Father Clarence-J. d'Entremont
Yarmouth Vanguard, 30 July 1990

NSL 1904 chapter 146 — Act to incorporate the Davison Tramway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1905 chapter 135 — Change name from Davison Tramway Co. Ltd. to Springfield Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1906 chapter 158 —
NSL 1915 chapter   95 —
NSL 1920 chapter 182 —

The Davison Tramway Co. and the Springfield Railway Co. were closely associated with the Davison Lumber Company, headquartered in Bridgewater.

Springfield Railway by Philip L. Spencer
    http://antique-engine.ns.ca/davison.html

Springfield Railway by John R. Cameron
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Cameron-SpringfieldRailway.htm

Springfield Railway by Colin J. Churcher
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Churcher-SpringfieldRailway.htm

Colin Churcher's website
   https://churcher.crcml.org

Also see: Davison Lumber Company
    http://antique-engine.ns.ca/davison.html

Davison Lumber Company's Shay Locomotives
Built by Lima Locomotive Works, Lima, Ohio

Lima serial number 990, Springfield Railway number 3 built April 1905
    http://www.shaylocomotives.com/data/lima/sn-990.htm

Lima serial number 1647, Springfield Railway number 4 built March 1906
    http://www.shaylocomotives.com/data/lima2399/sn-1647.htm

Lima serial number 2778, Springfield Railway number 6 built December 1915
    http://www.shaylocomotives.com/data/lima3354/sn-2778.htm

Davison Lumber Company

In 1902, Frank Davison and other family members sold the firm of E.D. Davison & Sons along with the woodlands and mill to the American Lumber Company which then changed its name to the Davison Lumber Company.  The head office was in New York with a local head office near Bridgewater.  The Davison Lumber Company continued to operate the existing mill and within a short time had built it up to become the largest lumber mill operation east of Montreal ... To move the wood to feed the mill as well as take the dressed lumber to market, several miles of new track were laid from the mill in Hastings to Springfield, then connected to the Nova Scotia Central Railway which ran to Bridgewater and joined with the Halifax and Southwestern Railway.  Eventually, the company obtained running rights on the entire Halifax and Southwestern line.  In addition, the company laid more than 40 miles of track which wormed its way through 325,000 acres of company-owned woodland.  The company owned many conventional side-rod steam locomotives but also had two Shay locomotives...
Source: Davison Lumber Company
      http://users.eastlink.ca/~pspencer/nsaeta/davison.html

Also see: Springfield Railway
      http://hswdpi.ca/wiki/index.php?title=Category:Springfield_Railway

NSL 1864 chapter 50 — Act to incorporate the Spring Hill Mining, Manufacturing & Transportation Co.

Proceedings of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia —
Halifax, 26 March 1888: — Hon. Mr. Baker said ... (in his report) the provincial engineer thus refers to the new railway from Springhill to Oxford:

"Interest centres largely on Springhill, the latest born of Nova Scotia colleries, owing to the very gratifying results of the year's operations.  There have been 466,223 tons removed by rail during 1887, an increase of 49,454 tons over the year 1886.  Good news reaches us daily from the coal field showing that the late (recent) infusion of speculation and activity is being successfully rewarded.

"The last thing announced is the cutting of the sod for the new railway from Springhill to Oxford.  The line will connect here (at Oxford) with the Short Line and open up the harbor of Pugwash for transportation northwards thus completing a circuit of trade channels by rail and by water in every cardinal point of the compass.  The colliery is well placed for the future and in excellent hands..."

Source:   Page 26 of the 1888 section, in:
Debates and Proceedings of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, 1883-90

The Spring Hill & Oxford Railway —
This line remains in the same condition as reported for last year, 1891.  There have been no traffic operations carried on over it so far.  Assuming the line to be 14 miles about 23 km long, there still remains a balance of subsidy of $10,640.
      (signed) Martin Murphy,
      Provincial Engineer
Source:
Report of the Provincial Engineer on the Subsidized Railways and
Other Public Works in the Province of Nova Scotia for the Year 1892
Halifax, March 16th, 1893
Appendix No. 7, page 8, in:
Journals of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, 1893

NSL 1872 chapter 70 — Act to incorporate the Spring Hill & Parrsboro Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1874 chapter 12 —
NSL 1874 chapter 72 — Amendment, respecting issuance of bonds
NSL 1875 chapter 69 — Act to explain chapter 72 of 1874
NSL 1876 chapter   7 — Act to extend time for completion of the railway
NSL 1883 chapter 73 —
NSL 1883 chapter 85 — Amendment

The first run of the Springhill & Parrsboro Railway was on July 1st, 1873.  The Parrsboro Cornet Band was mentioned in the newspaper article as being on hand to greet the train as it arrived.  In the first year of railroad operations to Parrsboro, 900 ships were loaded with coal from the Springhill mines.  One third of the tonnage shipped from Nova Scotia in 1878, was loaded at Parrsboro.

In its peak years of the 1890s, more than 1500 ships departed annually from the port of Parrsboro.  At the turn of the 20th century (1900), Parrsboro was second only to Halifax in the number of ships sailing on the Canadian east coast.

Ottawa: Federal Government Orders in Council 1867-1882
    http://www.collectionscanada.ca/02/020157_e.html
OIC 1875-0886, page 1
OIC 1875-0886, page 2
Subject: Recommendation by the Minister of Finance, Ottawa, to pay a construction subsidy of $5,000 per mile to the Spring Hill and Parrsborough Coal and Railway Company, to be charged to the debt of the Province of Nova Scotia...
Approved:   9 September 1875

Note 3:   The 1893 Almanack uses the spelling "Parrsborough" both for the town and the railway, but the railway spelling as specified in the 1872 Act of Incorporation was the "Spring Hill & Parrsboro Coal & Railway Co. Ltd."   "Altitudes in the Dominion of Canada", published in 1915, uses the spelling "Parrsboro" for the town, and the railway was then the Cumberland Railway and Coal Company.

