Canadian National's
Halifax and Southwestern Railway

By Jim Simmons

Preface

So often tales of Canada's railway heritage stop at Montreal with the area east, especially east of Moncton N.B., being the vast wasteland. The Maritimes too, have a story to tell of their railway heritage. This is just one such story of a once proud line servicing Nova Scotia's South Shore from Halifax to Yarmouth. The railway servicing the for-mentioned area was one of the Canadian Northern roads, namely, the Halifax and Southwestern, before C.N.R. amalgamation in the 1920's.

Being that my father and grandfather, and numerous other family members were all "railway people" accounts for my avid interest in railways, Canadian National in particular. My father was a locomotive engineer and grew up in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, the heart of Halifax and Southwestern country. My grandfather was a conductor on "The Owl", a local from Bridgewater to Yarmouth, N.S. As a boy, I fondly remember weekend outings to the Bridgewater area and seeing the majestic Bridgewater station, or riding parallel to the tracks near New Germany, N.S. watching the Bridgewater to Middleton freight.

The Halifax and Southwestern, in name has long been gone although was known locally as the "Southwestern" to the day of its demise. All traces of the line are fast disappearing with the only remnant being a short industrial spur from Southwestern Junction in Halifax to Lakeside on the outskirts of the city. If a railway could operate on sentiment alone, this line would have been among the first to have its future assured.

The Halifax and Southwestern Railway did not retain its identity after its takeover by Canadian National as its Canadian Pacific owned cousin, Dominion Atlantic did, but it is interesting to note that the Halifax and Southwestern did exist on paper well into the 1950's.

This work is dedicated to my father who fostered my interest in railways and the many individuals who worked on the "Southwestern" in its many names throughout the years. (The Southwestern Division, The Bridgewater Sub., The Chester Sub., …)

The Beginnings of the
Halifax and Southwestern

The "H&SW" as it was known or to others the less complimentary monogram of the" Hellish Slow and Wobbley" came into existence in 1901 and was the last sizeable railway to be built in Nova Scotia. The Halifax and Southwestern's existence was owed to two enterprising businessmen of the day, William MacKenzie and Donald Mann. Among the sterling empire builders who dominated the Canadian scene in the opening years of the 20th century none were more widely known or more potent than the firm of MacKenzie and Mann.

MacKenzie and Mann promoted what was to become one of the most colossal flaps in the history of North American rail transportation, the Canadian Northern Railway System. In 1904, Sir Wilfred Laurier, looking around for a popular issue for the impending federal election, embraced the Grand Trunk’s hopeful vision, and the Canadian Northern was doomed. Yet such was the genius and audacity of the MacKenzie and Mann combination that may very well might have succeeded but for the appearance on the scene of The Grand Trunk Pacific and The National Transcontinental.

In the spring of 1901, MacKenzie and Mann approached the Nova Scotia government with their offer of a railway from Yarmouth to Halifax. At the time, they owned more than two thousand miles of railway in Canada. The premier of the day, George H. Murray, was flattered by their interest and the agreement was quickly pushed through the proper channels. The Halifax and Southwestern was born and within weeks, construction was begun at both ends of the line.

MacKenzie and Mann, undaunted by the failure of the Canadian Northern Railway, went blithely ahead. The eastern railhead was at Montreal and they tackled the problem of reaching the Atlantic in reverse, by starting in Cape Breton, where they built the Inverness Railway. They then projected the Halifax and Southwestern Railway, which would at last give the South Shore of Nova Scotia a direct rail link with Halifax.

MacKenzie and Mann had been subcontractors on the construction of the C.P.R. short line across Maine, and like the C.P.R. they bought or leased land where they could and built only when they had to. Compared to their predecessors, MacKenzie and Mann moved at lightning speed, completing the Bridgewater to Halifax section of the line in late 1904 and in 1905 the section from Bridgewater to Barrington Passage was opened to traffic. On December 19, 1906, the first passenger train reached Yarmouth from Halifax, and a regular tri-weekly service was instituted on December 22. In 1910, the line transported no fewer than 202,000 people. Before the automobile began to makes its competition felt, totals finally reached the figure of over a quarter of a million passengers a year.

