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76-530: The Dominion Atlantic Railway (DAR) was unusually diverse for a regional railway, operating its own hotel chain, steamship line and named luxury trains such as the Flying Bluenose . It is credited with playing a major role in developing Nova Scotia's tourism and agriculture industries. The DAR's corporate headquarters were originally located in London, United Kingdom , until 1912, followed by Montreal, Quebec , but

152-442: A YA novel entitled The Hat , inspired by what happened at Grand-Pré in 1755. There is no reference to Evangeline in the novel. The focus instead is on two fictional characters, 14-year old Marie and 10-year old Charles. In 1907, John Frederic Herbin , poet, historian, and jeweller, and whose mother was Acadian, purchased the land believed to be the site of the church of Saint-Charles so that it might be protected. The following year

228-516: A growing tourism market from New England and was an immediate success. It was joined by the New Yorker in the 1920s, a similar fast summer-only train which connected to New York steamships at Yarmouth. Famous in its day, the Flying Bluenose inspired the author Zillah K. Macdonald to write a children's book The Bluenose Express in 1928 personalizing the train's adventures in a style that predated

304-496: A high level of passenger service not usually seen on regional railways. The DAR not only operated a busy schedule of mixed and express trains, but building on service first tried by its predecessor company, the W&;A, the DAR launched several prominent named trains such as the Flying Bluenose and the New Yorker connecting with Boston and New York steamships in the summer. The railway bought

380-470: A longtime focus of DAR travel. By 1984, Via reported that traffic in its Halifax-Yarmouth service had quadrupled to an average of more than 100 passengers per trip, eclipsing most of the decline experienced in previous decades. The Evangeline would continue operating until January 15, 1990, following a massive cut in funding to Via's branch line services ordered in the 1989 federal budget by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's government. Abandonment proceedings for

456-522: A minor locally consumed crop to a large export industry, eventually shipping millions of barrels every year as the major supplier of apples to the United Kingdom. Following a brief slump in World War I , apple traffic reached its peak in the 1930s. Over 150 apple warehouses were built along the DAR mainline and its branch lines. For many decades, the period from September to April saw heavy apple traffic on

532-534: 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

608-470: A new passenger/auto ferry for service between Saint John and Digby, while the governments built new ferry terminals and connecting highways. Both of the new ferry terminals were built away from the railway lines, so that neither permitted rail-side transfers at the dock from passenger train to ferry, causing the Dayliner or RDC service to suffer further declines in passenger numbers. The only bright spot for DAR

684-546: A nostalgic look at the life and landscape of 1930s Annapolis Valley by Esther Clark Wright . The Dominion Atlantic inspired poetry by noted Nova Scotian writer George Elliot Clarke , a wistful, erotic poem of youth entitled "Dominion Atlantic Railway" in his 1983 book Saltwater Spirituals and Deeper Blues . The noted Canadian painter Alex Colville drew inspiration from several DAR trackside scenes for several major works including his painting "French Cross" and "Dog and Bridge". Flying Bluenose The Flying Bluenose

760-574: A piece of the land and funds were raised to build a memorial church in Grand-Pré. Construction began in the spring of 1922 and the exterior was finished by November. The interior of the church was finished in 1930, the 175th anniversary of the Deportation, and the church opened as a museum. As railway tourism declined in the face of subsidized highway construction, the Dominion Atlantic sold the park to

836-696: A rising CPR superintendent, was appointed General Manager in 1915 to upgrade and expand the DAR. Major new investments were made in locomotives and service facilities. Graham built the Grand Pré Park and built a chain of DAR railway hotels including the Digby Pines Resort, the Cornwallis Inn in Kentville (long converted to apartments and commercial space before being renamed Main Street Station in 2022) and

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912-541: A staple for tourism traffic on the Dominion Atlantic and the Grand Pre site was located beside the railway's mainline. The railway made substantial investments in developing the park and promoting the history and lore of Acadians. Extensive gardens were planted at the site and a small museum was opened. In 1920 the Dominion Atlantic erected a statue of Evangeline conceived by Canadian sculptor Louis-Philippe Hébert and, after his death, finished by his son Henri. The railway deeded

988-506: 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. A smaller service also operated across the Minas Basin from the smaller ports of Kingsport and Wolfville . In 1901,