Ottawa: Federal Government Orders in Council 1867-1882
    http://www.collectionscanada.ca/02/020157_e.html
OIC 1883-1909, page 1
OIC 1883-1909, page 2
OIC 1883-1909, page 3
OIC 1883-1909, page 4
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OIC 1883-1909, page 16
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OIC 1883-1909, page 18
OIC 1883-1909, page 19
Subject: Disallowance of Nova Scotia Act to amend the Act to incorporate the Spring Hill and Parrsborough Coal and Railway Company...
Approved:   18 September 1883

Ottawa: Federal Government Orders in Council 1867-1882
    http://www.collectionscanada.ca/02/020157_e.html
OIC 1883-1262, page 1
OIC 1883-1262, page 2
OIC 1883-1262, page 3
Subject: Approval of agreement with Amalgamated Spring Hill and Parrsboro' Coal & Railway Company for conveyance of their coal over the line of the Intercolonial Railway from the Spring Hill Mines to Chaudiere Junction for the West and for Quebec...
Approved:   30 May 1883

NSL 1903 chapter 184 — Act to incorporate the Standard Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1906 chapter 164 — Amendment

NSL 1909 chapter 177 — Act to authorize the Standard Drain Pipe Co. Ltd. to construct an aerial tramway, etc.

NSL 1886 chapter 155 — Act to incorporate the Stewiacke Valley & Lansdowne Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1887 chapter   62 — Amendment, may extend line to Westville
NSL 1888 chapter   84 — Amendment
NSL 1888 chapter   91 — Amendment
NSL 1889 chapter   85 — Amendment
NSL 1890 chapter   63 — Amendment
NSL 1890 chapter   98 — Amendment
NSL 1891 chapter   98 — Amendment
NSL 1892 chapter   87 — Amendment
NSL 1893 chapter 117 — Amendment
NSL 1900 chapter 120 —
NSL 1901 chapter   51 —

The Stewiacke Valley & Lansdowne Railway
Halifax, March 16th, 1893 —
(Page 8:)   Under the conditions of an agreement and specifications made and entered into between this company and the Government on the 6th of July, 1891, the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council agrees to pay a cash subsidy of $3,200 per mile $1,990 per kilometre for the construction of a line of railway from a point on the Intercolonial Railway main line at Brookfield, Halifax County, to a point at Maitland, Hants County, and thence to a point in Hants County at Newport or Windsor on the line of the Windsor Branch Railway (W&AR, later the DAR), all of which points and route shall be approved by the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council.  Work under this contract has not yet commenced.
(Page 9:)   No progress has been made with the works of the Stewiacke Valley and Lansdowne Railway during the year 1891, under the provisions of the contract made in 1887.
      (signed) Martin Murphy,
      Provincial Engineer
Source:
Report of the Provincial Engineer on the Subsidized Railways and
Other Public Works in the Province of Nova Scotia for the Year 1892
Appendix No. 7, pages 8-9, in:
Journals of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, 1893

NSL 1901 chapter 137 — Act to incorporate the Suburban Development Co. Ltd.
NSL 1903 chapter 211 —
NSL 1903 chapter 239 — Amendment

• Devco Railway was wholly owned by the Cape Breton Development Corporation, a crown corporation, and was operated as an unincorporated department within that corporation.
      — Canadian Transportation Agency Decision No. 571-R-1997

• On 18 December 2001, 510845 N.B. Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Emera Inc., Nova Scotia's largest electric utility company, acquired surface assets (railway track, rights-of-way, locomotives and other rolling stock, etc.) from the Cape Breton Development Corporation.
      — Canadian Transportation Agency Decision No. 192-R-2002

• This property included the rail operation between the international pier on the waterfront in Sydney and the Lingan power generating plant, the rail lines through the coal storage facility at Victoria Junction, including the railway maintenance centre, and a portion of the Glace Bay rail line between the railway maintenance centre and the end of the Old Tank siding, Cape Breton Island.
The sale of assets to 510845 N.B. Inc. did not include the trackage from Victoria Junction to Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.  This trackage has been functionally abandoned since the early 1990s when the sole customer ceased shipping coal by rail.  Most of the road crossings and trestles have been removed at the request of local Municipalities.
      — Canadian Transportation Agency Decision No. 341-R-2002

• On 1 January 2003, responsibility for the operation of this railway was transferred to Sydney Coal Railway Inc., from 510845 N.B. Inc.
      — Canadian Transportation Agency Decision No. 657-R-2002

• 3986250 Canada Inc. and Sydney Coal Railway Inc. were originally set up as separate corporations, both wholly-owned subsidiaries of Quebec Railway Corporation Inc. (Societe des Chemins de Fer du Quebec).  These two separate corporations were amalgamated in April 2004, and thereafter were known as Sydney Coal Railway Inc.
      — Canadian Transportation Agency Decision No. 233-R-2004, 6 May 2004

NSL 1873 chapter   39 — Act to incorporate the Sydney & East Bay Railway Co.
NSL 1904 chapter 141 — Act to incorporate the Sydney & East Bay Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1909 chapter 179 — Act to incorporate the Sydney & East Bay Railway Co. Ltd. as an electric interurban railway

NSL 1902 chapter 160 — Act to incorporate the Sydney & Glace Bay Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1909 chapter 182 — Amend

NSL 1881 chapter 73 — Act to incorporate the Sydney & Louisburg Coal & Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1865 chapter 50 — Act to incorporate the Sydney & Louisburg Railway Co.
NSL 1865 chapter 55 — Act to empower the Block House Mining Co. to guarantee bonds of the Sydney & Louisburg Railway Co.

NSL 1910 chapter 171 — Act to incorporate the Sydney & Louisburg Railway Co.
NSL 1911 chapter 155 — Amend
NSL 1912 chapter 238 — Act relating to S&LR, Red Bridge
NSL 1972 chapter 120 — Act to Wind Up the Sydney & Louisburg Railway Employees' Trust Fund

Sydney & Louisburg Railway by Robert Chant
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Chant-SydneyAndLouisburgRailway.htm

Sydney & Louisburg Railway by John R. Cameron
    http://www.rocarchives.com/Articles/Cameron-SydneyAndLouisburgRailway.htm

Overview of the Development of Railways
on the Sydney Coal Fields: 1720-1999
      http://web.archive.org/web/20071109082128/http://www.trainweb.org/canadianrailways/articles/SydneyCoalFields.html

NSL 1911 chapter 156 — Act to incorporate the Sydney, New Waterford & East Bay Monorail Co.

