Canadian Railroads > Private Varnish on the Bras d'Or

On August 19, 2003 (a Tuesday) private car Silver Foot tagged along on the Bras d'Or from Halifax to Sydney, NS.  Two of the many locations I shot them that day were "McKinnons Dump", the big fill along the Bras d'Or lakes west of the Barra Strait, and at Grand Narrows, just east of the Strait.

On the return trip the next day, the excursion train made an impromptu stop at iona, on the west side, where passengers got a chance to take a stroll on the beach for a few minutes.

This was the location of the ferry slip that conveyed cars across the Barra Strait until 1994, when the new highway bridge was completed.

GTD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/20 07:03 by cn6218.

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cn6218 Wrote:
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> This was the location of the ferry slip that
> conveyed cars across the Barra Strait until 1994,
> when the new highway bridge was completed.
>
> GTD

Here's a picture of that ferry wharf I took hanging out the window on the 'Cabot' back in June '76.

And BTW.....if I was a passenger paying the big bucks to ride in the Bras d'Or's Park Car.....I think I'd be pretty p****d!!

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Is that the Barra of the Barra MacNeils?
Fred

ghCBNS Wrote:

> And BTW.....if I was a passenger paying the big
> bucks to ride in the Bras d'Or's Park Car.....I
> think I'd be pretty p****d!!

No big bucks involved.  Everybody on the Bras d'Or paid the same (unless you got some sort of discount).

$200 for a one way trip, no reserved seating.  Personally, I prefer the dome, and can't understand why it never seemed to be full.

Meal service however was in the coaches, so if you wanted to be fed, you had to leave the Skyline and Park cars.

Yes, the Barra McNeils are from that part of the country.  A friend of mine married a girl from up there, a cousin of the musical family.  That's not to say she wasn't musical herself, as an accomplished bagpiper.  The running joke up there is, "There's nothing in Iona except Catholics and Holy Days."

GTD