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DAR History (J. Simmons)

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History of the Dominion Atlantic Railway

(DAR: 1900 - 1990)

by Jim Simmons

D.A.R. and the 20th Century

The humble beginnings of the Dominion Atlantic Railway began under financial and political pressures with the merging of the Windsor and Annapolis Railway and the Western Counties Railway.

It should be noted that in the early days of the inception of the D.A.R., before Canadian Pacific ownership, that the Nova Scotia government intended to sell the whole provincial rail network in western Nova Scotia. Its sales promoter was one Francis H. Glergue, a Bangor, Maine financial genius of the time, who was noted for establishing the Algoma Steel Mills at Sault St. Marie, Ont. The only reason trains running out of Halifax in the pre VIA days and before were not carrying the Maine Central logo is that the D.A.R.'s Board of Directors turned down the proposition at the last minute.

The entrance of the D.A.R. into the 20th century was guided by the appointment of Mr. P. Gifkins as General Manager in May of 1900. Not a more able individual could have been appointed to this most important post than Mr. Gifkin's.

Mr. Gifkin's career path didn't begin in the employ of the railway. Born in Harpenen, England, in 1849, he ran off to sea when just a lad in his teens and for several years served as a cabin boy and seaman on British ships around the world. It was literally "by accident" that he entered railroading, for a fall from a ship's mast seriously injured his knee and realizing that his sea days were over, he took a position with the Windsor and Annapolis Railway that had been secured for him through family connections with the then English Board of Directors. Gifkins continued to work his way up the ranks, starting as an Audit Clerk to Paymaster to Stationmaster at Annapolis and Halifax. Promotions to the positions of Auditor, General Passenger Agent and Passenger Traffic Superintendent quickly followed. Gifkin's inordinate talent for railroading was characterized in all his future administration of the Company's affairs. For the first time since even before the inception of Dominion Atlantic Railway, Company policy was directed by Mr. Gifkin rather than from a Board of Directors in London.

Dominion Atlantic Steamship Service

The Dominion Atlantic also offered a steamship service, which Mr. Gifkins found to his particular delight, being reminiscent of his seafaring days. Other aspects relative to the success of the line had not been forgotten, with the steamship service remaining in the foreground for many years within the D.A.R.

In 1901 the D.A.R.'s steamship fleet consisted of 9 ships in varying degrees of condition. The "Evangeline" in Minas Basin service, the "Prince Rupert" - Digby - Saint John service, "Prince Edward" - for sale or charter, "Alpha" and the "City of Saint John" - both condemned, "Yarmouth" - becoming obsolete and the "Prince George", "Prince Arthur" and "Boston"

Having three surplus ships, it became necessary to find business for these vessels. In 1904 it was decided to begin a weekly service between Yarmouth, Boston and New York with another weekly run between Yarmouth, Halifax and New York. This was highly successful until the traffic volume outgrew the accommodations and the boat withdrawn. The "Evangeline" was replaced in the Minas Basin service in 1904 with a new second hand vessel, the "Prince Albert".

This new vessel doubled "Evangeline's" capacity with a capacity of 50 tons and a top speed of 12 knots. The "Prince Albert" continued in service for 22 years until traffic and the necessity of transporting automobiles across Minas Basin caused the "Kipawo" to be brought into service in 1926.

Growth Continues

For years before the D.A.R.'s inception, the Company vigorously promoted a policy of assisting to build up industry and agriculture throughout the Annapolis Valley. All land with access to the railway was under cultivation with sidings and warehouses steadily increasing.

Never before had the line been in such good condition. New heavy steel track was being laid yearly; wooden bridges being replaced by steel ones; and new equipment purchased to take care of the increased traffic load. The Dominion Atlantic now owned 23 locomotives, 31 passenger cars, 3 postal cars and 373 box and flat cars. With the purchase of equipment and upgrading of the entire line displayed the absolute confidence the D.A.R. had in the property of the Annapolis Valley.