NSL 1888 chapter 115 — Act to incorporate the Terminal City Co. Ltd.
NSL 1888 chapter 116 — Act to incorporate the Terminal City Railroad Co. Ltd.
NSL 1892 chapter 178 — Act to amend, and extend time for construction
NSL 1894 chapter   96 — Act to extend time for commencing and completing

Proceedings of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia —
Halifax, 26 March 1888: —
(Page 28:)   Hon. Mr. Goudge said ... A few days ago a bill entitled a Bill to Incorporate the Terminal City Company had passed this House, which originated from a number of American gentlemen who proposed to expend a large sum of money near Canso.  According to their charter, their capital would be five millions of dollars, of which one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars would be paid up, and that was an indication that the company was no bogus company.  It was hoped by the expenditure of this large sum of money in the vicinity of the Strait of Canso to induce tourists to come in very large numbers and visit that locality and spend the summer season there, and thus the traffic of the steamships and railways would be largely increased...
(Page 30:)   Hon. Mr. LeBlanc said he had no doubt that the people of the province would read with pleasure the speeches that had been delivered this afternoon on the prosperity of the province in the matter of steamships and railways.  He was very glad to know that the Yarmouth Steamship Company was prosperous, and that the missing link between Annapolis and Digby was going to be built as the filling in of that gap would be a benefit to the whole province.  At every session of this legislature new steamship and railway companies were being incorporated, and this year a bill had passed the House which incorporated a company called the Terminal City Company Limited...
(Page 30:)   Hon. Mr. Black said it was perfectly delightful to hear so many hon. gentlemen indulge in congratulations on the prosperity of the country, as it was in striking contrast to certain utterances of a few months ago when Nova Scotia was represented as being down trodden, and as having its life blood sucked out.  But now the proud boast was that the time of the legislature was being taken up in the incorporation of railway and steamship companies, and Terminal City companies, and everything was prospering at such a rapid rate that the coal mines of the province had to be worked every day in the year, Sundays included, to supply the demand...
Source:   Pages 28-30 of the 1888 section, in:
Debates and Proceedings of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, 1883-90

Terminal City —
New Glasgow, 27 October 1888: —
W. Harrington, a well known miner of long experience, is moving an engine and plant from Pictou to Hawkesbury, near Terminal City, where it will be used in sinking (drilling) for coal.  The Diamond Drill was in operation there this summer, and several valuable seams were found.  We understand the Terminal City Company, which is composed of wealthy American capitalists, are pushing things ahead to make the Terminal City one of the greatest business centres in America.  As they have the capital we see no possible reason why they should not succeed.
Source:   New Glasgow Enterprise, 27 October 1888

Terminal City — 1891
The town of Canso is on Chedabucto Bay, 32 miles 51 km southeast of Guysborough.  It has a population of about 1,500, and is the western terminus of several of the Atlantic telegraph cables ... At Canso a company of Canadian and American capitalists is proposing to erect a great city, to be called Terminal City, whence fast steam ships are to traverse the Atlantic and lightning express trains rush westward.  This scheme is pretty fully developed, and may perhaps be carried out, in which case the splendid Bay of Chedabucto would emerge from its present obscurity.
Source: Page 247 of The Canadian Guide Book: The Tourist's and Sportsman's Guide to Eastern Canada and Newfoundland... by Charles G.D. Roberts, Professor of English Literature at King's College, Windsor, Nova Scotia; 378 pages, published by D. Appleton, New York, 1891.
[23 October 2001] Early Canadiana Online http://www.canadiana.org/ has this book at
http://www.canadiana.org/cgi-bin/ECO/mtq?id=24a0011313&doc=56228
Page 247 is at
http://www.canadiana.org/cgi-bin/ECO/mtq?id=73f2010914&display=56228+0335

NSL 1891 chapter 150 — Act to incorporate the Torbrook Iron Co. Ltd.
NSL 1892 chapter   68 — Act to authorize the Municipality of Annapolis to pay for land for right of way for Torbrook Branch Railway

In 2006 the Greenbrier Companies are the leading North American manufacturer of intermodal railcars with an average market share of approximately 60% over the last five years.  In addition to our strength in intermodal railcars, we manufacture a broad array of other railcar types in North America and have demonstrated an ability to capture high market shares in several of the car types we produce.  In North America, we have commanded an average market share of approximately 40% in flat cars and 30% in boxcars over the last five years... Outside of the United States, we operate in Canada, Germany and Poland... At our manufacturing facility in Trenton, Nova Scotia, Canada – as of 31 August 2006 – 557 employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements that expired in October 2006 and are currently being negotiated... Subsequent to year end, approximately 500 employees at our manufacturing facility in Canada were laid off due to a suspension of operations upon completion of an order...
—Source: The Greenbrier Companies 2006 Annual Report pages 3, 8 and 10

TrentonWorks Limited: About
Among the freight car types TrentonWorks builds
are high-capacity covered hopper cars for grain,
plastic pellet and other bulk shippers, boxcars,
center partition lumber cars, 89-foot flat cars,
double-stack cars, and various other
general-purpose freight cars.

TrentonWorks Limited: Forge
The largest open-die forging press in Canada,
with a capacity of 7000 tons... Only high quality
electric furnace vacuum degassed, bottom
poured steel ingots are used...

TrentonWorks Limited: Flatcars
TrentonWorks built 85-foot flatcars are designed
to carry  heavy  containers.  This 286,000 pounds
gross-rail-load car can carry two 40-foot containers.

