Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative - Wiki
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Deep Brook
Subdivision Yarmouth, Mile 10.4
Next Station East: Cornwallis
Next Station West: Bear River
Features and Facilities
- Mile 10.4 Station and passing track 915' long.
- Pile Trestle 105' long over Purdy's Brook
- Mile 11.9 Gypsum Loading Facility 1927 to 1947
History
Located abut halfway between Digby and Annapolis Royal, Deep Brook was settled by Loyalists in 1784 and named after the small brook with a deep ravine which runs through the community.[1] The railway arrived in 1891 when the federal government constructed the "missing link" between Digby and Annapolis Royal. Deep Brook received a small station which survived until the 1950s when it was replaced by a flag stop.
In the fall of 1927, the Canadian Gypsum Company built a large gypsum terminal and dock to handle gypsum shipments when winter ice closed the gypsum dock at Wentworth near Windsor. The Deep Brook terminal had a huge shed, 500 feet long, 180 feet wide and 90 feet high with a conveyor belt to move gypsum to and from a pier on the Annapolis Basin. Ships and trains would stockpile gypsum at Deep Brook in the fall and gypsum trains continuing to bring gypsum from Wentworth throughout the winter so winter exports of gypsum could continue by ship without interruption all year round. In 1947, the gypsum company built a new year-round loading terminal at Hantsport and the Deep Brook facility was closed and dismantled.[2] In 1942, the Royal Canadian Navy built a large training base just east of Deep Brook HMCS, later CFB Cornwallis which operated until 1995. The railway left Deep Brook in 1990 wen the DAR was abandoned west of Coldbrook.
Gallery
Track Schematic for Deep Brook.
The gypsum storage shed and dock at Deep Brook.
Map showing the Gypsum loader spur and dock.
Deep Brook station sign, November 18, 1962.
Aerial View showing the remnants of the Gypsum loader spur and dock.
References
- 1969 Memorandum of General Information, page 16.
- 1931 Dominion Atlantic Railway Employee Time Table - June 21, 1931, page 7.
- ↑ C. Bruce Fergusson, "Deep Brook", Place-Names and Places of Nova Scotia Nova Scotia Archives (1967), p. 164-165.
- ↑ Joey St. Clair Patterson, The Gypsum Royal Fleet, Hantsport: Tugboat Publishing (2013)
