History of Nova Scotia
with special attention given to
Communications and Transportation
Chapter 7
1 January 1950 to 31 December 1979
Go To: Index with links to the other chapters
1950 February
D.A.R. Passenger Train Wrecked
Bridgetown Teacher Injured in Crash
Mr. Lyman Trerice of the Bridgetown High School teaching staff suffered a slight concussion when the Dominion Atlantic Railway's Halifax to Yarmouth combination passenger and freight train on which he was travelling was involved in a collision with a C.N.R. locomotive. Mr. Trerice and three other men were taken to hospital. The crash occurred during a blinding snowstorm and both locomotives were badly damaged.
[The Bridgetown Weekly Monitor, 1 March 1950]
[50 Years Ago in the Bridgetown Monitor, 29 February 2000]
This item (as condensed for reprinting in February 2000) makes no mention of where this serious train wreck occurred. In 1950, along the D.A.R. main line track there were three places where the D.A.R. track was connected to C.N.R. tracks – and thus where locomotives from the two different railways might have been involved in conflicting movements – in Yarmouth, in Middleton, and at Windsor Junction.
Of these three possibilities, my guess is that this collision occurred in Middleton, where the Bridgewater - New Germany - Middleton - Bridgetown main line of the old Nova Scotia Central Railway (later the Halifax and Southwestern and, in 1950, Canadian National) crossed the Halifax - Yarmouth main line of the D.A.R. At Middleton, for a short distance – about 100 metres – C.N.R. trains ran along the D.A.R. track, in making the move from the south (Bridgewater) side to the north (Bridgetown) side of the D.A.R.
There was a fourth connection between the D.A.R. and the C.N.R. at Truro, but a Halifax - Yarmouth train would not be there.
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1950 March
First Diesel-Electric Locomotive
On its first trip on the Montreal-Halifax run, a sleek, streamlined 4,500-horsepower 3380kW diesel-electric locomotive glided into the Canadian National Railways station in Halifax recently, hauling the passenger train Maritime Express.
[The Bridgetown Weekly Monitor, 29 March 1950]
[50 Years Ago in the Bridgetown Monitor, 28 March 2000]
1950 March 15
Fire Alarm Notification
Notice to the Public – Please refrain from using the telephone when the Fire Siren sounds. This will permit the telephone operators to notify the firemen more efficiently.
Fire Committee
Town of Bridgetown
[The Bridgetown Weekly Monitor, 15 March 1950]
[50 Years Ago in the Bridgetown Monitor, 14 March 2000]
1950 March 28
I'm Movin' On
On this day, Nova Scotian country singer Hank Snow recorded his hit single I'm Movin' On, which quickly went to number one on the country music chart for 29 consecutive weeks.
[The National Post, 28 March 2000]
1950 March 31
Driver's License Now Costs $1.50
New automobile operator's licenses for 1950 now cost $1.50. The old license expires on March 31.
[50 Years Ago in the Kentville Advertiser, 28 March 2000]
1950 April 11
Snow Clearing on Public Highway
The men of the Forties formed a snow-shovelling brigade on this day, when it became necessary to move Mrs. Dean Rafuse to hospital. A snowbound Dr. E.K. Woodroffe of Chester had to handle the case by telephone.
[50 Years Ago in the Kentville Advertiser, 25 April 2000]
1950 April 19
Kentville Stops Using Horses
This week the Kentville Town Council took a step that had been discussed off and on for almost 25 years. It was decided to do away with the town horses and use a tractor instead.
[50 Years Ago in the Kentville Advertiser, 25 April 2000]
1950 May
Three-Digit Telephone Number
In May 1950, the Eaton's order office telephone number in Kentville was changed to 297.
[50 Years Ago in the Kentville Advertiser, 23 May 2000]
1950 May 1
Hennigar Bus Line's New Schedule
The Hennigar Bus Line, between Chester and Kentville, had a new schedule as of May 1st. There will be one run five days a week and two on Saturdays.
[50 Years Ago in the Kentville Advertiser, 2 May 2000]
ICS comment, written 5 May 2000:
I remember the Hennigar Bus Line. One fine day, likely 1949, when I was living in Chester, I went to Chester Basin – the company's operating base, and the point of departure of the Kentville trip – to travel to Kentville on the Hennigar bus. The company had only one bus. As I recall, the bus line was started up by a returned veteran of WWII. The day I rode the bus, I was the only passenger from Chester Basin to New Ross. There were two or three additional passengers picked up along the way between New Ross and Kentville. I remember thinking at the time that the bus line's long-term prospect looked bleak if that was a representative day for ticket sales. I doubt the receipts from that trip were enough to pay for gasoline and wear and tear on the vehicle's tires and springs, let alone provide money to pay the driver and equipment depreciation. My recollection is that the road between Chester Basin and New Ross was gravel, not paved, and the bus was subjected to the continual bumping, shaking, and vibration typical of any vehicle travelling at speed on that kind of surface. The bus travelled at a moderate speed, probably about forty miles per hour about sixty km/h. The driver was Mr. Hennigar, the owner of the company. (I think I recall his given name, but am not sure enough to include it here.) I remember waiting for the trip to start, in a small restaurant – more like a lunch counter – in Chester Basin, located on the east side of Highway 3 at the intersection of Highway 12. Last time I looked, in the mid-1990s, that building was still there, long since converted to a private dwelling but easily recognizable because the external appearance had changed little since the 1940s.