TrentonWorks Limited: Plate F Boxcar
TrentonWorks will custombuild cars to meet customer
requirements, such as this paper products boxcar with
286,000 pounds gross load on the rails.  This car
(see picture) is a 100-ton high cube, AAR Plate F*
car with 10-foot plug doors, extra strength at the
side to floor connections and in the door frame
to accommodate loading and unloading
of heavy paper rolls.
*NOTE: “Plate F” is one of the standard clearance diagrams
published by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

History of the Trenton Railcar Works

Trenton Works as it stood in the last decades of the twentieth century, was a direct descendent of the Hope Iron Works founded in 1872 by two blacksmiths, Graham Fraser and Forrest MacKay.  They made iron forgings – most of them, such as anchors, knees and other fittings, for use in wooden ships.  The company very early expanded its range of products and in 1876 railway car axles were being manufactured from bundled faggots of iron.  These were perhaps the first standard gauge car axles forged in Canada.  The market for iron forgings was expanding rapidly in the era and in 1878 a new plant was built at Trenton under the name of the Nova Scotia Forge Company.  The new forge works had a voracious appetite for raw materials, a demand that became increasingly difficult to meet.  To satisfy the growing need for steel the Nova Scotia Steel Company was established in 1882.  During the year 1883, the first steel to be made in Canada was produced at the Trenton plant by the Siemens process in an open hearth furnace...

The Eastern Car Company Limited was organized in 1912 as a division of the Nova Scotia Steel & Coal Company, which already owned foundry and forging facilities in and near New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, of which Trenton is a suburb.  The first car order processed through the Eastern Car Company plant was one for 2,000 steel-framed wood-sheathed, wood-roofed box cars for the Grand Trunk Railway in 1913.  For these cars almost all the steel was rolled next door – in the mill of the parent company Nova Scotia Steel & Coal Company – including the heavy bar stock for the arch-bar trucks, then the standard truck for freight cars.  Orders from most of the major Canadian railways quickly followed, and in 1915 the plant also secured a large export order for box cars for the Czarist Russian government.  The Trenton plant, often referred to as the “Trenton Works,” was in continuous operation from 1913 until 2007, owned first by the Eastern Car Company and later by several successor companies.  In the late 1950s, Dominion Steel & Coal Corporation (DOSCO) – including Eastern Car Company with Trenton Works – was taken over by Avro Canada a Canadian company closely associated with A.V. Roe, a large British aircraft manufacturer.  In 1962, Avro Canada – including DOSCO with Trenton Works – was taken over by Hawker Siddeley (Canada) Limited, a large British aircraft concern and holding company.  [NOTE: I'm not making this up.]  On March 9, 1995, Trenton Works was purchased by a joint partnership of Canadian and American businessmen with the latter, Greenbrier Company of Lake Oswego, Oregon acquiring the majority interest.  The plant became part of the Greenbrier Companies and was renamed TrentonWorks Limited.  In 2005, TrentonWorks employed more than a thousand people, but this number was substantially reduced as production fell off through 2006.  On the completion of its last production contract in 2007, Greenbrier decided to close TrentonWorks permanently.  The last shift ended at TrentonWorks Limited on 4 May 2007, one month following the closure announcement.  During its working life, 1913-2007, Trenton Works produced well over 70,000 railway freight cars.

TrentonWorks Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrentonWorks

Reference: Eastern Car Company
by Andrew Merrilees (written in 1963)
http://www.nakina.net/other/builders/builders1.html#ECC

History of the Steel Industry in Pictou County

How the Canadian steel industry was born in the County of Pictou

Madam Speaker, one of bright spots in Nova Scotia is Trenton Works.  Trenton Works has been for many years the centre of economic activity in Pictou County.  And while that is less so, perhaps, today than it once was, it is still a key part of the economy of our end of the province.

I would like to share with the members (of the Nova Scotia Legislature) some of the history of the steel industry and the (railway) car making industry in Pictou County.  I would like to provide the members with some information on how the Canadian steel industry was born in the County of Pictou.  The centre of this activity was the Town of Trenton, but certainly in earlier times, other areas of the county as well.

Between 1783 and 1792, three settlers received grants of land totalling 1,300 acres [1,300 acres = 2.03 square miles = 526 hectares = 5.26 square kilometres] covering most of what would eventually become the Town of Trenton.  The town’s first industry was shipbuilding, on the site of the Nova Scotia Power Corporation generating station.  Later industry would be a sawmill, three quarries and the operation of what is now Trenton Works.

However, the real purpose here is to concentrate on the development of the steel industry in the County of Pictou.  In 1828, the General Mining Association experimented with iron ore found in nearby MacLellans Brook.  A blast furnace was built in Albion Mines, which is now Stellarton, and 50 tons of unusually hard pig-iron was produced.  That is less than one pour of (today's) electric furnace in Sydney.  Some of this early steel was used to make stamps for a gold crushing mill in Guysborough County.

Railways were opening up and in 1872 two youthful blacksmiths in the New Glasgow shipyards formed a partnership, called the Hope Iron Works, capitalized by $4,000.  They began production of railway car axles, railway spikes, and marine forgings.  In 1878, the name changed to the Nova Scotia Forge Company and moved two miles north, to an area which was to become the Town of Trenton and the area where Trenton Works now sits.  The secretary of the Forge Company, a Harvey Graham, brought home the name Trenton after a visit to Trenton, New Jersey [the location of the renowned Roebling Wire Works and the steel mill owned and operated by John A. Roebling's Sons Company].  The two partners formed the Nova Scotia Steel Company, capitalized with $160,000, and installed a 15 ton capacity open hearth furnace, a 26 inch cogging mill [cogging mill: a pair of heavy steel rolls rotating in opposite directions, through which red-hot steel ingots are passed – each successive pass squeezes the ingot a small incremental amount, thus reducing the cross-section and increasing the length], two bar-rolling mills and a plate mill.

In July 1883, they poured the first commercial steel ingots and in 1889, they merged the forge and steel companies.  Initially, the company used Scottish pig-iron but later on acquired iron ore deposits further up the East River above Stellarton.  Further expansion led to a railway, iron ore mines, limestone quarrying and a blast furnace using local coal and, as well, coke ovens and a coal washing plant.  Pig-iron was produced from 1892 to 1904 in a local self-contained operation providing locally all the key ingredients to make steel.

The Ferrona Operation, just above Stellarton, employed up to 300 men.  The East River iron deposits became depleted and in 1894 the extensive submarine deposit which outcrops at Bell Island on Conception Bay, Newfoundland, was acquired and so began the mining town of Wabana.  It was found through experimenting that Cape Breton coal made much better coke and the company procured a coal supply in Cape Breton.

