Loading Christmas Trees at Annapolis Royal 1956

[Frogmore]

I have uploaded a picture Image:w19.jpeg showing Christmas Trees being loaded for export to the Boston market in 1956. This photo should answer some of the questions which arose concerning the tank car unloading at Annapolis Royal. This photo was taken from on top of the Texaco storage tanks and the camera angle is about ninety degrees to the previous photo. The three tank cars in the picture are all Imperial oil, the one at right is positioned under their unloading rack. The Texaco unloading rack can be seen beside the tank car at left. The DAR freight shed is at upper right of picture and the DAR water tower on the main line can be seen behind the tank cars.

Doug

[Chuck Conway]

Hi Doug,

What an excellent picture! Not only does it answer some questions about the tanks cars and loading facilities, but introduces yet another topic for discussion. Were these Christmas tree moves a regular thing out of Annapolis Royal? What about trees shipped from other locations? And do you know what kind of trees these were? Thanks again for sharing! Take care,

Chuck Conway

[Dan Conlin]

Wow, what a great seasonal shot! With those vintage trucks and the nice composition, I almost thought it was a model railroad scene. Thank you very much for posting it.

From what I have read, Christmas trees were a nice reliable bit of DAR traffic back at least to the 1930s. The Kentville Advertiser mentioned it regularly, although the railway sometimes complained when tramp steamers took some of the business. I bet the trees are balsum fur, still a staple of the Christmas tree trade - durable and they smell great.

Dan Conlin

[stem]

Photo credit question: Did you take it? Is it in your collection?

As I recall, there were and still are lots of Christmas tree farms on the Annapolis Royal to Bridgewater corridor. I know the Boy Scouts are selling NS Christmas trees here in St. Albert this year.

Can we explain why the trees are being loaded into CN cars?

[Frogmore]

Yes, I took the picture with my trusty old Nikon F and scanned the 35mm slide. It is in my "collection", such as it is! During the 50's my father bought and exported Christmas trees. As I remember, rail shipment was not too successful due to delays in reaching market and trucks soon became the preferred mode of transport. The trees were fir, and I cannot explain the CN cars - can only guess they were here, empty and available.

Doug

[stem]

Thanks. Updated your photo with those details and created the "Operations:Christmas Tree" page as a result. Our operations page is meant to show all the different activities the DAR was involved in and this was the first Christmas tree photo that we've seen on the DAR.

Not only do these operational pages serve to help categorize the photos, they provide images for modellers and information for research about the railway's operations.

Thanks for sharing this photo.

Page: http://www.dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?tit ... &rcid=9832