Windsor Junction Station

Surrounded by tracks on all sides, the Windsor Junction Station was an important interchange for passengers and freight and railway control point for over a century. It was also home to generations of station staff and their families who fulfilled the railway duties of the busy junction and also tended trees and gardens amidst the cinders and coal smoke.

The Nova Scotia Railway Station 1857-1882

The Nova Scotia Railway built the first of a series of stations at Windsor Junction in 1857 when railway construction reach the junction where tracks split for Windsor and to Truro. The station grounds included a dining room, called the Junction House, in the era before dining cars when all trains stopped at the Junction for 20 minutes so passengers could eat. The station itself even contained, for a time, a well-stocked saloon, until 1864 the saloon was shut down by the new Railway Commissioner Avard Longley, a temperance advocate. The station was well-known for its herd of goast which provided goats milk for the dining room but also wandered the platform and would board passenger cars looking for leftovers.^[1]

Gallery

Windsor Junction Station, 1950s, early 1960s.
Windsor Junction Station 1961 b.jpg

Windsor Junction Freight Shed and Windsor Junction Station at Windsor Junction NS in August 1961.
Windsor Junction Station at Windsor Junction showing D.A.R. tracks entering C.N.R mainline in August 1961.
CNR mainline tracks at Windsor Junction Station in August 1961.
Dayliner No. 9058 at Windsor Junction Station at Windsor Junction NS in August 1961.
No. 9057 entering CN track at Windsor Junction Station, Windsor Junction in 1968 for the 15 mile run into Halifax. Windsor Junction Freight Shed is also visible.
RDC 9059 Dayliner, at the Windsor Junction Station, circa 1970.
Windsor Junction Station, looking east along Canadian National's busy mainline where the Dominion Atlantic joined, July 1974.
Windsor Junction Station west end, July 1974.
Windsor Junction Station, looking west along Canadian National's busy mainline where it was joined the the Dominion Atlantic, July 1974.
Windsor Junction Station, looking west along Canadian National's busy mainline with the junction point with the the Dominion Atlantic, July 1974.
RDC 9057 at DAR platform, Windsor Junction Station headed to Halifax, July 1974.
RDC 9057 at Windsor Junction Station headed to Halifax, July 1974.