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1950 May 23
Daylight Saving Time in Windsor
The Windsor Town Council agreed that Daylight Saving Time would come into effect at midnight Tuesday, May 23rd, and continue until midnight Monday, September 4th.
[50 Years Ago in The Hants Journal, Windsor, 12 April 2000]
Daylight Saving Confusion
Windsor has decided to adopt Daylight Saving Time on May 24th. There was confusion over the province as practically every town has set different dates for the change over.
[50 Years Ago in The Hants Journal, Windsor, 26 April 2000]
In 2000 (and at least since 1980) the changes to and from Daylight Saving Time (DT) are always scheduled for early Sunday morning, never in the middle of the week, so that the first day after the time change is not a working day for most people. In Windsor in 1950, the change to DT was done at 11:59pm Tuesday, May 23rd, and back to Standard Time was at 12:01am Monday, September 4th. These non-weekend changes seem strange to us, until we remember that in 1950, May 24th was a legal holiday (Queen Victoria's official birthday) – thus the first day after the time change was a holiday. And the change back to Standard Time (ST), set for 12:01am Monday, September 4th, meant that the first day after the time change was a holiday (Labour Day). Both time changes were followed by a holiday, same as now.
In 1950, and continuing at least until 1970, the decisions about civil time (Standard or Daylight Saving) in Nova Scotia were legally assigned to each individual municipality. That is, each incorporated town and each rural municipality (there were 66 of them, in all, in Nova Scotia then, including the two cities) made its own decision about Daylight Saving Time – meaning each one decided, on its own, each year, whether or not to make a change to DT, and if the change was made, on what specific dates the spring change (one hour forward) and the fall change (one hour back) would be done. Each council made its own decision, without much attention being given to staying in step with the others. Each councillor was much more interested in the opinions of the voters in his/her local district, especially on a controversial matter such as changing the citizens' clocks around, than on staying in step with surrounding towns and rural municipalities. Feelings ran deep in many places, with intense and disruptive debates between those in favour and those opposed.
Now, in 2000, the decisions about civil time are made by the province, and all areas in the province stay in step. This change – to a uniform system throughout Nova Scotia – was forced mainly by the spread of network television. The regular weekly publication of television program schedules by newspapers with wide circulation, such as the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, and by specialized magazines such as TV Guide, became a source of much confusion among the population when residents of each town had to figure out (a) when the published schedules made the seasonal time changes, and (b) if, and when, the local area made the time changes.
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1950 May 29
Henry Asbjorn Larsen sails the RCMP patrol boat St. Roch to Halifax after passing through the Panama Canal from Vancouver; the first ship to circumnavigate Nortrh America.
[The National Post, 29 May 2000]
Reference:
Henry Asbjörn Larsen, 1899-1964
http://collections.ic.gc.ca/heirloom_series/volume6/88-89.htm
1950 September 5
Dominion Atlantic Railway Operations Halted by Strike
Hundreds of railway employees in Nova Scotia affected
The Dominion Atlantic Railway's services came to a full stop on Tuesday morning, September 5th, 1950, as 533 railwaymen walked out in unison with thousands of their co-workers across the Dominion of Canada. 733 DAR employees are involved, with 533 on strike and 180 laid off as a result of the strike. In Kentville, over 100 union members walked out and 35 were laid off.
[50 Years Ago in the Kentville Advertiser, 5 September 2000]
1950 December 13
Swissair DC-4 Crashes at Sydney
Date: 13 December 1950
Time: 2:00pm
Type: Douglas DC-4-1009
Operator: Swissair
Registration: HB-ILE (43073)
Year built: 1947
People on board: 11 crew + 20 passengers = 31
No fatalities
Nature: Scheduled Passenger
Phase: Final Approach
Flight: Geneva to New York, diverted to Sydney
The Swissair DC-4 had taken off from Geneva for a flight to New York via Shannon and
Gander. Bad weather at Gander forced the crew to divert to Sydney. The aircraft descended too low on final approach and struck a number of poles supporting runway approach lights. Full power was added, but no.1 and 2 prop damage caused the plane to swing to the left. The DC-4 struck the ground in a left-wing-low attitude. The wing was sheared off. Small fires broke out on the left hand side, but were controlled by the crew. About 30 minutes later fire again broke out which destroyed the forward fuselage.