In 1900, a composite of the old affiliated companies and their coal properties was formed under the name the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company capitalized at $6.2 million.  For $300,000 Scotia Steel, as it would now be commonly called bought the leases and collieries in the Sydney Mines-Florence area, owned by the General Mining Association.  Scotia Steel built a plant at Sydney Mines to produce steel ingots.  The billet cogging, mill rolling, forging and spike making operation continued at Trenton.

In 1912, 40 years after MacKay and Fraser’s modest beginning with the Hope Iron Works, the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company Ltd. was a $14 million industrial giant.  At the time, the Trenton based company was one of Canada’s largest enterprises, and one of the world’s few entirely self-contained steelmaking operations producing 50 per cent of the steel consumed annually in Canada.

Valid Claim

Thus the claim of Trenton as the birth place of steel in Canada is a valid one.  The company installed a 2,000 ton hydraulic forging press, the Big Chief, and being built during this period was the eventual jewel of the company’s crown, the Eastern Car Company.

During World War One, the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal produced 14 million artillery shells.  Ironically the Big Chief forging press, bought from Germany, produced the 18 pounder shell block.  From 1914-1918, the plant contributed well to the war effort including plate for tanks and other supplies for war.  The subsidiary shipbuilding yard in Trenton made the first steel steamers [ships powered by steam engines] in Nova Scotia.

The steel plant peaked during World War One, at 2,100 men.  A merger of Scotia Steel with the large Dominion concern occurred in 1920 to form the British Empire Steel and Coal Corporation, commonly called BESCO.  Local control of the local steel interests and the subsidiary Acadia Coal Company was lost.  BESCO control resulted in a dismantling of the cogging mill in Trenton and the steel plant in Sydney Mines was abandoned.  There followed years of operation without significant re-investment in equipment.

In 1928, the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation, DOSCO, was incorporated specifically to take over BESCO.  By this time, BESCO was debt ridden and drained by its promoters.  The Trenton plants, like those in industrial Cape Breton were controlled from Montreal.  Local officials were to do as they were told.  Re-organization of the various companies resulted in all being subsidiaries either directly or indirectly of DOSCO.

In the late 1930s, the car plant Eastern Car Company, was taken over by the federal government but repurchased by the company after the war.  In 1943, the nut and bolt department was closed as was the rolling mill, putting 540 men out of work.  During World War Two, components of artillery pieces were produced in the gun shop and 2 million artillery shells were produced.

After World War Two, the continent needed new railway rolling stock and a new mechanical manipulator was installed in the axle forge replacing human brawn.  During the peak year, 65 thousand axles were forged.  On a personal note, my grandfather worked 50 years in the axle forge completing his 50 years in 1957.  I was working as a summer student in the testing lab and was present when the plant ceased production on a hot July afternoon for a ceremony to honour him for his 50 years of service.  He retired a few months later.

In the 1950s, a 7,000 ton forging press, costing $3.6 million, with auxiliary furnaces and machine shop equipment was installed.  This was the largest press in North America for many years.  The ingots were produced in Sydney and shipped hot by insulated rail car.  Ingots as large as 75 tons were handled in this way.  This process was recognized by a full page colour photograph in Life Magazine.  The end products were (drive) shafts for naval destroyers.  The forging of an ingot, which was not allowed to cool after pouring, made a superior product and was a major world innovation.

In 1957, the A.V. Roe Company, a subsidiary of Hawker-Siddeley, acquired control of DOSCO.  The parent company, in 1962, changed its name from A.V. Roe Canada Ltd. to Hawker-Siddeley Canada Ltd.  In 1968, Hawker-Siddeley withdrew from its steelmaking operation in Sydney and as well from its coal mining operations in Cape Breton and on the mainland.  Thus beginning the long saga of SYSCO with its most recent chapter beginning with the agreement of the province with Minmetals to a joint venture, prior to outright purchase.

The Trenton Works continue to be supplied with raw materials from the Sydney steel plant, now sponsored by the Nova Scotia Government.  Growth came to the Trenton steel industry with local ownership and management and decline came with foreign ownership and absentee management.  Many local businesses contributed to the early success of the local steel industry.  William Knoll, Senior, general manager from 1942 to 1954, was noted for aggressive leadership in a time of an expanding economy.

Part of the Trenton complex, the Eastern Car Company, which does the rail car manufacturing, was a dream of Thomas Cantley.  The company incorporated in 1912, capitalized at $3 million.  The Four Shop Railway Car Construction factory was built in 18 months and the first box car rolled off the assembly line in 1913.

Mr. Alf Mason, a long-time resident of Trenton, was involved in the construction of the plant in 1912-1913 and later became a long-term employee.  Mr. Mason, who still resides with his wife in his own home in Trenton, recently celebrated his 100th birthday and is the last living link with the birth of the Eastern Car Company.  Mr. Mason reports that he helped dig the foundation for the large stack and participated in building the outer wall next to the stack.

The demand was so great that production of rolling stock began before the building was even completed.  Mr. Mason was, over the years, an employee of the Steel Works and Eastern Car, retiring in May of 1964, 52 years after he first began with the company.

The Eastern Car Company has provided rolling stock to Russia, France, Argentina, Belgium, Indonesia and the North American market.  At peak capacity the car plant employed 1,200 men, producing freight cars and cars for specific purposes.

In 1941, Trenton Industries was formed.  It produced naval guns for the war effort, employing 600 men and, in the post-war years, produced the DOSCO continuous furnace.  At the end of the war, the plant still was the largest producer of heavy forgings in Canada.

During the 1980s, the fortunes at Hawker-Siddeley were at a low ebb.  Trenton was vying for CN [Canadian National Railway] car orders with National Steel Car of Hamilton.  As CN was publicly (government) owned, the National Steel Car felt it deserved one-half of the orders for CN rolling stock.

In 1984, one half of a large order won by Trenton Works was ordered by the government to be produced by National Steel Car, a political decision.  The unfairness of the situation was underlined by the fact that CP [Canadian Pacific Railway] had a company relationship with National Steel Car and National Steel Car got all CP’s business.