1064-667: A year in its first five years and is regarded by historians as the introduction of mass tourism in Atlantic Canada. In an era when few women were employed in positions of responsibility business, the DAR had some of the first female station masters in Canada who, beginning in 1904, ran a number of stations on the line including Mount Uniacke Station, the Avonport Station, the Grand Pre station and Cambridge Station. The DAR maintained

1140-599: Is a park set aside to commemorate the Grand-Pré area of Nova Scotia as a centre of Acadian settlement from 1682 to 1755, and the British deportation of the Acadians that happened during the French and Indian War . The original village of Grand Pré extended four kilometres along the ridge between present-day Wolfville and Hortonville . Grand-Pré is listed as a World Heritage Site and

1216-602: Is the main component of two National Historic Sites of Canada . Grand-Pré (French for great meadow ) is located on the shore of the Minas Basin, an area of tidal marshland, first settled about 1680 by Pierre Melanson dit La Verdure, his wife Marguerite Mius d'Entremont and their five young children who came from nearby Port-Royal , which was the first capital of the French settlement of Acadia ( Acadie in French). Pierre Melanson and

1292-697: The Canadian Pacific Railway purchased the DAR in 1911, they sold some of its steamship connections, such as the Yarmouth steamships, but expanded others, such as the Digby-Saint John route, which received large new steamships such as the SS Princess Helene . The DAR was closely tied to the apple industry in the Annapolis Valley. The arrival of the railway in the 1860s transformed apples from

1368-499: The Grand Pre memorial gardens. VIA Rail's Evangeline Dayliner maintained the route of the Flying Bluenose until 1989, minus the luxurious elements of the older train. The Flying Bluenose ran through Nova Scotia's scenic Annapolis Valley offering many fine views of the Annapolis Basin , Minas Basin and Cape Blomidon. It crossed several large tidal rivers. The train connected to fast passenger steamers at Yarmouth but also

1444-605: The Halifax Explosion in 1917. The DAR's importance increased in the Second World War as it was the sole railway serving HMCS Cornwallis , a Royal Canadian Navy training and operations base on Annapolis Basin, RCAF Station Greenwood at Greenwood and RCAF Station Stanley at Stanley , as well as the Aldershot Military Camp . HMCS Cornwallis, Digby and Yarmouth were also important RCN operating ports. In

1520-744: The Kings County Museum in while the Musquodoboit Harbour Railway Museum has preserved the DAR collection of George Warden. A large DAR photograph collection is preserved at the Middleton Railway Museum in Middleton, Nova Scotia . The Apple Capital Museum in Berwick, Nova Scotia presents the railway's role in the apple industry with a large working model railway diorama. Strangely, the town of Kentville, once headquarters to

1596-591: The Lord Nelson Hotel in Halifax. With its own steamships, hotels and branch lines, the DAR was regarded by some as a "Canadian Pacific in miniature". Throughout the First World War the DAR played an important wartime role. It shipped large numbers of troops from the major Canadian Army training base near Kentville ( Aldershot Military Camp ). A DAR relief train was one of the first trains to rush with help after

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1672-593: The Raid on Grand Pré (1704) happened and Major Benjamin Church burned the entire village. After the war, in 1713, part of Acadia became Nova Scotia, and Port-Royal, now called Annapolis Royal, became its capital. Over the next 40 years the Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to the British crown. Some were motivated not to sign for fear of losing their religion, some were afraid of repercussions from their native allies, some did not want to take up arms against

1748-566: The "missing gap" between Digby and Annapolis Royal was completed linking Halifax and Yarmouth by rail for the first time. This created an opportunity for a fast luxury service aimed at American tourists connecting Halifax with passenger steamers at Yarmouth. The name Flying Bluenose combined two earlier trains of the Windsor and Annapolis Railway , the Flying Acadian and the Bluenose . The name

1824-427: The 300th anniversary of the arrival of the first Acadians in the region in 1682, the Grand-Pré memorial park was designated the "Grand-Pré National Historic Site" in commemoration of the settlement and later deportation of the Acadians. In 1995, the site and surrounding region were designated the "Grand-Pré Rural Historic District National Historic Site" in honour of the rural cultural landscape which features one of

1900-451: The Acadians who joined him in Grand-Pré built dykes there to hold back the tides along the Minas Basin. They created rich pastures for their animals and fertile fields for their crops. Grand-Pré became the bread basket of Acadia, soon outgrew Port-Royal, and by the mid-18th century was the largest of the numerous Acadian communities around the Bay of Fundy and the coastline of Nova Scotia (Latin for "New Scotland"). During Queen Anne's War ,