PROBABLE CAUSE: "The impact of the aircraft with the ground while out of control due to failure on the part of the Captain to maintain sufficient height to clear the approach light poles, three of which were struck by the aircraft. After striking the approach light poles, the Captain and First Officer were unable to maintain control of the aircraft due to the malfunctioning of numbers 1 and 2 engines and structural damage to the left wing and flap."
Information excerpted from: ICAO Circular 18-AN/15 (20-22)
Source: Aviation Safety Network website at
http://aviation-safety.net/
and http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/9575/1950.htm#501213-0
and http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/9575/c.htm
1951 June 9
Decision to Build the Canso Causeway
On this day, newspapers reported that the plan to build a bridge across the Strait of Canso had been abandoned, and "within a few weeks" tenders would be called to "fill in" the Strait. This was the decision to build the Canso Causeway.
1954 October 9
First Television Station Goes On Air
CJCB-TV Sydney, the first television station to operate in Nova Scotia (the
18th in Canada), began regular broadcasts this day, on channel 4, using
a 27,800-watt transmitter. The transmitted picture was monochromatic (black and white) only.
Canada's first television station, CBFT-TV in Montreal,
began broadcasting on 6 September 1952.
1954 October 25
First Vehicle Crosses Harbour Bridge
On this day, the first motor vehicle crossed the Angus L. MacDonald bridge over Halifax Harbour. The bridge was by no means finished, but the work has progressed to the point where a truck could be driven across from one side to the other, in places on a temporary deck made of wooden planks. A photograph, of the truck reaching the far end of the bridge, was reprinted in The Chronicle-Herald on 12 December 1997.
1954 November 21
On 21 November 1954, the navy icebreaker HMCS Labrador slipped past Point Pleasant and into
Halifax harbour. In doing so, she made history as the first warship to circumnavigate North America and the first vessel of any kind to do so during a single voyage. It was a notable achievement for a remarkable
vessel.
Source: http://www.dnd.ca/navy/marcom/lab_e.htm
1954 December 10
Canso Causeway Opened
On this day, the Canso Causeway, linking the Nova Scotia mainland to Cape Breton Island, is officially opened for regular highway traffic (the railway was still under construction). It is 4,200 feet 1,280m long, and is the deepest causeway in the world.
1954 December 20
Second Television Station Goes On Air
On this day, CBC television station
CBHT began regular operation in Halifax, from temporary studios at College Street School, broadcasting on channel 3 using a temporary antenna and a 56 kilowatt transmitter. The broadcast picture was monochromatic (black and white only). Don Tremaine read the news, and Max Ferguson, well known to radio audiences across the country as "Old Rawhide", was the host of Gazette, a nightly news magazine show with Rube Hornstein doing the weather and Pat Connolly on sports. "Max Ferguson and I were the first faces to be seen on CBC television in Halifax, Dec. 20th, 1954," Rube Hornstein recalled decades later in an interview for The Chronicle-Herald, printed in the 3 September 1998 issue. There was no network connection to any other location; CBC Network programs were run delayed (often seven days late, so that a show would appear on the same day of the week – for example, The Ed Sullivan Show would run on Sunday evening, but not the same Sunday on which the original show aired) via kinescope until 1958 when the microwave connection brought the live network to the Halifax area. Kinescope (photographic film made by pointing a movie camera at a TV screen) recordings were used because at that time there was no such thing as a tape recorder capable of handling video frequencies (and it was the considered opinion of many competent technical experts that it would never be feasible to record video on magnetic tape).
1955
CBHT Gets More Powerful Transmitter
A 100 kilowatt transmitter was installed at Geizer's Hill, a short distance west of Rockingham (then part of Halifax County but later the City of Halifax was enlarged to include Rockingham) with the transmitting antenna placed on top of a high tower. This new transmitter extended the coverage of CBHT to the South Shore, the Annapolis Valley, and central and eastern Nova Scotia.
1955 April 2
MacDonald Bridge Opened for Traffic
On the day it opened for regular traffic, the Angus L. MacDonald Bridge between Halifax and Dartmouth was the second-longest suspension bridge in the British Empire. During the first year of operation, 116,000 pedestrians walked across the bridge and paid the two-cent charge.
1955 April 2
First Electric Transit Service
to Dartmouth
This was the first day of regular operation of Route 11 of the electric trolley coach system across the MacDonald Bridge between Halifax and Dartmouth. In twenty years the population of Dartmouth nearly tripled, from 15,000 in 1951 to 50,000 in 1971. During the first month of operation, Route 11 carried 74,700 passengers; by August 1955 it was carrying passengers at the rate of more than one million a year. Nova Scotia Light & Power Company, which owned and operated the trolley coaches, paid an annual fee of $5000 to the Bridge Commission in lieu of paying tolls individually each time a trolley coach crossed the span. The trolley coaches drew their power from the usual 600-volt DC overhead wires, which supplied power for the main motor driving the rear wheels, and for the heating, lights, wipers, air compressor, and other auxiliary systems on each coach.
