Western Counties Railway

WCR Picnic Train at Yarmouth probably on May 11, 1875.

The Western Counties Railway (WCR) was one of the founding companies of the Dominion Atlantic Railway. The WCR was formed by shipping and lumber investors from Yarmouth and Digby County in 1870. The first sod was turned on Septermber 22rd, 1873 at Lovitt's Wharf and the first rail was laid on Septermber 2, 1874^[1] in Yarmouth but it was not until September 29th, 1879 that the railway reached Digby. The WCR built a distinctive series of stations with highly decorated eaves and overhanging gable roofs. The WCR was beset by financial woes for most of its existence and was never able to complete "the missing link" in its line to Annapolis Royal. However it was a formidable political rival to the Windsor and Annapolis Railway (W&AR) and several times managed to take control of the lucrative "Windsor Branch", the government owned Windsor to Halifax line. The WCR briefly changed its name to the Yarmouth and Annapolis Railway in 1893 just before it was bought out by the W&AR in 1894 to create the Dominion Atlantic Railway. The old WCR line became the Yarmouth Subdivision of the Dominion Atlantic. Western Counties rolling stock became an important component to the new railway and the WCR provided the steamship connections at Yarmouth that built the DAR's passenger trade.

WCR Locomotives

• WCR No. 2
• WCR No. 8

Y&AR Locomotives

• YAR No. 1 Digby

Time Tables

• 1883 Western Counties Railway Passenger Time Table - December 10, 1883
• 1891 Western Counties Railway Employee Time Table - July 27, 1891

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.
• [YAR Engine "Digby" from CSTM]
• [WCR Engine #2 from CSTM]
• [WCR Engine #8 from CSTM]