Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative - Wiki

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Difference between revisions of "DARSANSPAREIL"

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(Added an external link to a photo at the Canada Science and Technology Museum image STR08428a.)
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==External Links==
 
==External Links==
 
*[http://www.waymarking.com/gallery/default.aspx?f=1&guid=3cc90bd4-9978-43d1-94ca-9b139e4ed376&gid=2 Photo gallery of the Ossiwippi restaurant.]
 
*[http://www.waymarking.com/gallery/default.aspx?f=1&guid=3cc90bd4-9978-43d1-94ca-9b139e4ed376&gid=2 Photo gallery of the Ossiwippi restaurant.]
*[http://www.images.technomuses.ca/searchpf.php?id=86875&lang=en "Nova Scotia" from the Canada Science and Technology Museum Image STR04097a.]  
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*[http://www.images.technomuses.ca/searchpf.php?id=86875&lang=en "Nova Scotia" - Canada Science and Technology Museum Image STR04097a.]
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*[http://www.images.technomuses.ca/searchpf.php?id=6134&lang=en "Nova Scotia" at Truro, September 7, 1942 - Canada Science and Technology Museum, Image STR08428a.]
  
  

Revision as of 12:45, 4 June 2012

Dominion Atlantic Railway Pullman Parlour Car, "Sans Pareil", 1896 - 1912

The "Sans Pareil" (a French term meaning incomparible or without equal) was built in 1896 for the Dominion Atlantic Railway as a Pullman Parlour Car (at a cost, according to D.A.R. records, of $11,972).[1]

Gallery



Dominion Atlantic Railway Business Car, "Nova Scotia", 1912 - Present

Sanspareil was converted from a parlour car to a business car for the D.A.R. General Manager in 1912 and renamed "Nova Scotia".[2] It was described in the CPR MP Report in 1941 as a wooden business car was built in 1896 and was 67'9-1/2" in length (after 1944 reported as 60' 8" but still built in 1896) on 6 wheel trucks.[3]

"Nova Scotia" played a significant role in history in 1917. It was parked at the North Street Station in Halifax on the morning of December 6, 1917 when the Halifax Explosion took place. The DAR's General Manager George E. Graham and his family were eating breakfast in "Nova Scotia" but the car sheltered them from the blast and rain of debris which killed many people in the station. Graham quickly made his way to Rockingham, the nearest surviving telegraph station and ordered a relief train from Kentville. It brought doctors, nurses, supplies and rescue equipment to Halifax the afternoon of the explosion and was one of the first relief trains to arrive in Halifax.[4]

Nova Scotia served as the DAR's business car until 1958 when it was replaced by a 1958 Pontiac Hi-Rail station wagon. Nova Scotia was transferred to Quebec and finally retired in 1967. It was initially owned by the Upper Canada Railway Society until sold to a railway themed restaurant in Orillia, Ontario. It served as the Ossawippi Express restaurant office, restrooms and reception area[5] until the restaurant went out of business in 2010.

After the close of the restaurant, the city of Orillia apparently has transferred the Nova Scotia (and the rest of the restaurant cars) to the care of the Orillia Municipal Heritage Committee[6]. Among other interested parties, The Nova Scotia Railway Heritage Society[7] is trying to repatriate the "Nova Scotia"[8].

Gallery

References and Footnotes

  1. "Dominion Atlantic Railway Chronology of Passenger Car Purchases", Library and Archives Canada, Merrilees Collection, MG 31 NA A10, Vol. 55-4
  2. Canadian Trackside Guide 2008, Bytown Railway Society
  3. 1941 Canadian Pacific Railway Summary Of Equipment, Form M.P. 14 - January 1, 1941, page 38.
  4. Dan Conlin, "How Kentville and Wolfville helped a Stricken Halifax in 1917", Kentville Advertiser, Dec. 6, 1993, p. 3A
  5. Ossawippi.com on the Wayback machine now that the restaurant is closed.
  6. Orillia Municipal Heritage Committee
  7. The Nova Scotia Railway Heritage Society
  8. NSRHS wants to repatriate the "Nova Scotia".

External Links