Canadian National Railways, who took over the line in 1919, applied for abandonment in various stages between 1976 and 1993, with the entire line being abandoned except a short piece servicing industries just outside of Halifax. With the systematic abandonment of the line, the station at Bridgewater became surplus, with all of the administration being moved to Chester Subdivision offices. Although the railway was once a thriving enterprise in Bridgewater, its activity steadily declined from the 1930's onward. Many attempts were made over the years to restore the long vacant station but the question of its preservation became academic. In 1982, just slightly more than seven years before its 100th birthday, the town witnessed the tragic end of this historic building as it was destroyed by fire, its remains, unsalvageable.

-- Chronicle Herald: --
December 23, 1982

BRIDGEWATER - Fifty volunteer firemen fought unsuccessfully Wednesday to save Bridgewaters' historic Canadian National Railways station. The 92-year-old building burned to the ground.

Hundreds of residents and Christmas shoppers lined the streets and the town bridge as black smoke billowed into the sky and drifted down the Lahave River.

The fire department was called to the Lahave Street building at 11:30 a.m. when smoke began filtering out of the abandoned building's boarded up windows.

The blaze was well under way by the time it was noticed, Bridgewater Fire Department Chief Frank Gow said.

Chief Gow said firemen were unable to get the water right in on the flames.

Two firemen were injured. One fell on ice and broke two ribs and another got cinders in his eyes.

The Bridgewater Heritage and Historical Society had been working for two years on plans to restore the C.N.R. station, one of the few remaining historic landmarks in the town.

Florrie Little, society president, said the fire means a great loss to the town, future citizens, and the many tourists and visitors who come here each summer.

Ms. Little said the restoration of the building was nearing completion, and work was to have started this spring.

A recent examination showed it to be in very good shape, and only superficial repairs were needed.

The old C.N.R. station was also part of a Bridgewater Chamber of Commerce project in 1978 when it sponsored a "Save the Station" program under the leadership of Mr. Ozzie Stiles. Mr. Stiles said that the station was one of the town's few historic structures and leaves a void.

He said that at one time the station employed more than fifty people, and was the centre of all activity in the town. Mr. Stiles said that the building had great potential, perhaps for a tourist information centre or a craft shop. He said during the time that he headed the campaign to save the station he received letters from all over Canada, the U.S., and Europe from interested people who supported the idea of keeping the station operating as a tourist attraction.

Six Bridgewater fire trucks were used, and a backup crew remained on standby in Lunenburg.

Bridgewater firemen remained on the scene throughout the day to ensure that the fire was kept under control. Cause of the blaze is under investigation.

South Shore
Passenger Service Ends

-- Halifax Chronicle Herald --
October 27, 1969

Mixed train 244, Yarmouth to Halifax, disembarked its last passengers Saturday night at the C.N, terminal in Halifax to mark the end of a passenger service to the South Shore area of the province, which was more than sixty years old.

There was no fanfare, no special celebration, at the end of the line for the train.

The three cars, one for baggage, one for express mail, and another for passengers, were quickly shunted to one side and the two engines returned to the roundhouse in Fairview. Only a handful of railway personnel were aware that it was the last passenger run for the train.

Last Trip

Engineer Charlie Hatfield, Truro and Bridgewater, who replaced the regular engineer, John Woodsworth, had the distinction of making the last trip carrying passengers on the line.

Mr. Hatfield, leaning out of the engine, described the trip as fairly "normal" and "uneventful."

It wasn't always so!

Only a few short years ago passengers formed the nucleus of the South Shore train service. During the Second World War and up until the late 1940's, trains carrying passengers only made a trip both ways daily on the track. In addition, a mixed train made a daily round trip from Liverpool to Halifax and return.

First Class

The passenger train included a parlor car with dining facilities and a regular first class coach.

The final passenger train No. 244 bore little resemblance to its earlier counterpart.

Conductor Vince MacInnes, Dartmouth, who has been on train 244, Yarmouth to Halifax, and train 243 for the return trip, was on the run for about 11 years and has enjoyed it, he says.