1955 May 14
First Passenger Train
Crosses the Canso Causeway
On this day, the first passenger train crossed the Canso Causeway. This was the first passenger train between Cape Breton Island and the mainland that travelled the entire distance on solid ground, instead of having to be taken across the Canso Strait by ferry between Mulgrave and Point Tupper. This train was operated by Canadian National Railway, and was powered by a steam locomotive.
[The Halifax Daily News, 14 May 1999]
1955 August
Markland Shipping Company
QUEENS COUNTY, August 2000 – The Markland Shipping Company has been gone for forty years but four people in Liverpool have not forgotten it. J.R. Inness, Charles Copelin, David Chandler and Walter MacLeod all remember the Markland Shipping Company and are organizing a reunion for August 31, 2000. All of them have an affiliation with the company or Mersey Paper which is now Bowater. Mr. Copelin's father, Charles, was the managing director of the steamship company; Mr. Inness was a seaman and second officer on the vessels for years; Mr. MacLeod was a Bowater employee and Mr. Chandler worked in the marine section of Bowater.
The Markland Shipping Company was a steamship company located in Liverpool during the1930s, '40s and '50s.
After the death of Izaak Walton Killam, a major shareholder of Mersey Paper, in August 1955, the company and its subsidiary, the Markland Shipping Company, were sold to the Bowater Paper Company in 1956. Bowater already had its own steamship company and transferred Charles Copelin to Bowater's England affiliate in 1957. He was named the managing director of the Bowater Steamship Company.
In 1960 Markland, Liverpool Rover and Liverpool Packet were transferred to England where they had been registered in 1958. The fourth ship, Vinland, had previously been sold to a Hong Kong-based company, ending the Markland Shipping Company's existence in Liverpool.
Mr. Chandler says there are many people who worked for the Markland Shipping Company who are still around and they'd like to bring them together for this reunion. "A lot of them are still alive," he says. "The '50s is not that long ago. We're hoping to attract the attention of former crewmen and their families to come to the museum and meet one another." A bonus to the reunion will be the stories the people will share about their time on the steamships.
Organizers are hoping to attract former crew from Shelburne to Lunenburg counties. In Lunenburg County people from the LaHave Islands to Lunenburg served on these ships.
During the Second World War, the four ships of the Markland Shipping Company and crew were used by the Canadian government to carry cargo. This year's reunion ties in with the Merchant Navy finally getting recognition from the government. Mr. Copelin adds they've also just been given the financial gratuities they deserve. "It's (the reunion) more recognition of what they did," he says. "Not just during the war, but the war was a big part of it. They fought for their country during the war and they are now just being recognized by the Canadian government and given the financial recognition that goes with it."
Currently at the Queens County Museum a display is set up about the Markland Shipping Company. It includes a model of the second Markland, pictures, paintings and uniforms worn by the crew. Mr. Copelin says the Markland Shipping Company was historical in its own way to Liverpool. "That company, although it was owned by the paper company, continued on with the tradition of seafaring out of Liverpool until this company was wound down in 1960."
[The Bridgewater Bulletin, 16 August 2000]
1955 November 14
Buying the Winter Supply of Food
On Pictou Island, the winter of 1956 was severe, with about six inches 15 cm of snow falling on November 11th, 1955. On Monday, November 14th, my mother and father sailed to Pictou and bought our winter supply of groceries. This consisted in part of hundred-pound 45 kg bags of flour, sugar, oatmeal, canned goods, baking products, toiletries, etc. These products would last us until spring when the Strait ice would be gone. The total cost for winter supplies was about $350. I can remember our upstairs pantry shelves being stuffed with a large variety of goods ... Another big snowstorm occurred on December 10th and lasted into the next day. The island road was blocked with snow and the men were at the wharf hauling Ernie Rankine's ferryboat up onto the shore for the winter...
[Excerpted from the Pictou Advocate, 2 February 2000: "Memories of Pictou Island," author not named. Pictou Island lies north of the town of Pictou in the Northumberland Strait, between Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.]
1956 January
Severe Ice Storm Hits
Northern Nova Scotia
Storm memories
Dear editor: On January 6, 1956, a terrible sleet storm hit the Northumberland areas of Springhill, Oxford, Pugwash and Tatamagouche. I was employed by Nova Scotia Light and Power in Dartmouth at that time and, along with all available work crews in the province, we were dispatched to the troubled area. A survey showed that in excess of 1,200 poles had been smashed, and countless isolated power lines were down. The Gulf Shore Road had 46 consecutive poles broken when the wind off the Strait contacted the ice-crusted lines. There were no aerial trucks or pole-setting vehicles then, only eight men to a pole-setting crew with 10-foot pike poles for standing up the timber. For seven straight weeks, all crews worked 10- to 12-hour days, seven days a week. Some areas were without power for weeks and, reading the local newspaper, one could only find praise and respect for those who toiled...
