Nova Scotia Railway
The Nova Scotia Railway was incorporated March 31, 1853 to build railway lines from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Pictou, Nova Scotia by way of Truro, Nova Scotia, from Halifax to Victoria Beach (near Digby, Nova Scotia by way of Windsor, Nova Scotia, and from Truro, Nova Scotia 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, but the Eastern Line to Pictou Landing was completed by June, 1867.
One noteworthy early feature of operations on the Nova Scotia Railway was the first known case of "piggyback" transport of road vehicles on railway cars, as 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 in 1871 to the Windsor and Annapolis Railway which later became part of the Dominion Atlantic Railway or DAR. The DAR would be taken over by the Canadian Pacific Railway or CPR. When the remains of the former DAR were spun off by the CPR, 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 1876, which in turn became Canadian Government Railways and in 1920 the Canadian National Railway or CN. The line Halifax to Truro remains part of CN, but the rest of the Eastern Line from Truro to Pictou was transferred in 1993 to the shortline Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway as part of their takeover of the former CN line from Truro to Sydney, Nova Scotia.