The details in his log book for the final trip seems to indicate it.

"Depart Bridgewater at 1:55 p.m. (Atlantic Standard Time) with 20 cars and 14 passengers. 'Entrained' or picked up two additional cars in Mahone Bay and detrained 14 cars at Fairview."

When train 244 arrived in Halifax, it had 3 cars and 11 passengers. Total number of passengers for the trip from Yarmouth where the trip originated to Halifax was 49.

Mr. MacInnes and the other crewmembers on train 244 E.A. Meagher, Halifax, and G.E. Hemsworth, Halifax, both trainmen, will continue on the run in the future but with one major difference. No passengers!

The passenger car will be replaced by a "van "or caboose" for the crewmembers.

The train will be totally converted to freight and express mail and will retain its schedule on a trip from Yarmouth to Halifax on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with a return trip to Halifax on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

No Passengers

Removal of the passenger car from the train will mean that there will be no passenger service west of Halifax, except for the service that Dominion Atlantic Railway still operates.

Lost to the passengers, who frequented the train will be such nostalgic names such as Pubnico, Tusket, Barrington, Barrington Passage, Port Clyde, Lockport, Port Mouton, and French Village, which were among the 20 stops made during the run.

Although there was no special event to mark the occasion, one railway employee perhaps summed it up when he commented that it was "the end of an era. The car should go to a museum."

The Middleton Branch

The Middleton Branch, which was at one time, the former Nova Scotia Central, ran from Bridgewater to Middleton in the Annapolis Valley, a distance of 55 miles. A branch from this was also constructed from Nictaux, just outside of Middleton to Port Wade. This was the former Middleton and Victoria Beach Railway. This branch was 39 miles in length and mainly serviced the mines at Torbrook and Nictaux. Times for this section of the Middleton Branch were not always bountiful. Through a combination of many events – ore smelting costs, a fire destroying much of the mining machinery and the onset of the First World War led to the demise of this section. In a little over a decade after the closure of the mines, Canadian National Railways, which by this time had absorbed the Halifax and Southwestern, formulated a petition proposing the abandonment of the section of the line between Port Wade and Bridgetown, Canadian National Railways claimed to the Board of Railway Commissioners that earnings on the branch of track per mile for the years 1920 – 1922 were only $233, $374, $279 respectively.

To further plead its case, C.N. determined that a large maintenance outlay would have to transpire in the form of bridge rebuilding and other structures if operations beyond Bridgetown were to be viable. Local government adamantly voiced its displeasure to the Board of Railway Commissioners asking that service be reinstated for that part of the line. It was stated that one of the terms of agreement of the Halifax and Southwestern takeover of the Middleton and Victoria Beach Railway was to provide suitable facilities and train service. Failure to do so would put residents and local businesses at a great disadvantage.

A public meeting was held in March of 1925. Although the original proposal put forth by the C.N.R. had been modified, with abandonment restricted to the portion of track between Granville Centre and Port Wade, the Board of Commissions felt it had no obligation to compel the company to resume operations under deficit conditions. The Board denied the application for restoration of service.

By 1927, all the bridges and structures on this portion of the Middleton Branch were removed and all remaining tracks subsequently removed by the mid 1940's. Today, no trace of what was once an important part of the areas economic and industrial framework exists other than the cement turntable at Port Wade which was used to reroute the engine for the return trip.

In 1939, Canadian National again applied to abandon a portion of this line, a 15-mile section between Middleton Junction and Bridgetown.

This was never acted upon and the line was spared by the advent of the Second World War and the improved economic conditions that came to Nova Scotia in its wake. In 1965, the Board of Transport Commissioners rescinded its 1939 order authorizing the abandonment because it had never been put into effect.

Because of the time that had passed since the issuance of this order it was decided that if the railway now wished to still proceed with closing down the section, it should reapply for permission.

At the time of its application to abandon the trackage in 1939, the C.N.R. estimated that $93,493 would be required to rehabilitate that portion of the line.

At the same time as the C.N.R. request for abandonment, the C.P.R. applied to construct a 26-mile line running from its Kentville subdivision to the C.N.R. Middleton subdivision.