Jack Whiting, Dartmouth
[Letter to the editor in The Chronicle-Herald, 15 January 1998]
1956
Finlay MacDonald
In 1956, Finlay MacDonald was elected President of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. In 1961, he was one of the founding Directors of the CTV Television Network. In 1986, Finlay MacDonald was inducted into the CAB Broadcast Hall of Fame.
1956 July 14
New Passenger Train Put Into Operation
On this day, The Bluenose, Canadian National Railway's new Edmonton - Halifax passenger train began regular service. Known named passenger trains operated by CN or its predecessors to/from Nova Scotia are:
Date of
first run
1 Mar 1898 The Maritime Express Montreal - Halifax
3 Jul 1904 Ocean Limited Montreal - Halifax
26 Jun 1927 The Acadian Montreal - Halifax
28 Jun 1929 Down Easter New York - Halifax
28 Jun 1929 Pine Tree Acadian Boston - Halifax
2 Mar 1930 The Gull Boston - Maritime Provinces
16 Mar 1941 The Scotian Montreal - Halifax
14 Jul 1956 The Bluenose Edmonton - Halifax
1 Jun 1967 The Cabot Montreal - Sydney
[Source: Canadian National in the East, Volume Three (book) by J. Norman Lowe, ISBN 0919487149, October 1985. Published by the Calgary Group of the British Railway Modellers of North America, 5124 33rd Street NW, Calgary, Alberta T2L 1V4.]
1956 October 20
CBHT Moves Into New Building
The CBC's Halifax television station CBHT moved from the cramped temporary studios at the College Street School, to a new building on Bell Road which was officially opened on this day. With the move into the new building, the level of production of television programs increased significantly. The Don Messer Show premiered on 16 November 1956, as a regional presentation. In 1959, CBHT's favourite fiddle show became a network presentation, Don Messer's Jubilee. By 1961, Don Messer's Jubilee was the most watched television show in the country, outdrawing Hockey Night in Canada and The Ed Sullivan Show. Don Messer's Jubilee continued until its controversial cancellation in 1969. In 1998, CBHT still operates from this Bell Road building.
1957 May 28
Last Eastbound Steam Maritime Express
The last trip powered by a steam locomotive, eastbound from Moncton to Halifax, of the Canadian National Railway's Montreal - Halifax passenger train The Maritime Express was made on this day, powered by locomotive 6163, engineer Chester Marr and fireman A. Kellough, both of Truro.
1957 May 30
Last Steam Trains Halifax - Sydney
The last train powered by a steam locomotive from Sydney to Halifax was train #8, which arrived in Halifax at 7:35am this day; locomotive 6007 Sydney to Truro and 6177 Truro to Halifax. The last steam powered train Halifax to Sydney was #7, which arrived in Sydney at 7:45am this day.
1957 May 30
Last Westbound Steam Maritime Express
The last trip powered by a steam locomotive, westbound from Halifax to Moncton, of the Canadian National Railway's Halifax - Montreal passenger train The Maritime Express was made on this day, powered by locomotive 6177, engineer C.W. Oulton and fireman R. Geldert, both of Moncton.
1957 July 27
Last Steam Train on Musquodoboit Railway
On this day, the last train pulled by a steam locomotive operated the round trip Dartmouth - Upper Musquodoboit. CNR locomotive 3409, engineer E.P. McLaughlin of Truro and fireman Reid Cameron of Halifax.
1957 July 30
First Diesel Passenger Train
on Musquodoboit Railway
On this day, the first passenger train to be powered by a Diesel-electric locomotive operated the round trip Dartmouth - Upper Musquodoboit, 69 miles 111 km. On this line, freight trains had been powered by Diesels for about a year.
1957 October 4
Russia Launches First Satellite
The first man-made satellite – Sputnik 1 – was sent into orbit around the Earth by Russia, in "what may be the opening of the interplanetary travel era." CBC Television News said tonight a radio signal believed to have come from the Russian Earth satellite has been picked up in Halifax. In a newscast at 11:00pm ADT on October 4th, the CBC's Halifax television station broadcast the sound of the staellite's radio signal. Listeners heard a rapid series of dots for ten to fifteen seconds. Sputnik emitted strong 3/10-of-a-second beeps clearly audible on 20 megacycles 20 megahertz. The CBC said a Halifax amateur radio operator picked up the signal.
