Dominion Atlantic Railway

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

The Dominion Atlantic Railway (DAR) was a historic Canadian railway which ran in the northwestern part of Nova Scotia, primarily through an agricultural district known as the Annapolis Valley. DAR was operationally headquartered in Kentville, Nova Scotia, although corporate headquarters were in London, United Kingdom and later Montreal, Quebec. The company is still maintained on paper and is currently headquartered in Calgary, Alberta.

Creation through merger

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

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

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

The DAR also had a branch north of Kentville to Kingsport, the former Cornwallis Valley Railway and began construction in 1905 on a line formerly chartered as the North Mountain Railway from a point on this line at Centreville west to Weston.

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

Marine operations

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

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

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

Canadian Pacific Railway ownership

On November 13, 1911 the DAR and all of its subsidiaries was leased by the Canadian Pacific Railway, which permitted the railway to retain its independence in operations and corporate identity for many decades.

Throughout the First and Second World Wars, the DAR played an important regional transportation role, particularly during the latter conflict by being the sole railway serving a Royal Canadian Navy training and operations base on Annapolis Basin (HMCS Cornwallis), a Royal Canadian Air Force operations base at Greenwood (RCAF Station Greenwood), a RCAF training base at Stanley (RCAF Station Stanley), and a major Canadian Army training base near Kentville (Aldershot Military Camp). HMCS Cornwallis, Digby and Yarmouth were also important RCN operating ports.

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

By the 1970s, the DAR was starting to see its operations west of Kentville reduced almost to branchline status. The branches north of Kentville to Kingsport and Weston had been abandoned for lack of traffic on January 31, 1961 and CPR began reducing its passenger service to minimal levels between Halifax-Yarmouth and Windsor-Truro upon construction of the parallel taxpayer-funded all-weather Highway 101 between Halifax and Kentville. In a 1969 agreement with the provincial and federal governments, CPR built a new passenger/auto ferry for service between Saint John and Digby, while the governments built new ferry terminals and connecting highways. Both terminals no longer permitted rail-side transfers at the dock from passenger train to ferry, causing RDC service to suffer further declines in passenger numbers.

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

By the 1980s, DAR/CPR had transferred operation of Halifax-Yarmouth passener services to the federally owned Crown corporation VIA Rail (Windsor-Truro "mixed" train service having been abandoned in favour of freight-only service). Owing to improved schedules and connecting trains at Halifax, VIA saw traffic surge through the 1980s, eclipsing most of the decline experienced in previous decades.

Railway decline in southwestern Nova Scotia

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

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

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

Selling the DAR

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

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

External links

References

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