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Midnight
"The Midnight" was the popular nickname for the DAR's long-running overnight mixed trains between Halifax and Yarmouth, Train No. 99 and Train No. 100.
The two night trains were launched in 1921 as mixed passenger and freight but, at least initially, only carrying through freight between Halifax and Yarmouth.[1]
No. 99 left Halifax in the evening with freight, express, coach and sleeping cars, arriving at Annapolis Valley towns about midnight and arriving in Yarmouth early in the morning. It ran opposite Train No. 100, the Yarmouth to Halifax overnight mixed train which was also known as "The Midnight" in the Western parts of the DAR such as Annapolis Royal,[2] although eastern towns such as Wolfville called No. 100, the Fast Freight.[3] For many in the valley the Midnight was an evocative symbol of sleepy late-night mysteries. Homes next to stations like Berwick would often find polite but confused passengers from "The Midnight" knocking on their doors in the wee hours asking for directions and taxis in the still and deserted streets of valley towns.[4]
Allen Gibson wrote in his nostalgic book Train Time: "The last train of the day was Number 99, Yarmouth-bound from Halifax. Familiarly known as "The Midnight", it arrived at or about the witching hour when the old town clock atop the post office was striking its twelve nocturnal notes. Student days at Acadia often found one studying late, the passage of time forgotten in the pursuit of of knowledge or, as more likely, in some last and harried effort to finish an assignment. The sound of "The Midnight" blowing for the station was a reminder of bedtime and, often sleep came to the distant rhythm of the engine's exhaust as the train hammered up the grade out of Port Williams."[5]
Gallery
Article on the new Bridgetown Station, the start of the Midnight trains, a new Digby Station, and Aberdeen Hotel renovations, Dec 9, 1921. See article text.
Train No. 99 at Halifax on July 7, 1954 evening departure to Yarmouth.
DAR mixed Train No. 100 led by No. 2516 nearing Hebron in August 1957. Box car No. 225114 can be spotted.
References
- ↑ The_Gazette_1921_Dec_9_"DAR_Improvements_and_New_Bridgetown_Station"
- ↑ Doug Schaffner, post to DAR-DPI Forum, Dec. 19. 2009: http://www.dardpi.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=188
- ↑ M. Allen Gibson, Train Time, Windsor: Lancelot Press (1973) page 21, 25.
- ↑ Personal conversation, Mary Louise Conlin, Berwick, 2005
- ↑ M. Allen Gibson, Train Time, Windsor: Lancelot Press (1973) page 21, 25.
