The Railways of Canada Archives -- Speaking Of Coal ...

Speaking Of Coal …
Part II

By Don Scott, Coquitlam, BC

Bruce Hollett of Halifax, brought another area of coal mines in Nova Scotia-that skipped my memory-"Stellerton", and that's where the "Acadia" coal mine was located. As mentioned in my previous post--"Acadia" coal was dirty and dusty.

Years ago my parents and myself travelled on CN's "Maritime Express" eastbound from Moncton to Oxford Jct. N.S. and before the war years hauled by one of the 4-8-2's of 6000 series.

At this Junction we would board the Oxford Shortline as it was called--with an oil electric of the 158 series and a wooden coach behind (equipped with the old gas lights). Fumes from the oil-electric (nicknamed Jitneys) went back into the coach and very strong smell. The Short Line run which we were enroute to Westville, N.S., another coal-mining town, was an interesting run.

When arriving at Pugwash Jct. the train would then back about five or six miles into Pugwash on the Northumberland Strait (where millionaire or billionaire Cyrus Eaton came from and later a big industrialist in the United States, the think tank of top business people--the majority met there for a good number of years-believe they still do). After the train got back to Pugwash Jct., we continued on.

Another place this passenger run backed into was the Pictou area. At Browns Jct. the train would back all the way to the town of Pictou, then come out to Browns Jct. and then over a long bridge.

Speaking of Westville--I had relatives there-including an Uncle working at the local Westville coal mines--up at 430 in the morning and in bed at 2000. It must have been a hard life.

The oil electric would tie up overnight at Stallerton. Another route back to Moncton on CN, you could board the afternoon Sydney-Truro-Halifax passenger which they called the "Sydney Limited" as railway people nicknamed it at New Glasgow, powered by a 4-6-2 5200 series taking the train as far as Truro. Make connections with the westbound Halifax-Montreal "Maritime Express" for Moncton.

After 1940-1941 the 4-8-2 6000 class were replaced by 4-8-4's of the 6160-6179 series assigned to the Maritime Express, Ocean Limited and the new Scotian which was put on the Maritime's run to handle wartime traffic.

4-8-2's of 6000 series were put on certain Moncton-Saint John passenger runs like trains #13 and #14., also on some Halifax-Sydney trains. In 1942, the new 4-8-4 6200's arrived on Montreal-Halifax passenger runs-being runthroughs on the 840 mile run along with the 6160-6179 series-and later a few of the 6180 series.

At Trenton Car Works at Trenton, N.S. a suburb of New Glasgow, I had an Uncle who worked at the car plant from the 1930's up to 1950's ending up as forman. Today the Trenton Works under new owners has a good future, turning out rolling stock for North American railroads--I hope.

Speaking of former CN 2-8-0 #2442 shunting and hauling coal runs in Moncton during the war years--I used to ride the cab with locomotive engineer Jim Wilson (known as the Rabbi) nicknamed by other engine crews.

Doing this post brings back many memories. Today, people working on the railways seem very distant, and not very friendly like they were years ago. Truro, N.S was an interesting railway centre, and around the station there you could watch Dominion Atlantic (CP) freights and passenger trains to and from Windsor and Kentville in the beautiful Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia.

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