The Nova Scotia Railway is a historic

Canadian 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 ...

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

. It was composed of two lines, one connecting

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, Californi ...

(immediately north of Halifax) with Windsor, the other connecting Richmond with Pictou Landing via Truro. The railway was incorporated March 31, 1853 and received a charter to build railway lines from Halifax to Pictou by way of Truro, as well as from Halifax to

Victoria Beach, Nova Scotia Victoria Beach is a small community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, in Annapolis County. It is on the shore of Digby Gut, a narrow channel connecting the Bay of Fundy with the Annapolis Basin. In 1849, it was the western terminus of N ...

on the Annapolis Basin opposite

Digby Digby may refer to: Places Australia * Digby, Victoria, a town Canada * Digby (electoral district), a former federal electoral district in Nova Scotia (1867–1914) * Digby (provincial electoral district), a provincial electoral district ...

by way of Windsor. The company also received a charter to build from Truro to the border with

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) 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. It is the only province with both English and ...

. The railway was a key project of the visionary Nova Scotian leader

Joseph Howe Joseph Howe (December 13, 1804 – June 1, 1873) was a Nova Scotian journalist, politician, public servant, and poet. Howe is often ranked as one of Nova Scotia's most admired politicians and his considerable skills as a journalist and writer ha ...

who felt a government built railway led by Nova Scotia was necessary after the failure of 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 ow ...

talks and several fruitless private proposals. The railway line to Windsor (known as the Windsor Branch) was opened in June 1858 and the line to Truro (known as the Eastern Line) was opened in December 1858. No further work was undertaken on the line to Victoria Beach beyond Windsor but the Eastern Line to Pictou Landing was completed by June 1867, under the supervision of Sir Sandford Fleming. The construction of the Nova Scotia Railway by the colonial government was partly encouraged by the construction failures and ongoing delays in building the Shubenacadie Canal The success of the railway came at the expense of the canal which opened in 1861, but soon fell into disrepair from lack of use (and because the rail bridges over the canal were too low for the steamers on the canal). One noteworthy early feature of operations on the Nova Scotia Railway was the first known case of intermodal operations involving the "piggyback" transport of road vehicles on railway cars. Farmers in the Windsor area were able to drive their teams of horses and loaded wagons onto railway cars and be transported into Halifax to sell their loads, returning to Windsor the same day. On July 1, 1867, ownership of the NSR was passed from the

Government of Nova Scotia The Government of Nova Scotia (french: Gouvernement de la Nouvelle-Écosse, gd, Riaghaltas Alba Nuadh) refers to the provincial government of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia is one of Canada's four Atlantic Provinces, and the sec ...

to the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown-i ...

The Windsor Branch was leased to the Windsor and Annapolis Railway in 1871. The W&A became part of the Dominion Atlantic Railway or DAR in 1894 and the DAR itself was purchased by the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canad ...

or CPR in 1912, although it was operated as a separate entity. When the DAR was sold by CPR in 1994, the Windsor Branch came under the control of the shortline

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 ...

. The Government of Canada dissolved the NSR in 1872 when it became part of the

. The ICR in turn was controlled by Canadian Government Railways from 1915 to 1918 and was merged into the

Canadian National Railways The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. C ...

or CNR in 1918. The Halifax to Truro line remains part of CN, however the rest of the Eastern Line from Truro to Pictou was sold by CN in 1993 to the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway as part of CN's sale of the entire Truro to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

line.

External links

History of Railway Companies in Nova ScotiaDominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative - Wiki

References

* Iron Roads of Nova Scotia, David E. Stephens, Lancelot Press, Windsor NS {{DEFAULTSORT:Nova Scotia Railway Nova Scotia Railway Nova Scotia Railway Defunct Nova Scotia railways Predecessors of the Intercolonial Railway 1853 establishments in Nova Scotia 1872 disestablishments in Canada 5 ft 6 in gauge railways in Canada Railway companies established in 1853 Railway companies disestablished in 1872