The farmers and other residents of the area opposed the twin proposals on the grounds that apple warehouses along the Canadian National route would no longer be able to serve the purpose which they were originally built, that frost damage would likely occur in having to move the fruit from warehouses to stations on the D.A.R. during winter, that snow conditions in the region were such that roads were impassable for long periods during the winter months, that freight rates would be increased if the abandonment application was approved, and that the connecting branch line proposed to be built by the C.P.R. from its main D.A.R. line would cross the main highway between Middleton and Bridgetown, contrary to the policy of eliminating level crossings.

Despite these objections, both applications were approved by the Board of Transport Commissioners in March 1939.

In a 1965 interview Canadian National said that it had no intention of abandoning this section of the line as it handled freight traffic to and from a number of expanding developments including Acadia Distilleries.

The Middleton Branch from Middleton to Bridgewater continued under C.N.R. administration until its abandonment.

The Blueberry Express

The Middleton mixed to many of the locals, became known as "The Blueberry Express " – it runs so slowly that it is possible to get off while the train is in motion, pick a handful of blueberries, and board the rear of the coach as it passes. This tale probably has been repeated everywhere on the continent where a weary little train goes about its duties.

To many people between Middleton and Bridgewater, "The Blueberry Express" was the mixed train which, wandered, daily except Sunday, over Canadian National trackage to the Valley.

M. Allen Gibson best described the memory of "The Blueberry Express " in a newspaper article many years ago.

It is waiting for us, standing in front of the station in Middleton. Behind the locomotive are five freight cars, followed by a wooden baggage car and a wooden coach. The atmosphere is of an older, long gone day. The engine is number 1120, a G16a ten-wheeler. It was built in Montreal in 1912 and boasts 57-inch drivers.

The conductor arrives, sauntering up the platform with a flimsy green clearance form in his hand. "All aboard" he cries and waves to the engineer.

Wheezing and clanking, the engine backs the train slowly away and along Dominion Atlantic trackage to the junction with the line to the South Shore. There is one lady passenger aboard who insists that the conductor will have to reverse her seat. "I simply cannot ride backwards", she protests. It challenges his powers of persuasion to convince her that the train will he running frontward in a few minutes.

At the junction, the brakeman closes and locks the last switch, swings the languid "highball" and climbs aboard the coach. The first mile is downgrade towards the Annapolis River and the train quickly accelerates.

The Annapolis Valley, with its orchards and farms is soon crossed and number 1120 blows for Nictaux, a charming little village nestled at the foot of the mountain. It is at this point that the railway begins its climb into the hills. Without stopping at the station, the train tackles the long, steep grade ahead.

Almost at once, the trackside scenery changes from the fertile plain to the rock and forest of the mountainside. To the left of the right-of-way, the Nictaux River plunges over the rocks and through the gorges that mark its course. It is spectacular viewing but it must have challenged the ingenuity of the construction engineers.

Clinging to the river bank, the rails twist and climb. Speed drops to a crawl. Whenever the locomotive comes into view around a curve, one has a glimpse of smoke and steam belching skyward and of slowly moving siderods.

The coach creaks and sways. Occasionally, a dirt road crosses the railway. At some of these intersections, there is a tiny station and we ramble on through Alpena, Albany, Squirelltown, Scragg Lake, and so on. Wild animals are to be seen at trackside, unperturbed by the noisy passage of mixed train 254.

Springfield is the first community of any size since leaving Nictaux. At this point, the train is well over the mountain; having completed the 28 miles from Middleton right on scheduled time – 28 miles in an hour and a half!

-- Halifax Chronicle Herald --
October 1, 1959

A Beloved Blueberry - The decision of Canadian National Railways to abandon its cross country passenger service between Bridgewater and Middleton was probably inevitable in view of its decreasing patronage, Nevertheless, there are hundreds who will receive the announcement with regret, for this train which has been to many the original "Blueberry Express", possesses a large place in their affections.

