Nostalgia & History > Windsor & Hantsport Passenger Trains

When VIA cancelled the Evangeline Dayliner in January 1990 on the Dominion Atlantic Railway between Halifax and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia....we all thought passenger trains were gone for good! The DAR was abandoned and the track removed between Kentville and Yarmouth....but east of there.....there was still some freight business along with the gypsum unit trains so a new shortline.....the Windsor & Hantsport Railway took over.

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And then 20 years ago this month....the Evangeline Express Sunday Excursion Trains began. The W&H obtained two open-air cars from the Great Smoky Mountain Railway and teamed them up with an xVIA coach to offer a 40 mile round trip between Windsor and Wolfville.....also stopping at the Grand Pre National Historic Site where the Church and the Deportation Cross marks the spot where the Acadians who had farmed these lands were expelled by the British in 1755. (Ancestors of the Acadians live on today in Louisiana...the “Cajuns”)

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The Excursion Trains lasted for several years into the early 2000s but then the gypsum and freight business dried up. The track is still in place and heavily overgrown. Here’s some shots from a fall trip a couple of years ago

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Evangeline was the heroin in Longfellow’s poem about the expulsion of the Acadians. It’s also the name of one of the Park Cars...usually found on VIA’s Ocean.

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That's a great photo essay, thanks for sharing it

Hey Gary, thanks for the great photo story to make me long to return across the continent again! Love those fall colours in Nova Scotia!

Can you tell me just what years these excursions ran? I was back in NS in 2003, and I'm not sure if the excursions were already terminated, but I was there in May, so it would be before the seasonal service would have started anyway. But I did see the gypsum trains!

And I'm still kicking myself for not riding the DAR Dayliner to Yarmouth when I could have in my 1977 visit. *sigh*

Lee Hower - Sacramento



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/17 13:40 by mcfflyer.

First-class photo essay. I especially like the then and now photos.
Bob

mcfflyer Wrote:
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> Can you tell me just what years these excursions
> ran? I was back in NS in 2003, and I'm not sure
> if the excursions were already terminated, but I
> was there in May, so it would be before the
> seasonal service would have started anyway. But I
> did see the gypsum trains!

Hi Lee.....The last printed schedule I have for the Evangeline Express is Summer 2002....so I'm guessing that's the last season they ran. And it's been awhile since the gypsum trains ran too!

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/17 13:54 by ghCBNS.

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Neat photos, Gary. But I'll bet that the silence was deafening.

Lee

Always too late! Thanks for telling us (and me) about how great times in the past. wag216