The Western Counties Railway (WCR) was formed by shipping and lumber investors from Yarmouth and Digby County in 1870. Construction began in Yarmouth in 1874 but it was not until 1879 that the railway reached Digby. The WCR was beset by financial woes for most of its existence and was never able to complete its line to Annapolis Royal. However it was a formidable political rival to the Windsor and Annapolis Railway (WAR) and several times managed to take control of the lucrative "Windsor Branch", the government owned Windsor to Halifax line. The WCR merged with the WAR in 1893 to create the Dominion Atlantic Railway and the WCR line became the Yarmouth Subdivision of the Dominion Atlantic. Western Counties rolling stock became an important component to the new railway and provided the steamship connections at Yarmouth and its strong passenger trade.

References and Footnotes

• Gary Ness's Canadian Pacific's Dominion Atlantic Railway (Vol. I), page 1, 3
• Marguerite Woodworth, History of the Dominion Atlantic Railway, pages 88-98.