Middleton & Victoria Beach Railway

by John R. Cameron

In western Nova Scotia, the Middleton and Victoria Beach was essentially an industrial railroad to give the Torbrook Iron Mines access to a port without having to use the Dominion Atlantic Railway. It was soon acquired by the Halifax and South Western, to give its former Nova Scotia Central line access to Annapolis County and a port on the Bay of Fundy, and ran general freight as part of the Canadian National until finally abandoned in the early 1980s.

The first effort to establish a railway along the north side of the Annapolis River west of Bridgetown was the Granville Valley and Victoria Beach Railway Company (1891, c.126). Incorporators included forestry giants such as Robert Fitzrandolph and John Barnaby, general merchants like W.W. Pickup, James N. Thorne and W.W. Chesley, and lawyers like Parker, Fay and Thorne. This railway gathered twenty-one of the men of substance in western Annapolis County to its support. The railway was planned to run from the Windsor and Annapolis at Bridgetown west to Victoria Beach.

The Granville and Victoria Beach Railway and Development Company (1897, c.82) represented a second attempt to build the same line. Among its incorporators were Orlando T. Daniels, later an attorney general of Nova Scotia (and extraordinarily proud of it), and John Ervin, perhaps the father of incorporated Bridgetown. There was enough interest that it was worth getting an extension of time to finish the line (1899, c.129). When the next extension was obtained (1901, c.160), the name was changed to the Middleton and Victoria Beach Railway Company and the eastern terminus was moved to Middleton. There may have been trouble working out arrangements with the Dominion Atlantic (never an easy neighbour), or possibly the management was wary of having to depend on a single connection. The Torbrook mines were starting to produce ore in quantities attractive to any railway.

Bridgetown ratepayers approved giving the railway a free right of way (1902, c.62). Unusually, the town itself acquired the land and turned it over to the railway. Special authority was needed to acquire the whole of the trotting park in Bridgetown, which the railway effectively destroyed (1903, c.117). The municipality of Annapolis borrowed $30,000 to pay for the right of way outside the town (1903, c.119). The company validated its organization (1903, c.175) and obtained authority to sell. Changes in the location of the line west of Bridgetown were authorized by 1903-04, c.142.

As part of the Halifax and South Western's acquisitions program, it picked up the Middleton and Victoria Beach in 1905. The province lent up to $10,000 per mile, less subsidies, to help pay (1905, c.1). The subsidy payable to the Middleton and Victoria Beach was cancelled in return for the loan.

The mortgage to secure the provincial loan on the Middleton and Victoria Beach was confirmed by 1906, c.2. By this point, the sale had been completed. Length of the line was fixed by Cabinet at forty miles (64 kilometres). A subsidy of $96,000 had been paid to the railway, leaving $304,000 to be advanced to the H&SW towards its purchase cost. As part of the mortgage the H&SW undertook to maintain rail service on the line.

Between 1902 and 1905 another railway was built through this part of the Valley from Middleton to Port Wade on the north side of the river. A large, modern and very imposing wharf was built at Port Wade, but after a few years the line was only used as far as Bridgetown, now [1955] being a part of the C.N.R. line from Bridgewater.

The first station agent here was Frederick Crosskill, and during the last years of his life he acted as agent for the station on the Granville [north] side of the river.

-- Elizabeth Coward, Bridgetown, Nova Scotia: Its History to 1900. 1955. p. 230.

The Halifax and South Western was eventually merged into the Canadian Northern empire, which was taken over by the Government of Canada and became a part of Canadian National.

There were a number of proposals to construct an interchange between the Middleton and Victoria Beach (Halifax and South Western) at Bridgetown over the years, but none of them came to fruition.

A fairly large port installation was constructed at Port Wade, the western terminus. The wharf was about a quarter mile long and trains ran out on it. Pit props for England were shipped out from the wharf during the Second World War. The wharf was finally dismantled in the 1970's.

The line west of Bridgetown was abandoned about 1928. This line came closest of any to being the railway to Victoria Beach first authorized by the 1854 Railway Act.

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©1999 by John R. Cameron, all rights reserved.