View source for Nova Scotia Railway

{{Infobox rail|
railroad_name=Nova Scotia Railway|
logo_size=|
old_gauge=|
logo_filename=no image.png|
locale=central [[Nova Scotia]]|
start_year=[[1853]]|
end_year=[[1872]]|
gauge=5 [[foot (unit of length)|ft]] 6 [[inch|in]] (1,676 [[millimetre|mm]])|
hq_city=[[Halifax, Nova Scotia]]|
marks=
}}

The '''Nova Scotia Railway''' is a historic [[Canada|Canadian]] [[Rail transport|railway]].  It was comprised of two lines, one connecting [[Halifax, Nova Scotia|Halifax]] with [[Windsor, Nova Scotia|Windsor]], the other connecting Halifax with [[Pictou, Nova Scotia|Pictou]] via [[Truro, Nova Scotia|Truro]].

The railway was incorporated [[March 31]], [[1853]] and received a charter to build railway lines from Halifax to Pictou by way of Truro, as well as from Halifax to [[Victoria Beach, Nova Scotia|Victoria Beach]] on the [[Annapolis Basin]] opposite [[Digby, Nova Scotia|Digby]] by way of Windsor.  The company also received a charter to build from Truro to the border with [[New Brunswick]].

The railway line to Windsor (known as the Windsor Branch) was opened in [[June]] [[1858]] and the line to Truro (known as the Eastern Line) was opened in [[December]] [[1858]].  No further work was undertaken on the line to Victoria Beach beyond Windsor but the Eastern Line to Pictou Landing was completed by [[June]] [[1867]], under the supervision of [[Sir Sandford Fleming]].  The construction of the Nova Scotia Railway by the colonial government was partly encouraged by the construction failures and ongoing delays in building the [[Shubenacadie Canal]]; indeed the success of the railway came at the expense of the canal which opened in [[1861]] and soon fell into disrepair from lack of use.

One noteworthy early feature of operations on the Nova Scotia Railway was the first known case of [[intermodal]] operations involving the "piggyback" transport of road vehicles on railway cars.  Farmers in the Windsor area were able to drive their teams of horses and loaded wagons onto railway cars and be transported into Halifax to sell their loads, returning to Windsor the same day.

The Windsor Branch was leased to the [[Windsor and Annapolis Railway]] in [[1871]].  The W&A became part of the [[Dominion Atlantic Railway]] or DAR in [[1894]] and the DAR itself was purchased by the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]] or CPR in [[1912]], although it was operated as a separate entity. When the DAR was sold by CPR in [[1994]], the Windsor Branch came under the control of the shortline [[Windsor and Hantsport Railway]].

The rest of the Nova Scotia Railway became part of the [[Intercolonial Railway]] in [[1872]], which in turn was controlled by [[Canadian Government Railways]] from [[1915]]-[[1918]] and was merged into the [[Canadian National Railways]] or CNR in [[1918]].  The Halifax to Truro line remains part of CN, however the rest of the Eastern Line from Truro to Pictou was sold by CN in [[1993]] to the [[Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway]] as part of CN's sale of the entire Truro to [[Sydney, Nova Scotia|Sydney]] line.

== Reference ==
* Iron Roads of Nova Scotia, David E. Stephens, Lancelot Press, Windsor NS

[[Category:Nova Scotia railways]]
[[Category:Defunct railway companies of Canada]]