In the late 1980s the Hawker-Siddeley President from London and the Chief Executive Officer from Montreal came to Trenton and stated they would “bulldoze the plant into the ground and turn the area into an industrial park.”  This industry, like Sydney Steel and Devco in Cape Breton, is a symbolic part of life for Pictonians that has been eroded by absentee ownership and politics.  Were it not for the intervention of the federal and provincial governments in 1988, there would be no Trenton Works today.  The assistance in 1988 took the form of early retirement for elderly workers, and capital over the next several years for modernization was provided and there was an attempt to arrange local ownership.  The reduction in the average age of the work force allowed Lavalin to purchase the plant in 1988.  The federal government provided two-thirds of the early retirement package and, as well, the money for modernization.  The last $12.4 million was paid to the Nova Scotia Government in February 1995, the end of the agreement.

In 1988, the provincial government provided one-third of the early retirement package and the Town of Trenton, with that downsizing, lost a valuable source of tax income.  Some 200 workers were involved in the so-called SORP Program.  The Mayor and Council of Trenton were part of the negotiating process and part of the solution.  The loss of the tax base guaranteed that Trenton would spend the next years on emergency funding awaiting the tax income from the biggest employer in the town, the Nova Scotia Power Corporation.  This action in 1988 by the federal and provincial governments, with cooperation of the work force and the Town of Trenton provided the true salvation for Trenton Works.

When Lavalin went bankrupt in 1991, the Urban Transport Development Corporation of Toronto became the owner, and when the UTDC company was placed in receivership, the Ontario Government, as the main creditor, obtained control of the plant but had no interest in operating the plant as it was a rival of their National Steel Car in Hamilton.  The Nova Scotia Government again stepped in, expressing confidence in the local work force and local management, and underwrote the operating loan at the Royal Bank, and a search for a new owner began.

The operating line of credit guaranteed by the Cameron Government allowed the company to bid on and complete contracts.  In 1991, a 30 year plant veteran, Mr. John Fitzpatrick, became president and this aggressive local management, with a cooperative and skilled work force sponsored by the Nova Scotia Government, partnered to create the success to follow.  The show of faith was not without some trepidation, as the plant in the 1980s was losing some $9 million a year.

In 1994, the Ontario Government turned ownership over to the Nova Scotia Government.  The company’s shares were placed in a holding company led by Mr. Earl Joudry and Mr. Gerald Regan.  Mr. Regan and others in the town played a leadership role in the revitalization since 1991.  Management and the labour force formed a powerful alliance, not without much pain on both sides, which gradually filled the order book in the 1990s, paving the way for a sale of the plant back into private hands.  Diversification into filling military contracts helped the process and included the production of automatic mobile refuelers and wheeled military water carriers.

While this program did not pay immediate dividends, it allowed the plant to survive and open the door for the recent sale of the majority interest in the plant to the Greenbrier Companies of Portland, Oregon.  This new ownership opens the door for increased business in the United States and provides financial stability to the plant.  As well, Trenton Works Limited will be licensed to build certain Gunderson designs for Canada.  Diversification of rail car manufacture allowed the plant to provide double-stack rail cars for the local container market.  Improvement in rail car orders will require a second track to be set up, and employment over the next two months will be over 1,000.  At present, the Pictou Campus of the Community College is upgrading the training of over 200 welders and many will be hired by Trenton Works.

The success today of Trenton Works is due to the confidence of government in the work force at Trenton and the current management.  Ongoing support by the Nova Scotia Government and the federal government allowed survival in 1988.  The support of the Cameron Government in 1991, in underwriting the operating loan for the company, without an interested owner, was a key decision.

The honourable member for Cumberland North, while Minister for the Economic Renewal Agency, is to be congratulated for his support of Trenton Works.  That minister, in August 1993, supported Trenton Works and continued the program of operational loan guarantees begun by the Cameron Government.  The minister participated in that decision when the current government made the decision as to whether or not they were going to continue sponsorship of the company.  They did continue to guarantee the operating credit in the manner begun by the previous administration.  This decision to continue was paramount to the eventual sale of the plant.

The outlook today at Trenton is bright.  In January the open die forge shop was the first in Canada to be awarded the ISO 9002 registration from the Quality Management Institute.  This is a tribute to their labour force.  The company has prospered since 1991 under the new management, with sales in 1994 of $54 million and with anticipated sales in 1995 of over $100 million.  The company is bidding on Defence Department work, having previously completed orders, and recently received the largest rail order in the history of the plant.

In 1988, when the federal and provincial governments stepped in to save the operation, there were 100 persons working.  At present the plant has enough orders to guarantee full employment into the middle of 1996 and, as I previously stated, in the next two months the work force will reach 1,000.  The faith of government in Trenton Works since 1988 is providing the rewards northern Nova Scotians are receiving today from the success at Trenton Works.

Madam Speaker, in concluding my remarks in my Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne, I again emphasize to the government that we have an economy based on industry.  It is an economy that in bad economic times is extremely fragile.  Over the last number of years, however, we have diversified and there is strength in diversification.  But we continue to require the interest of government, to ensure that our industries continue to prosper.

You have supported Trenton Works and, on behalf of Pictonians, I thank you for that.  But bear in mind that we need your continued support and I will be looking for it in the days and weeks and months to come. 
Thank you, Madam Speaker.

DR. JOHN HAMM: The MLA for Pictou Centre
as reported in Hansard, April 7, 1995

(NOTE: Italicized annotations in [square brackets] added.)

NSL 1879 chapter 66 —

DOM 1877: Transfer of the Truro and Pictou Branch Railway
Resolution: That it is expedient to authorize the Governor in Council to make arrangements for carrying out the transfer of the Truro and Pictou Branch of the Intercolonial Railway in pursuance of negotiations entered into with the Government of Nova Scotia, and the Halifax and Cape Breton Railway and Coal Company under the resolution passed by this House on the 19th May 1874...