Tourist traffic on the line continued to boom, peaking in 1907. This encouraged the Company to enter into the steamship business on the scale in which it did. Thereafter, the automobile and truck made steady inroads into passenger and freight revenues, as they did with all other railways in Canada and the United States. Both however again bloomed temporarily during the First and Second World Wars.

Freight traffic was still in its infancy but the potential was enormous. Agricultural shipments such as apples and potatoes were increasing yearly and facilities such as warehouses and apple orchards appeared in abundance all over the Annapolis Valley.

The Midland Division

Three years after the organization of the D.A.R. the Midland Railway was conceived as a means of transporting resources such as farm produce, lumber and rich gypsum deposits from one of the most productive sections of the Province. The closest railway terminals existed in Windsor or Truro.

The route followed the St. Croix River for 34 miles then descended to Five Mile River to the Shubenacadie River (mile 41) then to Black Rock, Clifton and followed the Salmon River to Truro. The total route being 57.84 miles.

It was realized the immense value of this line to the Dominion Atlantic and before the lines completion, on September 7,1901, the D.A.R. began negotiations for the purchase of the line. Due to the incompletion of the line lengthy negotiations took place as to an agreeable price.

From 1902 until 1905, the D.A.R., acting as agents for the Midland Railway, allowed them terminal facilities, shunting their freight and taking care of their passenger business. Finally, in February of 1905 an agreement was reached, with the line being turned over to them in July 1905.

The D.A.R. now accessed one of the areas of richest natural resources in the province and had steamship links in the Minas Basin, Bay of Fundy and between Yarmouth and Boston not to mention a direct link with the Intercolonial at Truro and the rest of Canada.

Misfortune

The carefully laid plans of the railway were not to be without complications. The winter of 1905 was to be one of the worst on record with several heavy snowfalls lasting for days and freezing temperatures ceasing all functions of the line. The Midland Division was at a standstill, the line to Yarmouth was under snow for nearly a month and Halifax trains caught in the storms were forced to stay where they were.

Snowplows and crews worked day and night with extra forces employed to clear the line. The extra efforts put forth proved to be of little avail as heavy ice had to be picked out by hand labour every inch of the way. At wits end, the railway knew not what to do and finally had to call out for volunteers. The line between Kentville and Halifax was finally cleared in March. Assistance came for the line from the students and professors of Acadia University among others in the area. The first train to go through was crowded; not only with regular passengers, but with hundreds of students who had been given free passes for their work.

The line from Kentville to Yarmouth was not opened for some time later and the final expenditure of the railway was over $100,000, an enormous sum for the day, not to mention lost revenues caused by the suspension of traffic.

The Halifax papers of March 17,1905 carried the below notice from D.A.R. management:

"The Dominion Atlantic Railway desires to gratefully acknowledge the voluntary assistance rendered by the citizens of several towns along the railway an particularly the Professors, Teachers and Students of Acadia University, Horton Academy and Acadia Villa in clearing the line during the late disastrous snow blockades and to thank each one individually for their generous aid, which was offered at a time when a friend in need is a friend indeed."

Because of the storm, severe financial setbacks were felt by the Company, which negated any hope of dividends to shareholders and also threatened D.A.R.'s program of expansion. Plans for a hotel at Digby were abandoned and a proposed branch line from Centreville to Weston, through the fertile apple district of the North Mountain was put aside.

With the D.A.R.'s headquarters and Board of Directors in London, Mr. Gifkin's felt he could not properly convey the gravity of the situation and therefore, armed with facts, figures and photographs, proceeded to London to meet the newly appointed President of the D.A.R., Charles Fitch Kemp.

The Board of Directors stared unbelievingly at the photographs and listened to Mr. Gifkin's optimism and assurances concerning the future of the line. Improvements were agreed to be continued and the plans for the Centreville to Weston branchline to start construction.

