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Kentville Machine Shop

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1868-1919

The DAR's first locomotive and machine shops stood to the south of the mainline in Kentville. Built by the Windsor and Annapolis Railway in the late 1860s and gradually expanded, the first locomotive shops included a small enclosed turntable, a three bay engine house, machine shops and blacksmith shops.[1] The machine shop survived a large fire on July 8, 1915 which destroyed the attached engine shed.[2]

1920-1973

A larger new machine shop and blacksmith shop was built on the north side of the mainline beside the roundhouse in 1920. The new shop was 60 x 180 feet and stood between the roundhouse and sanding tower. It included an attached 30 x 144 foot blacksmith shop and brass moulding shop and stores building.[3] Two large doors faced east allowing locomotives and rolling stock to enter for major service work on two inside tracks which included a 80 foot inspection pit with a drop pit for driving wheels.[4] At its peak in 1927 the shops and roundhouse employed 126 men, including dozens of machinists, boilermakers and seven blacksmiths with seven apprentices as well as a brass foundry. The shop made the DAR largely self-sufficient for most car, locomotive and MOW parts.[5] It did Class 1, 2, and 3 repairs, the last being complete dismantlement and rebuild of locomotives. Locomotives rebuilt in the Kentville Shops included No. 39 "Lescarbot" which received a feedwater heater system in a complete rebuild in 1927.[6] and No. 544, which received a new boiler in a major rebuild in January 1936.[7] The DAR shop also did considerable non-railway contract work in slack times.[8] Shop facilities also included showers and a steam laundry for shop workers.[9] Staff drooped to 100 during the Depression, but the shops still remained busy in all trades.[10]

The shop received major equipment upgrades in the late 1930s when larger steam locomotives arrived on the line. However the shops saw staff reductions starting in 1939 when 50 employees were laid off in the machine shop, blacksmith, carpentry and paint shops, leaving only the roundhouse and running repairs staff untouched.[11] Further reductions steadily followed in the late 1950s when diesels replaced steam. Routine maintenance was moved to the former Car Shop and major rebuilds were shifted to Saint John and Montreal. By the early 60's, the shop buildings were empty. In 1964, the American Can Company leased the building from the DAR to produce cans for the various food processing plants and canneries in the Annapolis Valley.[12] The shop buildings were destroyed by an accidental fire in 1973.[13]

Gallery

References and Footnotes

  1. ↑ Kentville Fire Insurance Plan, Sheet 1, March 1906
  2. ↑ "KENTVILLE HIT BY ANOTHER FIRE The D.A.R. Roundhouse and Engine Sheds Burned and Two Locomotives Destroyed", Digby Courier, July 9, 1915, Carl Riff Notes
  3. ↑ Kentville Fire Insurance Plans, Sheet 7, December 1951
  4. ↑ Canadian Railway and Marine World, "Projected Lines, Construction Betterments, Etc. Work in 1920", November 1920
  5. ↑ D.A.R. Plant an Eyeopener to Visitors" Rotarians Visit Roundhouse and Shops", Halifax Chronicle Herald, February 5, 1927, Carl Riff Notes
  6. ↑ D.A.R. Plant an Eyeopener to Visitors" Rotarians Visit Roundhouse and Shops", Halifax Chronicle Herald, February 5, 1927, Carl Riff Notes
  7. ↑ Links and Pins, "Railway Notes", Halifax Chronicle Herald January 18, 1936, Carl Riff Collection
  8. ↑ Gary W. Ness, Canadian Pacific's Dominion Atlantic Railway Vol. I, page 16.
  9. ↑ Georgina Robinson, "The DAR Machine Shop", Kings County Vignettes Vol. 8, Kings County Museum, page 23-24.
  10. ↑ Links and Pins, "Railway Notes", Halifax Chronicle Herald January 18, 1936, Carl Riff Collection
  11. ↑ "Fifty Lose Jobs D.A.R. Shop Layoffs - Maybe More Later", Halifax Chronicle Herald July 27, 1939, Carl Riff Collection
  12. ↑ Memorandum of General Information on the Dominion Atlantic Railway, Feb. 17, 1969, page 9, Dominion Atlantic Railway, Library and Archives Canada HE2810 D7 D7 fol.
  13. ↑ "Fire Department Supplement", Kentville Advertiser, Feb. 23, 1988, page 10.

External Links

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