Mr. Alexander MacKenzie (Minister of Public Works, and Prime Minister):
...the Truro and Pictou Branch was opened for traffic in 1865-6, and the rails being pretty well worn out, in 1873 five miles were re-laid with steel rails; in 1874 – for the financial year ending 30th June – seven miles; in 1875, ten miles; and during the last year and a half, up to the 31st of last December, 15½ miles, making in all 37½ miles which had been re-laid with steel rails, leaving 13½ miles of road with the old iron rails, but he was informed that these were in such a dilapidated condition that it was quite impossible to keep them in use.  Iron rails with ordinary traffic were supposed to last for eight or ten years; but a pretty heavy coal traffic had passed over this line, and the rails had, on the whole, lasted very well.
Source: Debates of the House of Commons, Ottawa, 18 April 1877

NSL 1889 chapter 125 — Act to incorporate the Truro Street Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1890 chapter 160 — Amendment, extending time for construction
NSL 1895 chapter 143 — Amendment, further extending time
NSL 1897 chapter 116 — Further amend and extend time

NSL 1865 chapter   64 — Act to incorporate the Acadia Coal Co.
NSL 1869 chapter   62 — Act to incorporate the Halifax Coal & Iron Co. Ltd.
NSL 1872 chapter   73 — Act to incorporate the Vale Coal, Iron, & Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
NSL 1874 chapter   74 — Act to incorporate the Halifax Co. Ltd.
NSL 1886 chapter 126 —
NSL 1886 chapter 161 —
NSL 1886 chapter 162 — Act to carry into effect the agreement of amalgamation made between the Acadia Coal Company Ltd., the Halifax Company Ltd., and the Vale Coal, Iron, & Manufacturing Company Ltd.

NSL 1902 chapter 131 — Act to incorporate the Valley Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1888 chapter 81 — Act to incorporate the Victoria Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1891 chapter 84 — Time extended

NSL 1891 chapter 144 — Act to incorporate the Wentworth Gypsum Co. Ltd.
NSL 1893 chapter 183 — Amendment, empowering the company to build a Railway

NSL 1902 chapter 146 — Act to incorporate the Western Counties Iron & Steel Co. Ltd.

NSL 1870 chapter 81 — Act to incorporate the Western Counties Railway Co.
NSL 1872 chapter 17 —
NSL 1873 chapter 26 — Act to authorize the Township of Yarmouth to take Stock in WCR
NSL 1873 chapter 43 —
NSL 1874 chapter 12 —
NSL 1875 chapter 54 —
NSL 1875 chapter 68 —
NSL 1876 chapter 73 —
NSL 1877 chapter 29 —
NSL 1877 chapter 41 —
NSL 1877 chapter 63 —
NSL 1877 chapter 71 —
NSL 1877 chapter 72 —
NSL 1878 chapter 35 —
NSL 1878 chapter 53 —
NSL 1878 chapter 54 — Amend, as to construction of iron instead of wood bridges, etc.
NSL 1879 chapter 64 — Amend, defining Western Division and Eastern Division, etc.
NSL 1879 chapter 65 —
NSL 1880 chapter 69 —
NSL 1880 chapter 74 — Directors authorized to sell to the Nova Scotia Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1881 chapter 48 —
NSL 1883 chapter 19 —
NSL 1884 chapter   3 —
NSL 1886 chapter    1 — Act to provide for completion and consolidation of Railways between Halifax and Yarmouth
NSL 1886 chapter 16 — Provincial Secretary empowered to sell the Western Division
NSL 1887 chapter   2 — Amend chapter 16 of 1886, as to giving public notice of sale
NSL 1893 chapter  46 — Change the name of Western Counties Railway Co. Ltd. to Yarmouth & Annapolis Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1893 chapter 141 — Authorize the sale of the Yarmouth & Annapolis Railway to the W&AR
NSL 1893 chapter 142 — Authorize the purchase of the Yarmouth & Annapolis Railway by the W&AR
NSL 1893 chapter 143 — Amend chapter 141 of 1893

Also see: Western Counties Railway
by John R. Cameron

The Western Counties Railway
Halifax, March 16th, 1893: — Generally, all over the line of railway, between Halifax and Yarmouth [meaning the Windsor & Annapolis Railway and the Western Counties Railway] traffic operation is assuming a more healthy appearance; there is steady progress, the outlook seems favorable, and although it may be truly remarked there is plenty of room, and much need, for improvement, it is pleasing to be able to report each year a considerable advance towards a higher and more remunerative standard of railway returns.

The increase in passenger traffic shown by the figures in the table is no doubt largely due to the Yarmouth Steamship Company's enterprise and energy.  Every modern improvement in both the ships, the machinery and the furnishings that time and experience can suggest for the safety, quick dispatch, comfort and convenience of passengers is furnished for the run over this now popular route, Boston to Yarmouth.  The trip is short and pleasant, made in 17 hours; the line is gaining confidence and public favor and the summer stream of travel is yearly increasing as it is becoming better known.  Then again the railway companies receive the passengers at Yarmouth, give them more than American attention and forward them through during the summer months in parlour cars by flying (express) trains to Halifax.  This attention to the cultivation of tourist travel influences the growth and development of traffic, and is the chief cause of the results, so desirable, which it is our experience and pleasure year after year to place on record...

The following extract from the report of the Directors of the Windsor and Annapolis Railway Company for their fiscal year ending 30th September 1892, shows what has been done within the year by that company:

The year has been one of steady development, and the popularity of the railway, from the standpoint of both freight and passenger requirements, has been extended; but to attract and cope with an enlarged traffic, a considerable addition to the working expenses has been necessary.  The result of the year's business, especially in freight, has justified this inceased expenditure.

To meet competition, particularly from steamships plying between Boston and Halifax, improved facilities for travel had to be supplied.  Our system of advertising the district through which we run has resulted in making 'The Land of Evangeline' widely known beyond the borders of Canada, and in drawing visitors from the States.

The 1892 train mileage exceeds that of 1891 by 28,896 miles, the increase being alike influenced by passenger and freight traffic.

The capital expenditure for the year [1st October 1891 to 30th September 1892], amounting to £11,881 3s. 5d., has been incurred largely in connection with the addition of needed working equipment.  The development of freight and passenger traffic would have been otherwise hampered, and serious obstacles placed in the way of the company's expansion.

A new locomotive and 31 vehicles were added to the railway's rolling stock, and helped materially in swelling the gross receipts.  The important works completed during the year have been the construction of a commodious station at Annapolis, through which passes most of the traffic to and from the Upper Provinces and the States, and the erection of iron bridges at Kentville and Roundhill.

In the current year, 1893, the Western Counties Railway Company expects to lay out $150,000 on the improvement of their line and its equipment.