[Front page, the Toronto Globe and Mail, 5 October 1957]
1958 July 1
Coast to Coast Television Network
On this day, a special program was telecast to mark the opening of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's new coast-to-coast microwave service for transmission of television programs. With microwave links completed from Victoria on Vancouver Island to Sydney on Cape Breton Island, a distance of more than 4,000 miles nearly 7,000 km, Canada had the longest television network in the world. The link with the province of Newfoundland, 70 miles 110 km across the Cabot Strait from Cape Breton, was completed a year later.
1959
CBHT Satellite Transmitters
Satellite transmitters (then known as Rebroadcasting Stations), for retransmission of CBHT programming, were installed at Liverpool (CBHT 1), Shelburne (CBHT 2) and Yarmouth (CBHT 3). These extended the coverage of CBHT to most of the South Shore.
1959
$4.00 per Person in Bridgetown
In 1959, there were four places of lodging in Bridgetown: Carleton Inn and Motor Court, Colonial House, Newton's Tourists, and Whitman's Guest Home. Rates were $2.50 - $4.00 per person, and $4.00 - $6.00 per two people.
[Where to Stay in Nova Scotia, 1959 edition]
[The Bridgetown Monitor, 4 April 2000]
1961
Port Hawkesbury Teletype,
First Commercial Message Sent
The first commercial message was sent over the new teletype machine at Port Hawkesbury.
Photograph
1961 January 1
Third Television Station Goes On Air
CJCH-TV Halifax began broadcasting on channel 5. The transmitter power was 100 kilowatts video and 20 kilowatts audio. The schedule was 45 % live
production. This provided the Halifax area with its second television channel – until this day, CBHT was only television channel available. CJCH-TV was owned by a group of Nova Scotians headed by Finlay Macdonald, and was affiliated with the CTV Network. ATV Great Britain and CTV owners also participated in the ownership of CJCH-TV.
1961 June 27
Dartmouth Incorporated
On this day, Dartmouth was incorporated as a city.
[The Daily News, 13 March 2000]
1961 June 27
Albion Rail Road,
Last Remaining Section Scrapped
On this day "an Acadian Coal Company steam locomotive and steam crane went down from Stellarton to New Glasgow and dismantled the last remaining section of Nova Scotia's pioneer steam railway," wrote H.B. Jefferson in his paper Mount Rundell, Stellarton, and the Albion Railway of 1839, read before the Nova Scotia Historical Society on 9 November 1961. "The Albion Rail Road had been in operation for a total of one hundred and twenty-two years – the first 50 under its own name, the last 72 as part of the Acadia Coal transportation system in Pictou county."
1961 September 23
Maritime Coal, Railway & Power Company's Last Train
On this day, the last train operated on the round trip Maccan - River Hebert - Joggins, in Cumberland County, on the Maritime Coal, Railway & Power Company track. It was a mixed (freight and passenger) train, pulled by a steam locomotive. This railway track, 11.60 miles 18.68 km long, from the junction with the CNR main line at Maccan to the Joggins station, was officially abandoned soon after.
Photographs of the Last Run:
The Last Run, 23 September 1961
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/8913/10lastrun.jpg
The crew of the last run at Maccan
Hance LeBlanc (engineer)
Harry Melton (brakeman)
Percy MacPherson(superintendent)
Austin Brown(fireman)
Bert Hood(conductor)
Mrs.Norman Avard
N.T Avard (president MCR&P Co)
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/8913/crewatmaccan.jpg
1961 November 17
Last S&L Steam Locomotives Retired
On this day, the Sydney & Louisburg Railway's last operational steam locomotives, numbers 88 and 90, were officially retired (meaning that their fires were drawn permanently, and they would never again be available for operation).
1961 December 31
Cornwallis Valley Railway Abandoned
On this day, the Dominion Atlantic Railway officially abandoned all of the Cornwallis Valley Railway, except 2.2 miles from Kentville to Steam Mill (which remained in operation until 1994). The track abandoned included most of the Kingsport Subdivision, from Steam Mill to Centreville (2.55 miles 4.11 km), and from Centreville through Sheffield Mills, Canning, and Pereau to Kingsport (8.84 miles 14.23 km), and all of the Weston Subdivision from Centreville through Billtown, Lakeville, Woodville, and Somerset, to Weston (14.47 miles 23.30 km).
1962
Hazel Hill Telegraph Station Closed
The onward march of ever-improving communications technology finally caught up with the Commercial Cable Company's operations in Guysborough County, and in 1962 the Hazel Hill international telegraph station was closed permanently. In the 1920s, this company employed about 200 people in Guysborough County.
1962 January
Cumberland Railway & Coal Co. Abandoned
The Cumberland Railway & Coal Co. officially abandoned 26.2 miles 42.2 km of track, its main line from Springhill through Southampton to Parrsboro. The track was dismantled in the summer of 1962.