In bygone day, the line was an important connection between the Valley and the South Shore. Before the Halifax and Southwestern was constructed, travelers from points in Lunenburg County journeyed over it to link up with the Dominion Atlantic services on route to Central Canada and the Eastern States. Even over its years as part of the Canadian National System, it has continued as an important artery.

It was a leisurely service, powered, until the diesels came, by stocky little steam locomotives whose clanking side rods announced arrivals long before waiting passengers could see the train rolling and bouncing toward them. What a host of memories are stirred! Boyhood days at a camp at Pinehurst were filled with the comings and goings of the train bringing other campers and the welcome mail; one thinks again of the shoppers and hunters for whom any place along the track was a stop; and, where stations were built, they were masterpieces of architectural imagination combining stonework with tasteful frame construction. During war years, the line was traveled by thousands of naval personnel moving between the South Shore and HMCS Cornwallis. Now, a victim of the progress to which it contributed, the mixed train, "daily except Sunday" is soon to make its last run.

But long after those folk have gone who can recall the ancient coach with its pintsch gas lamps, the sound of the lonely whistle echoing along the Lahave, and the sight of a smudge of smoke above the forest at Squirreltown, this train will be remembered in the delightful legend of the "Blueberry Express." For this was the train, so they said, which moved so slowly that one could hop off the head end of the coach, gather a handful of berries, and board the rear as it passed by. It is doubtful whether anyone ever did this, but such a story as affection breeds. By it, this train will be immortalized beyond Nova Scotia and by generations that may never know the music of flanges screaming on the curves along the Nictaux River.

Crashes and Wrecks
on the Halifax and Southwestern

With the 1919 Canadian National takeover, came vast improvements in the entire Halifax and Southwestern line. Early rail lines were known for frequent accidents and the Halifax and Southwestern is not to be omitted.

There were a number of spectacular crashes on the H&SW, one of the worst being on February 9th, 1907, just a few short months after the railway was open to through traffic from Halifax to Yarmouth. On that morning, freight extra No. 5 left Bridgewater at 5a.m. via Mahone Junction (11 miles out) for Lunenburg, a total distance of 18 miles. The train was hauled by locomotive #1, an eight wheeler. Behind extra No. 5, were two flat cars piled high with lumber, next came three empty flats. Then, 14 more lumber loads also loaded high and as it turns out, not too securely. There was no van. There were only four men in the crew instead of the usual five. The conductor rode in the cab with the engineer and the fireman. The lone brakeman existed as best as he could on the last lumber car exposed to the cold February weather.

The trip began to jinx right from the start. Extra No. 5 stalled on the grade out of Bridgewater east, and the yardmaster had to summon a pusher to get her started again. There after, the extra crawled at a snail's pace up the grades from Bridgewater to Maitland. Their Conductor Walter Driscoll decided that they would never make Mahone summit with the load they had and set off three empties at Maitland siding. At the end of three hours they were only eight miles from Bridgewater when another train came up from behind and gave them a push into Blockhouse, ten miles from Bridgewater and about a mile and a half from Mahone Bay Junction. From Blockhouse, Extra No. 5 toiled along with her 16 loads and to the surprise of everyone on board, almost made it to the summit, stalling only a short distance from the crest.

This train was remarkable for its day being that every car was equipped with air brakes, and the fact that after it stalled it was able to cling to the steep face of the grade instead of rolling back down the hill. A point much stressed by council at the official investigation. Apparently, it was also maintained that there may have been air brakes on the whole train, but air was only coupled up to the five cars closest to the locomotive. The engine was low on steam and Conductor Driscoll said that while Engineer Lou Barteaux was waiting to build up pressure to tackle the hill, he would save time by walking down the track to the junction switch, which he knew was set for the Halifax main line and throw it for the Lunenburg/Mahone branch track.

Meanwhile, No. 3 mixed train at 7:10a.m. had left Lunenburg for Mahone Junction to await the arrival of the regular Halifax bound train bound for Liverpool to pick up passengers and express to eventually connect with the Dominion Atlantic Railway at Middleton.

This train had been at the junction for some time before Extra No. 5 had reached the summit, had done some necessary shunting, and was now in front of the station, heading west. The engine had not yet been recoupled and freight cars were standing some car lengths down the platform from the passenger cars taking on way freight – a fortunate chance that was to keep a bad wreck from becoming a major disaster.

