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Liverpool and Milton Railway

By Robert Chant, with help from Colin Churcher

The Liverpool and Milton Tramway Company was incorporated in 1896 under the statutes of Nova Scotia, chapter 88 to:

"build along the streets of Liverpool and Milton and the highway between those towns and along the Mersey River to the Milton Pulp Company's mill, provided the Nova Scotia Southern Railway Company has not commenced operations by May 15, 1896."

The line opened for business on February 1, 1897 and was constructed from tidewater at Liverpool through Milton, to the pulp mill of the Milton Pulp company.

The line’s only steam locomotive was a 0-4-2 tank engine with and overall passenger cab named "Mersey". This steam locomotive, built by the Porter Company (serial #1712) of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, went new to the line in December 1896. Mersey hauled an average of 40 tons of freight (lumber, pulpwood and pulp) and 150 passengers on its four daily trips over the five mile route.

The name was changed to the Liverpool and Milton Railway in 1900 by the statutes of Nova Scotia, chapter 176, which also authorized the company to sell the railway to any other company.

The Liverpool and Milton Railway was purchased by the Halifax and South Western Railway Company in 1907. (After this take-over, "Mersey" became H&SW #1, in October of 1914 the locomotive went to the Sable Lumber Company and was eventually scrapped.) Freight continued to move over the line for another 20 years, although passenger service was eliminated. In 1923 the line became part of the new Canadian National Railways system.

In 1929, when the Mersey Paper Mill was built in Brooklyn to replaced the on-line pulp mills that provided most of its traffic, the rails of the former Liverpool and Milton Railway were removed.

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