Mr. Gifkin's optimism proved true for the railway experienced a tremendous increase in traffic, freight and passenger, with combined earnings of $778,572 and net earnings of $280,586. Dominion Atlantic Steamships were bringing in approximately 300,000 tourists per year. Passenger traffic was proportionately higher than any other railway in Canada, and its freight traffic from industries and agriculture showed the results of a policy of conceding every assistance possible to shippers.

  • Industries along the D.A.R. during this period were:
    • 1 cotton factory at Windsor
    • 1 metal foundry at Windsor
    • 1 creamery at Wolfville
    • 1 sash and door factory at Middleton
    • 1 machine factory at Kentville
    • 1 metal foundry at Hantsport
    • 1 barrel factory at Kentville
    • 1 metal foundry at Bridgetown
    • 1 cheese factory at Bridgetown
    • 1 vinegar and cider factory at Bridgetown
    • 1 sash and door factory at Bridgetown
    • 1 cotton duck factory at Yarmouth
    • 1 machine and foundry at Yarmouth
    • 1 sash and door factory at Yarmouth
    • 1 woolen goods factory at Truro
    • 1 cap and hat factory at Truro
  • Brickyards:
    • 2 at Avondale
    • 1 at Middleton
    • 1 at Bridgetown
    • 1 at Annapolis
  • Stone Quarries
    • 1 at Beaverbank
    • 1 at Hantsport
    • 1 at Middleton
    • 1 at Bear River
  • Gypsum Quarries
    • 1 at Ellershouse
    • 1 at Newport
    • 1 at Windsor
    • Several points on the Midland
  • Iron Ore Mines
    • 1 at Middleton

Shipments of iron ore from Tolbrook over the line totaled 88,834 tons from 1903 - 1907, when they temporarily ceased because of mining difficulties.

Changes on the Horizon

While Mr. Gifkins was busily engaged in the thousand and one details in the running of a railway, the D.A.R.'s destiny was being determined elsewhere.

The federal government, concerned with the future of the Intercolonial, began to take notice of this little Nova Scotian railway which was diverting a good deal of the traffic over the Saint John route and had the highest proportion of passenger traffic in all of Canada. An examination of the line was recommended but nothing definite decided.

This procrastination proved the government's undoing as Sir Thomas Shaughnessy of the Canadian Pacific Railway had for some time been in private correspondence with the D.A.R.'s Board of Directors in London. In 1909, C.P.R. engineers inspected the line and Shaughnessy made a trip to England while the government was still bantering concerning the purchase of the D.A.R.

With the news of Canadian Pacific's absorption of the D.A.R., imaginations ran wild, people and politicians alike proposing branch lines all over the province.

It was difficult for people to realize that before any further expansion was possible that the D.A.R. would have to be brought up to C.P.R.'s more modern and efficient standards beginning with new "Standard Train and Interlocking Rules" and a change in the dispatching system.

- The following was announced in the "Halifax Herald" of March 1911:

"The transfer of the D.A.R. to the Canadian Pacific takes place the 1st of April; if the necessary legislation is passed in time the property will come under the new management April 1st. Of course, many changes for the better are expected to take place on the railway. One of the most striking changes will be in regard to train dispatching arrangements. Hitherto on this railway, the dispatching has been chiefly by telegraph. The C.P.R. intends to install a telephone dispatching system in place of the telegraph system and the change will be made at an early date. The experiment will be tried on the Ontario Division of the road at the same time..."

On November 13,1911 the Dominion Atlantic Railway was formally leased to the Canadian Pacific Railway for a period of 999 years, effective January 01,1912.

The Dominion Atlantic under C.P.R. Ownership

Although the D.A.R. was now under C.P.R. ownership it was not to lose its identity. As opposed to being controlled from England as before C.P.R. ownership, it became a Canadian company, with head offices in Montreal and a new Board of Directors. During a period of settlement with the English owners, Sir Thomas Skinner was appointed President, (representing the English interests), Sir Thomas Shaughnessy as Vice-President. Later, Shaughnessy became President. It was a matter of tradition within the C.P.R. that the Senior Vice-President automatically became President of the Dominion Atlantic Railway.

