Windsor Junction is a suburban community in

Halifax Regional Municipality Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348 ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It is located approximately north west of Downtown Halifax and approximately north of the

Bedford Basin Bedford Basin is a large enclosed bay, forming the northwestern end of Halifax Harbour on Canada's Atlantic coast. It is named in honour of John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford. Geography Geographically, the basin is situated entirely within th ...

near the communities of

Fall River Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state. Located along the eastern shore of Mount H ...

, Lower Sackville, and

Waverley Waverley may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Waverley'' (novel), by Sir Walter Scott ** ''Waverley'' Overture, a work by Hector Berlioz inspired by Scott's novel * Waverley Harrison, a character in the New Zealand soap opera ''Shortland Stree ...

Railway History

The name of the community was established by the

Nova Scotia Railway The Nova Scotia Railway is a historic Canadian railway. It was composed of two lines, one connecting Richmond (immediately north of Halifax) with Windsor, the other connecting Richmond with Pictou Landing via Truro. The railway was incorpo ...

(NSR) in 1858 after a

railway junction A junction, in the context of rail transport, is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge. This implies a physical connection between the tracks of the two routes (assuming they are of the same gauge), provided by ''points'' ( ...

was located between Second and Third Lakes, north of the

. This junction was where the line from Halifax split into lines to

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...

and

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

. Another railway line was built from Dartmouth to Windsor Junction in 1896. The NSR and its railway stations were primarily built by Irish and German settlers in the area. With Nova Scotia's entry into

Confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

in 1867, ownership of the NSR passed from the provincial government to the federal government, which folded it into the

Intercolonial Railway The Intercolonial Railway of Canada , also referred to as the Intercolonial Railway (ICR), was a historic Canadian railway that operated from 1872 to 1918, when it became part of Canadian National Railways. As the railway was also completely o ...

(ICR). The line to Windsor was leased in 1871 to the Windsor & Annapolis Railway, which became part of the

Dominion Atlantic Railway The Dominion Atlantic Railway was a historic railway which operated in the western part of Nova Scotia in Canada, primarily through an agricultural district known as the Annapolis Valley. The Dominion Atlantic Railway was unusually diverse for a ...

(DAR) in 1894. The ICR built the railway line from Windsor Junction to Dartmouth in 1896 and the ICR became part of

Canadian Government Railways Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

in 1915, which was then folded into the Canadian National Railways (CNR) in 1918. In 1912 the DAR was purchased by Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Windsor Junction was served by two stations in its history, the first built in 1857, which included a saloon. It was replaced in 1882 by an Intercolonial Railway style station, noted for its station gardens, which was staffed until 1978 and then demolished in 1984."Windsor Junction Station", ''Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Institute''
/ref> In 1994, CPR sold the DAR and the line from Windsor Junction to Windsor became part of the

Windsor and Hantsport Railway The Windsor and Hantsport Railway was a railway line in Nova Scotia between Windsor Junction (north of Bedford) and New Minas with a spur at Windsor which runs several miles east, serving two gypsum quarries located at Wentworth Creek and Mant ...

(WHR). CN's mainline from Halifax-Truro and its branch from Windsor Junction to Dartmouth are still used by 8 to 10 freight trains daily, while the WHR used the line from Windsor Junction to Windsor on a less-frequent schedule, until about 2012 when it closed. The CN mainline at Windsor Junction still carries heavy freight service, mostly container trains, while

Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating ...

's ''

Ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...

'' passenger service passes through the community 6 days per week.

References

Windsor Junction - from "Destination Nova Scotia"

External links

* ttps://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Windsor+Junction,+NS&ie=UTF8&z=15&ll=44.789328,-63.642855&spn=0.018883,0.053902&om=1 Windsor Junction on Google Mapsbr>Satellite image of Windsor Junction
{{Communities_of_Bedford/Sackville Communities in Halifax, Nova Scotia General Service Areas in Nova Scotia