1976-673: The Canadian federal government in 1957. The Canadian Parks Service took over operation of the park. It was designated a National Historic Site in 1982. The Visitor Reception and Interpretation Center features exhibits about the history of Grand-Pré and Acadia . A video presentation presents the story of the Acadian deportation . Grand-Pré National Historic Site is also the location of an archaeological site sponsored by St. Mary’s University , Parks Canada , and Sociéte Promotion Grand-Pré. While excavations have been undertaken by Parks Canada since 1971,

2052-608: The DAR ferries at Digby to Saint John, New Brunswick such as SS  Princess Helene and the MV ; Kipawo ferry at Wolfville . In Halifax, it connected to ocean liners of various lines as well as the transcontinental trains of the Intercolonial Railway of Canada and later Canadian National Railway trains such as the Ocean Limited . Grand-Pr%C3%A9 National Historic Site Grand-Pré National Historic Site

2128-632: The DAR owned and operated nine 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-Wolfville connecting at Parrsboro with the Cumberland Railway 's line to Springhill ; the MV Kipawo being the 13th and last vessel on this particular service. The service was terminated during World War II after

2204-493: The DAR, moving apples from warehouses to ocean steamers at Halifax, often requiring double-headed specials. These exports were sharply curtailed during World War II and Nova Scotia never regained its market share in Europe. Nova Scotia's apple industry eventually stabilized after the war but on a smaller scale. The large Scotian Gold co-operative apple processing plant was built beside the DAR mainline at Coldbrook, Nova Scotia using

2280-465: The DAR, showed little interest in the railway's legacy and turned down all offers to preserve equipment or buildings. The DAR's large 2-storey station housing the railway's headquarters was the oldest station in Nova Scotia and one of the oldest wood railway stations in Canada was demolished in 1990. In May 2007, the town of Kentville revealed plans to demolish the town's last surviving railway structure,

2356-448: The Dominion Atlantic's major influence on tourism and heritage presentation in Nova Scotia, it also inspired several generations of writers and artists. The noted Canadian poet Charles G. D. Roberts wrote a book of prose and verse sponsored by the railway in 1900. Children's author Zillah K. Macdonald wrote two books The Bluenose Express (1928) and Mic Mac on the Track (1930), personalizing

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2432-533: The French and others were anti-British (see Military history of the Acadians ). During King George's War the French made numerous attempts to regain Acadia (See Siege of Annapolis Royal (1744) and in 1745 ). As a result of British attempts to secure their control over the Bay of Fundy region, they were defeated by some local Acadians, Mi'kmaq and Canadiens in the Battle of Grand Pre . Father Le Loutre's War began with

2508-558: 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

2584-561: The Kentville to Yarmouth portion of the line were commenced by CP with in three months of the VIA cuts. 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

2660-458: The Kingsport line between Kentville and Steam Mill Village . On September 16, 1993, the DAR operated the last freight train in Kentville and by October had reduced its westernmost trackage to New Minas. The locomotive shop facilities were moved that month from Kentville to Windsor. In 1993 CPR announced that it was selling its entire Canadian Atlantic Railway subsidiary, including the DAR. Although

2736-463: The Mi'kmaq by deporting Acadians from Acadia. After the Battle of Fort Beauséjour , the British began the removal of the Acadians . During the Bay of Fundy Campaign (1755) , Lieutenant Colonel John Winslow arrived in Grand-Pré with troops on August 19, 1755 and took up headquarters in the church. Winslow also built a palisade, which was recently uncovered through archeological research. The men and boys of

2812-663: The Musquodoboit Railway Museum in Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia , although the combine was demolished in 2021. One of the DAR's first RDC Dayliner , DAR 9058 (later VIA 6133) has been preserved by railway author and model company owner Jason Shron. A monument to Vernon Smith, the railway engineer who built much of the line was built beside the DAR tracks at a waterfront park in Wolfville in 2013. A large collection of Dominion Atlantic Railway artifacts are held at

2888-536: 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 , began operations on August 27, 1994, maintaining service on

2964-665: The Nova Scotia Registry of Joint Stock; its headquarters are now in Calgary, Alberta . Portions of the line were operated by the Windsor and Hantsport Railway until 2011. The DAR was created on October 1, 1894, through a merger of two end-to-end systems. the Windsor and Annapolis Railway (W&A) and the Western Counties Railway (WCR). The larger and more successful W&A bought out the rival WCR for CA$ 265,000 (equivalent to $ 10.7   million in 2023). The merger