      (signed) Martin Murphy,
      Provincial Engineer
Source:
Report of the Provincial Engineer on the Subsidized Railways and
Other Public Works in the Province of Nova Scotia for the Year 1892
Appendix No. 7, pages 6-7
Journals of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, 1893

Weymouth & New France Railway
August 1897

Robb Locomotive Arrives

For the Pole Railway

Messrs. Stehelin's Railway

The New France Railway

A Cutting on the New France Railroad near Weymouth

Electric City

NSL 1900 chapter 119 — Act to incorporate the Weymouth Terminal Railway Co. Ltd.

NSL 1853 chapter 41 — Act to incorporate the Whitehaven Branch Railway Co.

NSL 1873 chapter 38 — Act to incorporate the Whitehaven, New Glasgow & North Shore Railway Co.

NSL 1877 chapter   74 — Act to incorporate the Whitehaven Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1879 chapter   68 — Amendment
NSL 1886 chapter 164 — Act to revive and amend, and change name to Guysborough & Atlantic Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1889 chapter 123 — Amendment
NSL 1890 chapter   78 — Change name back to Whitehaven Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1893 chapter 180 — Amend, and extend time
NSL 1896 chapter 106 — Amendment

NSL 1873 chapter 24 — Act to authorize the construction of a Tramway from White Rock Mills, by S.P. Benjamin and others

NSL 1897 chapter 111 — Act to incorporate S.P. Benjamin Co. Ltd.
NSL 1899 chapter 135 — Act to incorporate the Nova Scotia Electric Light Co. Ltd.
NSL 1900 chapter 165 — Amendments

NSL 1865 chapter  13 —
NSL 1866 chapter    1 — Act to incorporate the Windsor & Annapolis Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1867 chapter  36 — Act to incorporate again the Windsor & Annapolis Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1867 chapter  40 — Act to provide for a Station at Windsor
NSL 1868 chapter  24 — To assess the Windsor & Annapolis Railway Co. for Dyke Rates
NSL 1868 chapter  32 — To appraise for damages for W&AR, in Kings County
NSL 1868 chapter  33 — To appraise for damages for W&AR, in Annapolis County
NSL 1868 chapter  34 — Amendment, providing for three Arbitrators for Kings County
NSL 1869 chapter  23 —
NSL 1870 chapter  30 — Relating to assessments of property of the Windsor & Annapolis Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1870 chapter  31 —
NSL 1870 chapter  32 —
NSL 1870 chapter  33 —
NSL 1870 chapter  56 —
NSL 1873 chapter  86 — Act to incorporate the Windsor & Annapolis Railway Mutual Sick and Accident Fund Society
NSL 1877 chapter  28 —
NSL 1878 chapter  22 —
NSL 1880 chapter  69 —
NSL 1885 chapter  89 — Act to authorize the W&AR to change the location of the Middleton Station
NSL 1886 chapter    1 — Act to provide for completion and consolidation of Railways between Halifax and Yarmouth
NSL 1886 chapter    2 —
NSL 1892 chapter 107 — Re Cornwallis Valley Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1893 chapter   46 — Change the name of Western Counties Railway Co. Ltd. to Yarmouth & Annapolis Railway Co. Ltd.
NSL 1893 chapter 102 — Amend chapter 107 of 1892
NSL 1893 chapter 141 — Authorize the sale of the Yarmouth & Annapolis Railway to the W&AR
NSL 1893 chapter 142 — Authorize the purchase of the Yarmouth & Annapolis Railway by the W&AR
NSL 1893 chapter 143 — Amend chapter 141 of 1893

Windsor & Annapolis Railway
Passenger Train Timetable
Commencing 18 November 1889

Source: The Western Chronicle (weekly newspaper)
Kentville, 12 March 1890

Note: The W&AR timetable (above) includes this: “Trains of the Provincial and New England All Rail Line leave St. John for Bangor, Portland and Boston at 6:40 and 7:00am and 8:45pm, daily except Saturday evening and Sunday morning.”

Order in Council 1868-0284
Subject: Minister of Finance – Messrs Painchaud, Barry and Clarke for exchange on payment of Nova Scotia Bonds, Windsor and Annapolis Railway - If the Government of Nova Scotia approve - Canada to assume said Bonds amounting to £24,700 as part of Debt of Nova Scotia
OIC 1868-0284, page 1
OIC 1868-0284, page 2
On an application from Mr. C. Grant as agent for Messrs Painchaud, Barry and Clarke for payment in Exchange of £24,700 Sterling of the Bonds of Nova Scotia issued to them as contractors for the Windsor & Annapolis Railway...
Approved:   6 February 1868
— Source:   Ottawa, Federal Government Orders in Council
     http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/orders/001022-100.01-e.php

1872

Rules and regulations to be observed
by the officers and men in the service of the
Windsor and Annapolis Railway Company.
January 1st, 1872
—Source: Windsor and Annapolis Railway Rule Book 1872
http://archive.org/details/cihm_35506

• The Windsor & Hantsport Railway Company Limited [RJSC ID#2266257] was incorporated on 10 December 1993. As of 2 November 2001, it had its registered office at 1601 Lower Water Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the company's directors were:
• Robert T. Schmidt, Alexandria, Virginia; CEO
• Daniel R. Sabin, Northville, Michigan; President
• Benjamin F. ("Pete") Collins, Livonia, Michigan; Vice President
• John F. Depodesta, Alexandria, Virginia; Chairman
  Source: Nova Scotia Registry of Joint Stock Companies [RJSC]
      http://www.gov.ns.ca/snsmr/business/rjsc/

The Windsor & Hantsport Railway, New Minas,
Minas Warehouse Road crossing (three tracks), 18 February 2009
eighteen months after the Last Train departed on 17 August 2007
When this photograph was taken, this track had not been officially abandoned,
thus the railway company was legally required to maintain these crossing
signals in working order.  At this time, these signals were
still powered, and the track circuits were live.

Train to New Minas   15 June 2007
    http://ns1763.ca/rail/whr-minas-june15.html
Train to New Minas   22 June 2007
    http://ns1763.ca/rail/whr-minas-june22.html
Train to New Minas   27 June 2007
    http://ns1763.ca/rail/whr-minas-june27.html