Kingsport Subdivision, "The Cornwallis Valley Railway"

The Kingsport Subdivision ran 13.6 miles north from Kentville to Kingsport and terminating on the large government wharf at Kingsport. In Centreville, at Mile 4.8, the Weston Subdivision branched out to the West.

History

A typical scene on the CVR: small country station and giant apple warehouses, Sheffield Mills, circa 1930

The Kingsport subdivision began as an independant company called the Cornwallis Valley Railway (CVR - See also Weston Subdivision) which was formed in 1887 by merchants and farmers in Canning. In June 1889 work started on the line. On October 30, 1889 the Cornwallis River Bridge was completed and W&AR Locomotive No. 2 became the first locomotive to run on the CVR, pulling a work train across the bridge with ballast for roadbed construction.(1) By December 22, 1890, the line started operation leasing rolling stock and terminal facilities from the Windsor and Annapolis Railway in Kentville. It began with one locomotive, CVR No. 1 "Queen Mab", one combine car, 8 boxcars and 12 flat cars. The little railway immediately proved profitable and by 1891 it was carrying 18,161 passengers and 20,635,041 lbs freight a year. The CVR was purchased by the Windsor and Annapolis Railway on July 26, 1892, just before the W&AR evolved into the Dominion Atlantic. The CVR became a DAR subdivision but train crews and locals used the name CVR for the subdivision until it's final abandonment in the 1990s.

Running through the richest apple districts of the valley and connecting to steamers and schooners at the Kingsport wharf, the line enjoyed heavy traffic in its first decades, running six trains a day in World War One. It also served as a suburban railway for the greater Kentville area, bringing school children, shoppers and workers to town in the morning and back home at night. However the collapse of the apple industry after 1945 and the growth of paved roads eroded traffic in the 1950s. After several years of application, the DAR abandoned most of the subdivision.

Tracks north of Mill Village (Steam Mill) at Mile 2.2 to Kingsport and Weston were abandoned on January 31, 1961. The remnant of the subdivision became Spur Track D of the DAR serving Camp Aldershot and the feed mill and fertilizer plant at Mill Village.

On September 22, 1993, CP Rail formally abandoned its tracks from New Minas (mileage 52.9) to Kentville, including the remaining 2.3 mile Spur Track D from mileage 56.1 of the Halifax Subdivision to the end of track in Mill Village (Steam Mill).

Trains

Train No. 11 Noon to Kingsport

Train No. 12 Morning to Kentville

Train No. 13 Afternoon to Kingsport

Train No. 14 Afternoon to Kentville

Train No. 15 Early Morning to Kingsport

Train No. 16 Early Morning to Kentville

Train No. 17 Evening to Kingsport

Train No. 18 Evening to Kentville

Gallery

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  Locomotive No. 11 "Acadia" at Centreville.

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  Locomotive No. 31 at Canning Station with the Oyler apple warehouse under construction.

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  Kingsport Wharf, terminus of the subdivision, with flatcars and gondola on wharf spur, circa 1900.

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  The Kingsport Train crosses the Cornwallis River Bridge at Mile .23 of the Kingsport Subdivision in 1956.

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  Train No. 14 traversing the last few hundred feet of the CVR arriving at Kentville from Kingsport led by No. 470. . August 1949.

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  No. 470 at Kentville station July 3, 1954 leading Train No. 13 for Kingsport.

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  Mixed Train for Kingsport leaving yard. Visible is business car Nova Scotia beside the repair shop and the coaling tower in Kentville on August 28, 1956.

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  CPR No. 8131 with Kingsport Way Freight in the last days of branchline, August 1959

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  The Kingsport Wharf, the terminus of the CVR, showing the boarded up DAR freight shed in the last days of the subdivision, circa 1960

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  End of track at Steam Mill in the summer of 1993.

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  Camp Aldershot Station, April 23, 2008

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  Topographic map showing the western end of the CVR with Kentville and Centreville.

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  Topographic map showing the eastern end of the CVR, Canning to Kingsport.

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  Map of the Annapolis Valley Fruit District, 1931 including warehouses on the CVR.

References and Footnotes

(1) W. W. Clarke, Clarke's History of the Earliest Railways in Nova Scotia, page 11

• Dominion Atlantic Railway Timetable June 29, 1914, Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, VF Vol.1 #5.
• "Timetable No. 77 For Employees June 21, 1931", Dominion Atlantic Railway, p. 3
• Dominion Atlantic Railway Employeed Timetable September 25, 1949, Library and Archives Canada, pmp -HE.2804 DC
• Marguerite Woodworth, History of the Dominion Atlantic Railway, 1937, p. 104-107.

External Links

• Ivan Smith's History of the CVR at ROCA.
• Ivan Smith's History of Railway Companies in Nova Scotia
• 1949 Dominion Atlantic Railway Passenger train service SChedule at Ivan's Smith's site
• Mike's CVR Fruit Warehouses Photo Page and Slide Show
• Mike's CVR Fruit Warehouses Google Map]
• Kingsport Web Site - local history and current events.

Locations

Locations categorised below under "D" are on the Kentville to Centreville leg (north). Locations categorised under "K" are on the Centreville to Kingsport leg (east).