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Cornwallis Valley Railway and North Mountain Railway

By John R. Cameron

The last link in the Dominion Atlantic started life as the Cornwallis Valley Railway, again in 1887 (c.59). The proposed route was from Kentville or Berwick to Kingsport, giving Kentville and the Annapolis Valley access to a port. The next year the route was clarified (1888, c.87): Kingsport to Kentville by way of Centreville, and from Centreville west to connect with the Windsor and Annapolis at the junction with the Nictaux and Atlantic (Middleton). The company was also authorized to operate steamers out of Kingsport to ports on Minas Basin and the Bay of Fundy. Telephone powers were added in 1889 (c.82).

Legislation in 1890 dealt with corporate borrowing (c.73) and defined the division of right of way costs totally $29,985 (c.105). A few corporate changes were made in 1891 (c.94) and the western terminus was redefined to reflect the name change to the Nova Scotia Central (c.116). Then, in 1892, the line was sold to the Windsor and Annapolis (c.107) and a final settlement was made of the outstanding right of way claims (c.108). The sale to the Windsor and Annapolis was confirmed in 1893 (c.102), notwithstanding any failure to comply with financing or construction deadlines and relieved the W & A from any obligation to build a railway west from Centreville.

This paved the way for the North Mountain Railway a decade later. Incorporated in 1902 (c.130), possibly as a subsidiary of the DAR (it had primarily English incorporators), the railway was to run west from a point on the former Cornwallis Valley between Kentville and Canning west to the DAR between Berwick and Middleton or some point between the DAR and the North Mountain. Time was extended by 1903-4, c.137; 1906, c.163 and 1908, c.133. The competitor for the same route, the Annapolis Valley Railway, was suspended for a year to allow the North Mountain to start work (c.131) (another example of a railway being chartered to push the completion of another line) and Kings County agreed to pay for the right of way as far as Kingston (c.132). By 1910, the railway had become the North Mountain Division of the Dominion Atlantic Railway (c.136) and the DAR got direct expropriation authority. Time was extended again in 1912 (c.201), with the consent of the Kings council. Arbitrators were appointed to settle the land costs and their appointments were validated in 1913 (cc.133, 134). This railway barely missed the almost certain cancellation that Wold War I would cause for others: steel shortages during the war and a severe depression after, not really overcome in Nova Scotia until World War II.

[SOURCE: A Legislative History of Nova Scotia Railways, by John R. Cameron, 1999.]

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