Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative - Wiki
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The Dominion Atlantic Railway
This Nova Scotia Railway conglomerate is one of the more important pages out of Nova Scotia history. The D.A.R. served as the catalyst in the development of the economies of the Annapolis Valley Apple Industry and the Nova Scotia tourism industry and provided the vital link that connected the western end of Nova Scotia from Yarmouth to Halifax and Truro.
The Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative Wiki Project
The entire DAR DPI web site including this Wiki is my personal donation to the study and preservation of the D.A.R. This railway has always held a fascination for me yet its history has been elusive; confined to a few words in most publications and lacking in breadth and depth. Thankfully a few authors have taken the time to truly wade in, yet there is a much larger folklore component to the D.A.R. that keeps its memory alive. By harnessing the technology of the internet and software like this Wiki, I hope we may eventually assemble the bits and pieces that everyone seems to have; their own little "slice" of the D.A.R.; and together hopefully we can build a true panorama of the railway everyone holds dear.
For Researchers
We are pleased so many come to the DARwiki to research the rich history and deep connection of the railway to the history and development of Nova Scotia. To aid researchers please follow this link to our page called Research Help that lists important documents and links to important pages on the wiki to help uncover the history of the D.A.R.
Wiki Status
January 7, 2021
The DARDPI now enters its 14th year, which seems to me to be well beyond anything I could have envisioned when the site was first launched in 2007. Seems incredible, but the most satisfying part is through the group efforts here, we all feel we have kept the memory of the D.A.R alive and provided valuable information to communities and individuals. Tens of thousands of hours has been donated to the content here over the years and to those individuals responsible for those contributions, we all salute and thank you. We look forward to continuing to add friends of the D.A.R. (the "DARmy" :) ) to our community here and on Facebook.
In the first years, we were intent on creating our locomotive and other rolling stock inventory, our trackage section to fill out the stations and communities on the line and collect as many images to illustrate that as possible. I repeat myself from previous years but it was serendipity that John A. MacIntosh's huge photo collection with over 1000 D.A.R. colour images from 1949 to 1988 started to sell on eBay at the exact same time as we started. The late Bob MacIntosh, John's son, was kind enough to allow us to use all his sales scans for our site. You'll still see the evidence of that in the small percentage of the MacIntosh photos that have SAMPLE in red on them. Thankfully, a huge percentage of them were replaced by high quality images donated by the folks that bought the slides. If you have any of the MacIntosh slides, feel free to donate an image to replace the SAMPLE scans. It would be much appreciated! Every year we continue to add more facets of the D.A.R. face to the site and improve the depth of the existing information through research and donated documentation.
Now 2020 will live in infamy, never to be forgotten but relished in the fact that it's over. We look forward to this New Year bringing hope that the virus will wane and we can get back to normal life.
Steve Meredith
Earlier Status Notes
Museum Affiliations
This wiki is a part of the Middleton Railway Museum site and is intended to be a repository of digitized artefacts at the museum. The wiki's other mandate is to provide as complete a history as possible to serve as a private study resource for museum volunteers on site and on the internet.
We have also forged personal relationships with other museums and societies with which we work closely and with others who have contributed material from their archives to our wiki:
- Nova Scotia Museum
- Kings Historical Society
- Wolfville Historical Society
- Yarmouth Historical Society
- Canadian Pacific Historical Association
- Nova Scotia Railway Heritage Society
The Digital DAR - An MSTS Route
Set in the mid seventies, the route from Yarmouth to Windsor Junction including the Coldbrook and Steam Mills spur and the Midland to Brooklyn has been faithfully recreated by Paul over the last 8 years. This was a labour of love and it shows. All the towns along the route and even Cornwallis and Greenwood are especially accurate and well detailed.
Paul has also created all the necessary rolling stock for the railway so that the immersion is complete.
I consider this a priceless donation as the time spent on this recreation runs into years and yet Paul has donated this route for all to enjoy. Perhaps one day, we will even see it running as a permanent display at the Memory Lane Railway Museum!
We have all the necessary files stored here on the forum if you would like to roll your sleeves up and get cracking on the DAR right away. Please click on the link to go right to our file section: http://www.dardpi.ca/forum/viewforum.php?f=17
Take time as well to browse the messages in the area for screen shots and the running dialogue as Paul worked on this.
Contributions
I would like to assure contributors that unlike other forums and groups on the internet, the images and text contributed will never be reduced or culled to save space. The whole idea to this wiki is to save absolutely everything possible! This wiki is backed up regularly as well to protect these images and text and the investment in time put in to it by all.
Picture Preferences
All contribution are gratefully accepted but if possible, we would like photos in JPG format saved at 100% quality with no smoothing with a the largest dimension (either H or W) at 1500 pixels. At this size, it is not suitable for publication yet allows enthusiasts a great deal of detail when examining the photos.
Terms of use
You have already agreed to the Terms & Conditions of this web site when you entered it. If you have not agreed then you may not proceed until you have agreed to our Terms & Conditions of use. Please click here to be directed to our Terms & Conditions page.
User Policy
Our policy to eliminate Spam robots and control Spam "content" will be:
1. The Wiki can not be edited by guests. Interested individuals will be allowed to contribute to the Wiki with no questions asked. If you are interested, make sure you have created a user name on the forum and then send an email on the forum by going to your User Control Panel, private messages, to user "STEM" explaining your interest and I will put you on the wiki with your forum username and password right away. Should you have problems with signing up in the forum, please direct your email to me at "Webmeister *at* DARDPI *dot* ca".----
