Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative - Wiki
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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 goats which provided milk for the dining room but also wandered the platform and would board passenger cars looking for leftovers.[1]
The Intercolonial Railway Station 1882-1984
The Nova Scotian Railway was taken over by the federal Intercolonial Railway after Confederation in 1867. The Intercolonial built a new station at the Junction in 1882,[2] likely on the foundations of the old Nova Scotia Railway Station. The new station followed the designs of the Intercolonial's Chief Engineer Sanford Flemming and was a wooden version of Flemming's brick station designs at Oxford Junction, Tatamagouche and Pugwash, with the same gothic revival style with pointed windows and dormers and elaborate detailing of the eaves and gables. It contained a residence for the station master as well as waiting room, operators bay facing the Intercolonial main line and a freight room. It had two connecting platforms, one on the north for the Intercolonial and one on the south for the Dominion Atlantic. A series of one story additions evolved over the years to provide extra freight and baggage space as well as expanded living quarters. The grounds of the station contained a small lawn, gardens and trees planted by station agents. Eventually station agent James Stewart extended the gardens across the tracks to the southwest side of the wye creating a large ornamental rock garden around a pond.[3] The station was also selected as the site of the war memorial for Windsor Junction in 1946 by thw Windsor Junction Red Cross Committee as so many of the local men had left for service from the station. The plaque remained at the station until 1978 when it was moved first to a school and then to a roadside location in Windsor Junction in 1994.[4] The station was staffed until 1978 and the stationmaster's son sometimes would throw the switches for the Dominion Atlatic's dayliners as they entered or left the CN mainline.[5] In 1978, Canadian National closed the station, offering it for sale for a dollar if the building was removed from the site. The Historical Society of Fall River and Windsor Junction tried to save the station, acquiring land near the station where it could be moved to serve as a museum and craft store.[6] However the society was not able to raise the $30,000 to 40,000 for the move. The station was demolished between July[7] and August 1984 when no one else came forward.[8]
The ATCO Station 1984-1990
After the station was demolished, Canadian National installed an ATCO portable building with stairs and a wheelchair ramp to serve as a station shelter.[9] It served until the cancellation of local VIA passenger services in 1990.
Gallery
Windsor Junction Station, CNR platform side, 1950s, early 1960s.
The DAR platform side of the Windsor Junction Station, April 9, 1961.
- Windsor Junction Station 1961 b.jpg
Windsor Junction Station from the DAR side showing the extensive station gardens, 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 with the Windsor Junction War Memorial 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.
VIA Locomotive No. 6770 on the Montreal-Halifax train at Windsor Junction, with the ATCO shelter used after the closure of the old Windsor Junction Station, January 1987.
- 25075 VIA 6136 6119 WINDSOR JCT 1990-JA-13 Bill Linley.jpg
RDCs No. 6136 and No. 6119 at Windsor Junction at the end of DAR passenger service, January 13 1990.
References and Footnotes
- ↑ J. B. King, "Windsor Junction: Historic Terrain", Halifax Chronicle Herald, October 18, 1958, p. 9
- ↑ C. Bruce Fergusson, "Windsor Junction", Place-Names and Places of Nova Scotia Nova Scotia Archives (1967), p. 740.]
- ↑ J. B. King, "Windsor Junction: Historic Terrain", p.9
- ↑ [http://nshdpi.ca/is/hfxrm/windsorjctm.html Ivan Smith, "Photographs of Windsor Junction War Memorial", Military Memorials]
- ↑ David Othen, Dominion Atlantic Railway The Final 25 Years, page 14.
- ↑ Tom Peters, "Campaign Mounted to Save Station", The Mail Star, 1979
- ↑ The Historical Society of Fall river and Windsor Junction, The Way it Used to Be: The Stories of Fall River and Windsor Junction (1997), p.98.
- ↑ Phil Chadwick, "Windsor Junction Nova Scotia Revisited", June 2018,PX Pixels
- ↑ [http://novascotiarailwayheritage.com/photos.htm "Historical Nova Scotian Railway Photographs Canadian National Lines", Nova Scotia's Railway Heritage]