There happened to be a great amount of bustle on the platform, passengers and intending passengers, friends who had come to see them off, and general mail and express transactions. Farther up near the engine and freight sheds, Section Foreman Willis Low stood waiting for the Halifax train.

Engineer Barteaux, back on No. 5, blew two shorts, indicating intention to move ahead, and at the rear the second engineer watched No. 5's exhaust and manipulated his throttle to synchronize his speed with that of the lead engine. Under this combined power, the sixteen loads walked up the summit. Had the pusher engine coupled her air to the train and stayed with it down the hill, a tragedy may well have been averted. However, No. 5's air held the train so easily on the backslope that no precaution occurred to anyone. When the last lumber car topped the crest, the helper blew a short blast, the brakeman pulled the pin and the helper started back to her own train.

As the lumber train started away fast, Barteaux gave her a touch of air to ease her down but the brakes did not hold. The engineer pulled the reverse lever over and whistled to the brakeman in the rear for hand brakes. Fireman Tom Lynch sprang to the brake wheel on the tender and clubbed it up tight, but the slight drag had little effect. Barteaux was busily working steam against the weight of the train, the same result as gearing down a car on a steep hill. The steel drivers against the steel rails had little effect and No.5 surged on to her doom. Conductor Driscoll, hurrying down the track and still 1200 yards from the switch, heard the whistling and clamor behind him and realized that his train was running out of control. As the engine shot by, her drivers in reverse, Barteaux leaned from the cab and shouted something about "losing his air."

From Mahone summit approaching the main line, the mountain descends in a long, sharp, right hand curve, and about all an engineer could see was a few hundred yards of track and a wall of woods.

The junction switch was about 4400 yards west of the station, and if set to go to Lunenburg the train continues to proceed to a right hand curve to the station and beyond. Barteaux knew from the time card that the mixed train should be standing in the station and he blew his whistle long and urgently, first to warn the crew and passengers to get out of the way and secondly in hope that there might be some trainman near the switch who would sense the danger and throw the switch to the Lunenburg line. At the same time, he manipulated the sand and the steam to attempt to get a grip on the track and check as much as possible the onward rush of the engine.

At the junction, the whistling was heard, but not even the crew of No. 3 seemed to have attached any significance to it. When at last the runaway freight careened into view around the curve only 400 yards away, it became apparent that a collision was inevitable. Everyone at the head end of the express became rooted to the spot. People and passengers at the other end of the platform hardly had time to take in what was going on and most of them didn't even realize that there was even any danger until it was all over. Barteaux continued to blow his whistle to the last second. Then he and Fireman Lynch unloaded and escaped serious injury. A moment later with a crash that was heard miles away, No. 5 plowed into the passenger engine and both were instantly buried under four piled up flat cars and an avalanche of flying lumber which also demolished the freight shed. The passenger engine and a box car were driven back until they hit the passenger cars, but this secondary impact was so reduced that only one causality resulted on the train. This was Harry Martin, another H&SW engineer who had been on sick leave and was travelling to Bridgewater to report for duty. He seems to have been the only one to have taken alarm at the whistling, and had just opened the heavy side door of the baggage car to see what was going on when the crash threw it back on one of his hands crushing it severely.

Death and disaster prevailed outside. The startled people on the platform were not slow to realize but for the chance circumstance that the mixed engine had been standing in a position to break the first shock of the collision, the lumber would have rained down right on top of the group, resulting in 30 or more fatalities rather than the actual 4. As the roar from the escaping steam faded away, people ran to the wrecked engines and traced the cries and groans that came from the debris, discovering that three men were trapped but still alive. Low, the section foreman had been buried under a handcar and 10,000 feet of lumber in front of the freight house. Willing hands attacked the grotesquely piled lumber but Low was dead by the time they reached him. He had been hit in the face by a flying plank and his nose driven into his skull. He also suffered a great many other serious injuries including spinal, yet, with all this he lived for some time after the crash.