1962 March 27
First Train in CN's New Colours
Arrives in Halifax
The first complete train to be formally unveiled in Canadian National Railway's new colours of black, off-white, and orange-red for the locomotives and black and off-white for the passenger equipment was the Ocean Limited which left Montreal on March 26th, arriving in Halifax the next day. Up to that time, only three two-unit locomotives and thirty passenger cars were in the new colours, and there had not been a complete train.
[Page 15, Branchline, November 1999. Branchline is a monthly newsmagazine published by the Bytown Railway Society, Ottawa, Ontario.]
1962 April 24
First Transmission of TV Signal by Satellite
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts, beams a television signal by satellite for the first time, from California to Massachusetts.
[The National Post, 24 April 2000]
1962 October
The Canadian Angle During
the Cuban Missile Crisis
In October 1962, President John F. Kennedy stunned television audiences with a broadcast announcing that the world was on the brink of nuclear war. The public phase of the Cuban Missile Crisis had begun.
In fact, crisis had been brewing for months. The year before, nuclear confrontation had come dangerously close over the status of Berlin. Turning away from the abyss in Europe, Premier Nikita Khrushchev soon committed the Soviet Union to an offensive arms build-up in Cuba: a provocative measure intended to challenge America in its own strategic back yard.
On 22 October1962 Kennedy announced that the Soviet Union had secretly installed between 66 and 74 nuclear ballistic missiles in Cuba. With a striking distance of up to 2200 miles, these weapons could threaten the larger part of eastern America. In response, Kennedy ordered American forces to impose a naval blockade on Cuba, designed to prohibit the delivery of further offensive weapons...
In Canadian and American naval headquarters, staffs were already poised to react. They had been keeping tabs on a threatening increase in Soviet submarine activity off the eastern seaboard for weeks. While Canadian citizens focused their attention on missile launchers in the Caribbean, or the possibility that Bomarc missile sites would receive controversial nuclear warheads, their sailors and maritime aircrews quietly concentrated on the submarine menace.
In Halifax, Rear-Admiral Kenneth Dyer, Flag Officer Atlantic Coast, knew that he had to act. Using planned anti-submarine warfare exercises as a cover, he quietly began to increase fleet readiness and prepare for war. Maritime Air Command did the same. The job would have been easier if Vice-Admiral Harry Rayner, the Chief of Naval Staff in Ottawa, could implement the RCN Defence Plan. But given political indecision in Ottawa, Rayner could not. Instead, Dyer and his maritime air deputy, Air Commodore Clements, used the plan as a guide. They initiated an increase in surveillance activity off the east coast, where their forces were already tracking two Soviet submarine contacts. In the Halifax Dockyard, ships quietly loaded war shots, preparing to go to sea and into battle. In hangars, aircraft readied for an intense operational tempo.
Preparations were made easier on October 24, when escalation in the crisis finally convinced Prime Minister John Diefenbaker to order the armed forces to go to low alert status. But overt preparations that might raise public alarm were prohibited. In Ottawa, the Naval Board recalled the aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure and its escorts from Britain. In Halifax and Esquimalt, the fleet quietly dispersed to war stations.
Meanwhile, the United States Navy was preparing to activate a submarine barrier to the south of the Grand Banks, in accordance with continental defence plans. Messages flew between Dyer and his American counterparts as the east coast fleet prepared to join the operation. To be in place by October 28, the barrier would extend 600 miles south-south east of Cape Race, Newfoundland. It was a huge undertaking, and with American naval forces stretched to the limit with the Cuban blockade, major Canadian participation was essential to its success.
As the submarine count in the western Atlantic continued to rise, the United States asked Dyer's fleet to assume major anti-submarine responsibilities extending as far south as the approaches to New York harbour. Soon, every available Canadian warship and maritime aircraft was at sea or flying over it, maintaining the submarine barrier. The weather was filthy, their targets elusive, and the stakes as high as could be.
By October 28 international diplomacy had hammered out a tentative resolution to the crisis. Khrushchev agreed to dismantle the Cuban missile sites under international inspection. The world heaved a sigh of relief. In Ottawa, most of the Cabinet and many senior military officers wanted to stand down the forces from alert status. But in fact, the crisis was far from over. The submarine threat on the Atlantic seaboard was at its highest level since the departure of German wolf packs during the Second World War. Operations plots showed that there were still five certain, two highly probable and five possible Soviet submarines operating in the western Atlantic. They showed no sign of leaving station. Dyer and his staff pressed for continued vigilance.
While our navy maintained a pace of operations unseen since 1945 and never since repeated, politicians played down, almost dismissed, the significance of events off the east coast. Still, with quiet backing from Harkness and despite opposition from some naval leaders, the war-like operational tempo continued until November 12, when it was clear that the Soviet submarines no longer posed a threat. During the crisis Dyer had deployed 22 destroyers, an aircraft carrier and its 28 aircraft, 2 submarines, 12 shore based Tracker aircraft and 32 Argus patrol aircraft, not including auxiliaries and harbour defence vessels. There had been at least 29 Soviet submarine contacts in the western Atlantic during the crisis. Canadian units, not including subsurface fixed sonars, had logged more than 130 exposure contacts on them. It was a remarkable achievement and resounding proof that continental defence cooperation worked.