Much to the disappointment to some of the "old guard" of the Dominion Atlantic, who for so many years governed over the D.A.R. fleet of steamships, the C.P.R decided to take the economical step of consolidating the fleet of steamships into a specialized company. There remained to the D.A.R. the "Prince Rupert" in Digby to Saint John service, the "Yarmouth" used to relieve the "Prince Rupert", and the "Prince Albert" in Kingsport - Parsborro service. With the exception of control of the steamship connections at Yarmouth and Digby the local management remained unchanged.

With the acquisition of the Dominion Atlantic Railway and the steamship lines the C.P.R. had the fast and dependable through service that they so desired, rather than as with the other lines, being slow and uncertain and beyond their control.

With the Canadian Pacific takeover the financial position of the Dominion Atlantic looked much more favourable and a vigorous program of bridge building and replacement got under way.

The Weston Branch

The construction of the North Mountain or Weston Branch that Mr. Gifkins lobbied for after the storm of 1905 was started in earnest with almost 15 miles of track laid. In order to be granted a government subsidy, the Weston Branch had to be completed by August of 1914. This branch wasn't completed until December 1st,1914 and the Company lost their subsidy and bore the cost alone of $413,000.

The North Mountain or Weston Branch was an incalculable asset to the fruit shippers of the area, which shipped hundreds of thousands of barrels over the branch yearly. The North Mountain or Weston Branch did not have a Station Agent per say, other than a traveling agent who traveled the line performing the routines that would fall to a regular agent.

Tragic Loss and New Beginnings

Under the direction of Mr. Gifkins, the Dominion Atlantic Railway, operated with no general upheaval or disturbance to routine during the first three years of C.P.R. ownership.

Sir George Bury became the new President of the Dominion Atlantic Railway in 1917. The rumors and changes to be made with C.P.R. ownership went by the wayside with Bury's appointment.

Sir George was considered a modern thinker for his time and had no patience for the "old school" railway methods.

Upon the first inspection of the line made by Bury, the D.A.R. management was inudated with requests for reports, stats and information from Kentville headquarters. This greatly disturbed the routine of the years and made more demands on Gifkins time and energy.

Mr. Gifkins', already a 44 year veteran of the railway with 15 being as general manager of the Dominion Atlantic Railway felt the time had come for him to retire from the monumental tasks that he had overcome. On November 1,1915 Gifkins, formally retired from the C.P.R.

The tragic death of Mr. Gifkins on May 23,1925 brought to an end a historic era within the Dominion Atlantic Railway and the great accomplishments of one who had devoted the best years of his life to the betterment and success of the D.A.R.

The Dominion Atlantic Railway and the Modern Era

With the loss of Mr. Gifkins, the D.A.R. needed a man of vision and outstanding ability able to meet head-on the challenges to be put forth in the demanding years to come.

Sir George Bury could have made no better choice in the man of George E. Graham as the General Manager of the Dominion Atlantic Railway.

Mr. Graham's career with the C.P.R. before coming to Nova Scotia was one of steady advancement within the ranks and also demonstrating the same fortitude as his predecessor, Mr. Gifkins'.

Mr. Graham was born at Markham, Ont. in 1870. Graham's railway career, under his father's urgings, was to start at the age of 18 as a night Operator of a small station in Locust Hill, Ont. After a short time taking a business course, the lure of railroading proved too great and he again came under the railway employ.

This time, he was employed as an Operator at a station near Owen Sound, Ont. Before long, Graham was promoted to Operator and Ticket Agent at Toronto.

In the many talents that Graham acquired in his early career, one was shorthand. This was most beneficial in opening up avenues for promotion for Mr. Graham.

In June of 1887, Canadian Pacific was opening up the Crow's Nest Pass and there was need for a secretary for the Manager in charge of construction, Mr. M.J. Haney. An unusual combination of qualifications was required for the position, being knowledge of telegraphy and shorthand, of which Graham possessed. Graham got the position.

