Flying Bluenose

This summertime fast luxury train was the premier passenger service on the DAR. It began in 1891 when the "missing gap" between Digby and Annapolis Royal was completed creating an opportunity for a fast luxury service aimed at American tourists, connecting Halifax with passenger steamers at Yarmouth. The name combined two earlier Windsor & Annapolis trains, the "Flying Acadian" and the "Bluenose". The DAR purchased the first Pullman parlor cars in all of Canada, the Haligonian and Mayflower for the run(1), later adding the observation cars Annapolis Royal and Grand Pre. In some years the name was abbreviated on timetables as "Bluenose" but remained known and extensively marketed as the Flying Bluenose. The Flying Bluenose was joined by the New Yorker in the 1920s, a similarly fast and summer only train which connected to the New York steamships at Yarmouth. Famous in its day, the Flying Bluenose even inspired a children's book by Zillah K. Macdonald called The Bluenose Express. The Flying Bluenose train appears to have fallen victim to the decline in tourism during the depression and was cancelled after 1935.

A typical consist of the "Flying Bluenose" in 1893 was made up of the locomotive "Evangeline" (No. 14), a baggage car, a first class and smoking car, the first class cars Jocosa and Fleur de Lys and the parlour car Mayflower.(2)

The Yarmouth to Halifax eastbound Flying Bluenose was Train No. 124.

The Halifax to Yarmouth westbound Flying Bluenose was Train No. 123.

Gallery

Interior view, parlour car Mayflower or Haligonian, part of the Flying Bluenose train, circa 1895.
No. 18 with The Flying Bluenose near Kentville in 1896.
The Flying Bluenose arriving at the Digby Station, 1904.
The Flying Bluenose disembarks passengers at the Digby Station, circa 1910.
The Flying Bluenose, Train No. 124 crossing the Bear River Bridge, circa 1906.
The westbound Flying Bluenose inside the North Street Station at Halifax, circa 1912.
Colour postcard of the Flying Bluenose at the Bear River Curve, circa 1910.
The eastbound Flying Bluenose at Elderkin Creek berween Kentville and New Minas.
The westbound Flying Bluenose between New Minas and Kentville.
The Flying Bluenose, Train No. 124, at Grand Pre, circa 1914.
The Flying Bluenose, Train No. 124 crossing the Avon River Bridge near Windsor, circa 1914.
Train crew of the Flying Bluenose at the Yarmouth Station in 1916.
Flying Bluenose at Hantsport crossing the Halfway River Bridge, possibly with coach No. 27 and baggage car No. 46 circa 1920.
Cover to The Bluenose Express, the children's book inspired by the train by Zillah K. Macdonald, 1928.
No 503 leading the Flying Bluenose, Train No. 123 at the Kentville Station with a CPR refrigerator car in background, circa 1920's.
No. 502 arriving at Lawrencetown c. 1924-26.
The 1920s model of observation car Annapolis Royal lettered for Flying Bluenose service.
Article by H. B. Jefferson about the creation of the DAR; the beginning of the Flying Bluenose; train wreck at Mount Denson and the parlour car "Haligonian", May 17, 1958.