Bear River, Nova Scotia

Subdivision Yarmouth, Mile 13.6
Next Station East: Deep Brook
Next Station West: Imbertville

Elevation 42'
Passing Track 914' long at station.

The village of Bear River was located four miles south of the DAR line at the head of a deep tidal inlet. The scenic village was a busy centre for shipping and lumber in the 19th century. Regular rail service began on July 27, 1891 after the federal government completed the bridges of the "missing link" between Annapolis Royal and Digby, including the massive Bear River Bridge, a mile east of the Bear River Station. Rail service began with trains of the Western Counties Railway in 1891 which connected to the Windsor & Annapolis Railway at Annapolis Royal.^[1] The Dominion Atlantic Railway took over service in 1894 after the WCR and the WAR merged to create the DAR. The village of Bear River was served by a large wooden passenger and freight station near the river's mouth at Warren's Point close to Smith's Cove. The station was built to Intercolonial Railway plans by the federal government when they constructed the missing link Bear River was popular with railway photographers both for high, curved bridge over the river and curve just west of the station which offered fine views of the Annapolis Basin used by several generations of railway photographers to showcase DAR trains on the "Bear River Curve".

Features & Facilities

Gallery

Track Schematic for Bear River.
Bear River circa 1890s.
Bear River circa 1890s.
Bear River station area to west of Bear River Bridge with Flying Bluenose, Train No. 124, circa 1906.
Bear River Bridge, looking east, 1906
Colour postcard of the Flying Bluenose entering the Bear River Curve.
Colour postcard of the Flying Bluenose at the Bear River Curve.
DAR train at the Bear River Curve, circa 1900.
A postcard of the Clarke Brothers Pulp Mill at Bear River soon after it opened, circa 1921.
No. 2528 eastbound at the Bear River Curve, circa 1956.
DAR mainline embankment and cutting at Bear River just west of the Bear River Bridge with the Bear River Lighthouse in background, December 1950.
Number 44 with the morning freight, November 1950.
Christmas tree buyer Vian Andrews checking trees being loaded on a CPR box car at Bear River Station, November 1950.
Loading Christmas Trees at Bear River for shipment to Bronx terminal, New York City, November 1950.
Christmas trees being loaded into box car for shipment to Bronx terminal, New York City. Bear River, CPR Station. November 1950.
Train No. 95 at the Bear River curve in "Trains" magazine, 1951.
Bear River Station, July 1959.
Dayliner at Smiths Cove/Bear River, 1962
Bear River Curve 1973.
Bear River Station in 1974.
Bear River curve from the trailing cab of an RDC, June 13, 1979.
No. 1272 gently eases across the Bear River Bridge in the winter of 1988.
No. 1272 makes its way East across the Bear River Bridge in the winter of 1988.
Bear River VIA Rail stop. April 1986.
Bear River, looking east by the ruins of the Clarke Brothers Pulp Mill, April 1986.
Bear River VIA Rail stop. April 1986.
Bear River VIA Rail stop. April 1986.
Bear River VIA Rail stop. April 1986.
Eastbound freight at Bear River Station approaching the Bear River Bridge lead by No. 1272 with van No. 434061, June 3, 1989.