3040-612: The Nova Scotia legislature passed an act to incorporate the Trustees of the Grand-Pré Historic Grounds. Herbin built a stone cross on the site to mark the cemetery of the church, using stones from the remains of what he believed to be Acadian foundations. Herbin sold the property to the Dominion Atlantic Railway in 1917 on the condition that Acadians be involved in its preservation. Acadian history had already become

3116-483: The Truro branch line to light freight status. Passenger service on the DAR began to rise, particularly after a 1983 schedule change which provided a daily return trip to Halifax from all points on the line, as well as improved connections to other Via trains at Halifax. Via also introduced refurbished Budd RDCs , and began a modest promotional campaign which included reviving the name Evangeline , drawing on Acadian history,

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3192-452: The area were ordered into the church on September 5. Winslow informed them that all but their personal goods were to be forfeited to the Crown and that they and their families were to be deported as soon as ships arrived to take them away. (At exactly the same time, the Acadians in the neighbouring village of Pisiguit were informed of the same declaration at Fort Edward . ) Some Acadians escaped

3268-645: The arrival of ten EMD SW1200RS road switchers in April 1959. The SW1200RSes replaced the S-3s, and all but one steam locomotive, which was retained for a short time, a switcher used in service between Kentville and local communities until 1961. The railway also saw CPR introduce two Budd Company Rail Diesel Cars (RDC) in August 1956 to reduce operating costs of its passenger services which had previously been conventional trains hauled by steam locomotives. The new diesel passenger service

3344-466: The deportation and continued their armed resistance against the British throughout the expulsion campaigns. Before the first year was over, however, more than 6,000 Acadians were deported from the Bay of Fundy region. Many villages were burned to the ground to ensure the Acadians would not be able to return. Thousands more would be deported in the second wave of the Expulsion of the Acadians , which involved

3420-488: The deportation of the Acadians from Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island (1758). The deportation continued until England and France made peace in 1763. In all, 12,000 Acadians were deported. Many Acadians died from drowning, starvation, imprisonment, and exposure. When the poem, Evangeline , by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was published in the United States in 1847, the story of the Deportation and le Grand Dérangement,

3496-460: The establishment of Halifax , which became the new capital for the colony in 1749. The British established Fort Vieux Logis at Grand Pre, which a Mi'kmaq and Acadian militia attacked in the Siege of Grand Pre . During the French and Indian War , the British sought to neutralize any military threat Acadians might have posed and to interrupt the vital supply lines Acadians provided to Louisbourg and

3572-600: The famous Thomas the Tank Engine characters created by British railway enthusiast Rev. Wilbert Awdry in 1942. A steep decline in travel during the Great Depression eroded the market for the Flying Bluenose and it was cancelled about 1936. Equipment and services were transferred to the Dominion Atlantic's daily fast passenger trains which continued many of the traditions of the Flying Bluenose such as open observation cars, fresh Digby scallops and flower arrangements from

3648-618: The field school has been operational for ten years, during which archaeologists have identified the cemetery for the Acadian period, the cellar of an Acadian house immediately to the east of the Memorial Church, and has conducted test pits throughout the site looking for evidence of the parish church, St-Charles-des-Mines; Pierre-Alain Bugeauld (Bujold) was the Church Warden [Marguillier aux Mines];

3724-420: The first Pullman parlour cars in all of Canada for this service. Influenced by promotional themes from Yarmouth steamship companies, the DAR developed an identity as "The Land of Evangeline Route" exploiting interest in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem about the Acadians. This promotion grew to include a whole series of posters, postcards, books, named locomotives and a prominent herald depicting Evangeline which

3800-545: The former Cornwallis Valley Railway , completed in 1889. A westward extension of this branch was started in 1905 on a line formally chartered as the North Mountain Railway, from a junction on the Kingsport line at Centreville west to Weston . It was completed in 1914. In 1905, the DAR purchased the Midland Railway , giving a more direct connection between Windsor and the ICR at Truro , where lines headed east to Pictou and Cape Breton Island and west to New Brunswick . The DAR exploited its steamship connections to develop