For 18 months Graham worked at this most responsible and high pressure position returning to Montreal in the end of 1898. Grahams next position was in Winnipeg as Chief Clerk to Sir Thomas Shaughnessy who had just been appointed General Superintendent.

In 1900 Graham spent six months as Agent at Fernie, B.C. then was transferred back to Winnipeg as Superintendent of Weighing and Refrigeration for Western Lines. In 1901 he was given that position for the entire line.

Graham steadily climbed the ladder, eventually becoming Superintendent in Vancouver,B.C. IN 1910, one of the most coveted positions on the C.P.R.

For a short term of three years, Graham briefly worked for a small B.C. railway, Coquitlam Terminal Company, as General Manager. As his promotions within the C.P.R., this short tenure again added to the qualifications of Mr. Graham..

Opportunity arose in 1915 in the form of an offer as General Manager of the Dominion Atlantic Railway which Graham had no hesitation in accepting.

Within a year of his arrival, Mr. Graham had made secure the future of the Dominion Atlantic. As successful as the D.A.R. had been under it's former owners it was badly in need of modernization. Present methods of operation and equipment were becoming obsolete. There was no roundhouse at Kentville and shop facilities were inadequate.

All of these operating matters and many others were Mr. Graham's first concern.

Steamship Service Improvements

The D.A.R. and its C.P.R. subsidiary, the Eastern Steamship Company, continued to make improvements in steamship service and connections.

The D.A.R. made the first step by improving its Minas Basin service, which was quick becoming a favorite for tourists entering the province with automobiles.

The increased use of automobiles and proper accommodation for them on the steamer was found to be a necessity and in 1925 the D.A.R. purchased the motor vessel "Kipawo" (Kingsport-Parrsboro-Wolfville) at a cost of $45,453. The new boat replaced the old "Prince Albert" long due a well-deserved rest.

In 1927 the Eastern Steamship Company withdrew one of the "Prince" boats from Boston - Yarmouth service and replaced it with the "Yarmouth" with a capacity for 750 passengers.

American tourism took a boom in 1928 and Eastern Steamships established a direct summer service between New York and Yarmouth with a sister ship of the "Yarmouth", the "Evangeline". As the popularity of this route grew, Eastern Steamships, in 1932, put on a larger ship, the "Acadia" and released the "Evangeline" to assist her sister ship "Yarmouth" in Boston-Yarmouth service.

In August of 1932 the C.P.R. put on a new ship for their Digby-Saint John service replacing the "Empress" with the "S.S. Princess Helene". This vessel provided a continuous link fusing the C.P,R, with the Dominion Atlantic and provided accommodation for 500 passengers and 50 automobiles.

There is no doubt that these accomplishments in establishing Nova Scotia as a major tourist attraction in this era were due to the constructive efforts of the Dominion Atlantic Railway and the wise management of Mr. Graham and Mr. Gifkins before him.

The Apple Industry and the D.A.R.

In 1905, apple planting was in its height, with some 75,000 new trees set out. As a result of this increased acreage and care of existing orchards, the crop for 1909 reached the million barrel mark. This was partly accomplished to the improved transportation and facilities provided by the D.A.R. Between 1909 and 1936, a span of 27 years, there were continual increases with over a million barrels shipped over a dozen times.

Each year, from October throughout the winter, the D.A.R. apple trains rumbled over the line carrying the fruit to Halifax for export overseas, or to Canadian points via the D.A.R. and her Canadian Pacific connections.

The valuable cargoes were loaded, picked up from spurs, and within the space of a few hours, delivered to waiting liners at the Port of Halifax.

The Dominion Atlantic was an integral and indispensable part of the Annapolis Valley's greatest activity.


Dominion Atlantic Railway Steam Locomotive Roster


Original Article ©1999 Jim Simmons, all rights reserved.

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