Enos Crooks, Fireman of the passenger/mixed train had been thrown from his cab and buried under a rain of timber. His left leg had been torn off below the knee; both wrists broken and his right leg holed in such a way as to expose the arteries. In addition, both hips were fractured and there were internal injuries. He lived for a short time after being rescued but died on route to hospital.

Engineer Willard Phelan of the passenger/mixed was extracted from the wreckage of his locomotive cab. Flying timber had severed his left leg, his right fractured in several places and severe internal injuries. Phelan never lost consciousness and as rescuers lifted him from the wreckage he said, "Boys, it's all over for me. My poor wife and child!" He then asked, "What happened to Enos, did he get away?" By 12:30 p.m., the passing track at the junction had been cleared away and H&SW officials rushed Phelan by special train to the Victoria General Hospital in Halifax where he died at 8:30 p.m., conscious to the last.

An inquiry was held and the verdict was that Extra No. 5 was carelessly overloaded and insufficiently manned thereby greatly contributing to the collision.

Crooks left a wife and two children at Lunenburg, Low, a wife and nine children at Fauxberg near Mahone Bay, and Phelan a wife and child at Bridgewater.

On another occasion, February 24,1911, the grim reaper again rode the rails. No. 12 train from Port Wade to Lunenburg derailed about 1/2 mile from New Germany. The rear trucks of the third and forth cars from the engine went off the tracks but remained coupled to the engine and alongside the tracks. The fifth car and two other cars of freight, together with the baggage car and passenger coach, went down the embankment and on their sides. The baggage car immediately took fire destroying all the mails and baggage. The baggagemaster, Orrin M. McLaughlin was found later pinned underneath the baggage car, having been partly consumed by fire. The brakeman, Lockhart B. Sargent was found underneath the passenger coach, crushed, it would seem as if he was thrown through the window.

This incident and others of similarity ushered in the end of mixed trains. In the subsequent investigation of the cause, the findings of the jury were that, as far as could be ascertained, the cause was rotten ties. Two other points that were strongly brought forth were the force of sectionmen maintaining the road was of insufficient numbers and the routine of attaching passenger coaches to heavy freight trains.

It may have been only coincidence but these wrecks marked the turning point in the flood of railway accidents that had been steadily mounting for half a century.

In a few short years after these tragic wrecks, many new and revised safety standards were adopted and the new Railway Board had begun to put "teeth" into its safety requirements. By 1914, railways adopted the Safety First Department, which so drastically reduced the once common hazards of railroading. In 1915, the Workers Compensation Act was passed guaranteeing the welfare of workers in all classes of industry.

In the years since the Halifax and Southwestern, the line continued to grow. Mighty Mikados and Pacifics roared over the hills where little Moguls and Ten-Wheelers struggled in the early 1900's. Eventually, the H&SW and later the C.N.R.'s, what finally became known as the Chester Subdivision, lost its bulk of passenger traffic to the automobile and busses until finally withdrawn on October 27,1969. Inevitably, freight traffic followed with the improvements in the highway system and the entire line was systematically abandoned between 1976 and 1993. The only remnant of the line that remains is from Southwestern Junction to Lakeside, just outside of Halifax.

-- Halifax Chronicle Herald --
March 1993:

Dear Editor,

On March 5, 1993, the haunting sound of the engineer's whistle was silenced forever on the South Shore. C.N. caboose #79850 rolled into history as it made its final run from East River.

Many local residents along with members of C.E.P. Local 434 watched in despair as the brakeman waved his final farewell.

Not only is it a farewell to an era, it is also a sad farewell to the many jobs dependent on the rail line. Our government has not only destroyed our rail line; they have also destroyed any hope we had of improving our environment.

What could have been a safe, profitable, and environmentally friendly means of transportation is gone. We leave our children the legacy of hundreds of trucks congesting our highways and polluting our air. Future generations will not understand how we allowed this to happen.

We in the labour movement, along with concerned citizens and businessmen, struggled unsuccessfully to save our rail lines. It is small consolation that we fought many battles. In the end, we lost the war.

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©1998 Jim Simmons, all rights reserved.