3876-446: The great uprooting, was told to the English-speaking world. Grand-Pré, forgotten for almost a century, became popular for American tourists who wanted to visit the birthplace of the poem's heroine, Evangeline. But nothing remained of the original village except the dykelands and a row of old willows. There is a bust of Henry W. Longfellow on site by Sir Thomas Brock . In 2018, Canadian historian and novelist A. J. B. Johnston published

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3952-430: The mainline connection at Windsor Junction. The DAR system also connected with the Midland Railway at Windsor, the Nova Scotia Central Railway (NSCR) and the Middleton and Victoria Beach Railway (M&VBR) at Middleton , and the Halifax and Southwestern Railway (H&SW) 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 ,

4028-440: The mid to late 1980s; in addition, there were several large steel bridges on this section of the railroad that were nearing the end of their maintenance lifecycle, thus requiring major expenditures. By 1989, almost the only trains using this portion of the DAR were the Via RDCs, which were experiencing passenger declines due to recent highway expansion and competing bus services, as well as changes to Via connecting train schedules. In

4104-418: The original long-term lease of the Windsor Branch from CN until it expired in 2013. A number of DAR stations were restored for adaptive re-use such as a town library in Wolfville, a restaurant in Bridgetown and a museum in Middleton. Two stations, Hantsport and Wolfville, are federally protected buildings, designated since 1992 under the Heritage Railway Stations Protection Act . Only one DAR steam locomotive

4180-404: The other hand, operated between Yarmouth and Digby . The new DAR thus had a gap in its trackage between Annapolis Royal and Digby, which would otherwise be continuous from Yarmouth to Halifax. The gap was eventually closed in the early 1890s with government assistance. Although the DAR technically connected to the ICR at Windsor, the ICR rarely operated on this line and left it to the DAR beyond

4256-484: The passenger/auto ferry connection between Digby and Saint John. With passenger service falling, the DAR sold its hotel chain as well as the Grand Pré Park in 1957. A larger new ferry terminal was built with federal assistance at Digby Gut in 1971 but its location away from the DAR's track and station in Digby ended the ferry - rail connection. During my years of traveling from my home town of Truro to Acadia University in Wolfville (1969–1974) I learned that passenger service

4332-427: The post-war years the DAR moved to replace its steam locomotives with diesel-powered models. However the railway was relatively late among its North American counterparts in doing so (possibly owing to abundant coal being mined in Nova Scotia). The railway experimented with two diesel-electric ALCO S-3 switchers for several months, which were placed in service on July 1, 1956. Steam locomotives were not displaced until

4408-425: The post-war years. In 1978, financial responsibility for the Halifax-Yarmouth passenger services was transferred to the federally owned Crown corporation Via Rail from the DAR/CPR. The Windsor-Truro mixed train passenger service on the Midland , which had survived as the last mixed train on the CPR and one of the last mixed trains in North America, was abandoned in 1979 after being deemed non-essential, reducing

4484-400: The postwar collapse of the apple industry and reduced to a three-mile spur line to Steam Mill Village . 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 after 1970. In a 1969 agreement with the provincial and federal governments, CPR built

4560-402: The railway to ship apple and fruit products until the 1970s. On November 13, 1911, the DAR and all of its subsidiaries were leased by the Canadian Pacific Railway . The move gave the CPR access to the port of Halifax. The new owners allowed the DAR to retain its independence in operations and corporate identity for many decades, making it "the most famous railway in the province". George Graham,

4636-430: The railway's locomotives and their adventures in a style that predated the famous Thomas the Tank Engine characters created by British railway enthusiast Rev. Wilbert Awdry in 1942. In the rural Canadian classic, The Mountain and the Valley (1952) by Ernest Buckler , the railway is used as an important symbol of change and the outside world. The Dominion Atlantic features prominently in the book Blomidon Rose (1957),

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4712-449: The remnants of the DAR between Windsor and New Minas, including the remnant of the Truro Subdivision that served the large open pit gypsum mines several miles east of Windsor, as well as operating the "Windsor Branch" to Windsor Junction where the system had a connection with CN's mainline between Halifax and Montreal. The Windsor and Hantsport ceased operation in 2011 after gypsum exports to the United States collapsed. The W&H had assumed

4788-401: The rest of the railway's existence although the name remained on maintenance of way vehicles, some passenger timetables, tickets, stationary, as well as a few stations. Declining passenger business and the collapse of the Annapolis Valley's apple industry led to reduction in service. The DAR's steamship services on Minas Basin and the Gulf of Maine were abandoned, although the company maintained

4864-401: The ten-stall roundhouse. The move triggered a protest movement led by such groups as the Nova Scotia Railway Heritage Society as it was the last such structure in all of Nova Scotia and one of the last in Canada; it was still in remarkably good condition and many organizations felt it could be converted for public or commercial purposes. It was demolished on July 9 and 10, 2007. In addition to

4940-432: The vessel was requisitioned by the Royal Canadian Navy . In 1904, service was expanded to use three 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 Resort and the Cornwallis Inn in Kentville. After

5016-411: Was a Canadian luxury passenger train operated by the Dominion Atlantic Railway between Halifax , Nova Scotia and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia from 1891 to 1936. It was a boat train scheduled to connect with passenger steamships to Boston and ran only during the summer months. This summertime fast luxury train was the premier passenger service on the Dominion Atlantic Railway . It began in 1891 when

5092-614: Was about to end on the DAR. My father used to travel on the DAR to Acadia 30 years earlier so I was sad to hear the news. I decided that I would be the last paying passenger on the DAR. The trip was only from Truro to near Windsor. The passenger car being too old and too sooty, I traveled in the caboose and ate my breakfast with the train crew. By the 1970s, the DAR was starting to see its operations west of Kentville reduced to branch line status. The Cornwallis Valley Railway branch lines north of Kentville to Kingsport and Weston were abandoned on January 31, 1961, for lack of passenger traffic and

5168-457: Was also a Notary (1706) and a Judge/Justice (1707). Acadian artefacts that have been unearthed include fragments of Saintonge ceramic, nails, wine bottle glass, window pane glass, a 1711 French silver coin, spoons, belt buckles, buttons, clay pipes, etc. There seems to also be evidence of the occupation by New England troops, as well as considerable evidence of the New England Planter occupation period beginning in 1760. The "Landscape of Grand Pré"

5244-458: Was always operationally headquartered in Kentville, Nova Scotia , where the railway retained a unique identity and a high degree of independence until the end of the steam era. A depiction of Evangeline from the poem Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie published in 1847 by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was incorporated into the DAR logo along with the text 'Land of Evangeline Route'. The company is still legally incorporated and files annual returns with

5320-408: Was authorized by the provincial legislature in 1893. 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 (IRC) 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

5396-432: Was called The Evangeline , although it was widely known in the Annapolis Valley as "The Dayliner". The S-3 diesel locomotives and the original two RDCs were lettered Dominion Atlantic, which makes them unique as the only diesel era equipment lettered for a Canadian Pacific subsidiary line. However, later locomotives and subsequent RDCs were lettered Canadian Pacific. The road name Dominion Atlantic gradually faded throughout

5472-523: Was in gypsum traffic, a mineral that was quarried just east of Windsor and hauled to expanded port facilities at Hantsport ; it was in high demand throughout the post-war years during the North American housing construction boom. 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

5548-549: Was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on June 30, 2012, having been added to Canada's tentative list of potential World Heritage Sites in 2004. The 1,300 hectares (3,200 acres) of polderised marshland and archaeological sites in the Grand-Pré area were recognized as an "exceptional example of the adaptation of the first European settlers to the conditions of the North American Atlantic coast" and as "a memorial to Acadian way of life and deportation". In 1982, on

5624-764: Was preserved, No. 999 Fronsac , at the Canadian Railway Museum in Delson, Quebec . The DAR's business car Nova Scotia is being preserved at the Toronto Railway Museum , Toronto, Ontario , while a passenger coach, No. 1303 Micmac , is preserved at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa, Ontario . A snowplow and combine car (used for the Windsor-Truro mixed train service until 1978) were preserved at

5700-417: Was seen on all DAR publications and most locomotives. The DAR purchased land at Grand Pré in 1917 and built a large garden and replica church dedicated to the memory of the Acadians. It became not only a popular tourism destination but also evolved into a shrine to Acadian people. The successful development of this market created a remarkable growth in DAR passenger traffic which soared to over 200,000 riders

5776-485: Was taken from an affectionate nickname for Nova Scotians and predated the name of the famous racing schooner Bluenose by many years. The Dominion Atlantic purchased the first Pullman parlour cars in all of Canada, the "Haligonian" and "Mayflower" for the run. After the Canadian Pacific Railway purchased the Dominion Atlantic in 1912, buffet observation cars were added, carrying the Dominion Atlantic's "land of Evangeline" herald on drumheads . The train successfully tapped

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