But the achievement went unheralded. Minister of National Defence Douglas Harkness, Dyer and others had acted in good faith, but they had stretched the conventions of civil control over the military to the breaking point. What had been done was necessary, but attention could not be drawn to the navy's achievements without underlining the state of crisis within Canada's political and military institutions. There would be no battle honours, no medal presentations, no commendations. The navy's outstanding professionalism, vigilance and dedication during extreme crisis became nothing more than a footnote. Officially, the navy?s intense activities ashore, afloat and aloft had been nothing more than Exercise "Cubex"...
Source: The Canadian angle during the Cuban Missile Crisis by David Robinson
http://www.navy.dnd.ca/cuba_e.htm
Admiral Dyer Dies
Official sent warships to help during Cuban missile crisis
9 October 2000
OTTAWA – Kenneth Dyer, a retired admiral who acted on his own and sent Canadian warships to sea to help the United States during the Cuban missile crisis, died Monday, October 9th, at his home in Ottawa.
The family asked that his age not be disclosed, although a friend said Dyer was in his early 80s. No other details were available.
Dyer was a rear admiral commanding the East Coast fleet when the crisis over the deployment of Russian nuclear missiles in Cuba broke out in 1962. President John Kennedy declared a naval blockade of the island and asked for Canadian support. The request sparked a short-lived political crisis in the government of then-prime minister John Diefenbaker. Diefenbaker wrangled with his defence minister, Douglas Harkness, and refused to put Canadian forces on alert, even though the crisis appeared to be a potential detonator for nuclear war.
While his political masters and his superiors in Ottawa, including Vice-Admiral Harry Rayner, the chief of the naval staff, were paralyzed by the political situation, Dyer acted.
According to Tony German, who wrote about the little-known incident in his book The Sea is at Our Gates, the admiral sent his Royal Canadian Navy warships to sea to hunt Russian submarines. Dyer knew he was straining the traditional civilian-military leash almost to the breaking point.
"I don't think there's any question about it that Douglas Harkness was trying to get a decision from the prime minister and couldn't get a decision," German said in an interview. "This lack of decision was clear to Admiral Dyer.
"The chief of the naval staff couldn't, under those circumstances, give him directions but he did what any prudent commander would have done under those circumstances; he put his forces completely ready and positioned not only so they could take whatever action might be necessary, but also to protect his fleet."
Midway through the crisis Ottawa decided to call a low-level alert, but Dyer had already pulled out all the stops.
A modern-day account of the incident drawn from the Canadian Forces website says Dyer deployed 22 destroyers and aircraft carriers with 28 planes, two subs, 12 shore-based anti-submarine planes and 22 patrol planes in support of the Americans.
The United States Navy, trying to tighten its blockade around Cuba, let the Canadians cover a big segment of the North Atlantic with patrols seeking Russian subs.
"The RCN took over a very substantial segment of what would normally have been a U.S. responsibility and certainly allowed at least one (anti-submarine) task group to move down further south," German said. "It most certainly released the U.S. Navy forces."
The crisis ended in November. The Russians agreed to withdraw their missiles. The superpowers backed away from the nuclear brink.
They preferred to forget it
In Canada, politicians and the military decided to agree that nothing much had happened. "I think they all preferred to forget it," German said. "The crisis had been resolved and it was very little known or understood."
The navy's website account by David Robinson goes further: "What had been done was necessary, but attention could not be drawn to the navy's achievements without underlying the state of crisis within Canada's political and military institutions. There would be no battle honours, no medal presentations, no commendations."
Dyer himself was soon promoted to vice-admiral, but he took early retirement as the in-fighting over unification of the Forces grew in the mid-1960s.
German said Dyer was much respected in the navy. "He really understood the people who were working for him." German recalled.
Dyer risked his career and even a possible court martial when he sent his fleet to aid the Americans without permission, yet German said this was typical.
"He was very brave, as was underlined by the kind of bravery he exercised in this particular incident."
Even before the Cuban crisis, Dyer had been a war hero. He won the Distinguished Service Cross in 1942 when, as commander of the destroyer HMCS Skeena, he sank a German U-boat. Among his post-war career highlights was a 19-month stint in command of the aircraft carrier HMCS Magnificent 1951-53.
[The Halifax Chronicle-Herald, 11 October 2000]
1964
Mill Village Satellite Station in Operation
A station for communicating messages via satellite began regular operation at Mill Village in Queens County.
1964 February 6
Last Extension of Electric Transit Service
On this day, trolley coach route 7 was extended three blocks north to provide direct service to the new Nova Scotia Trades and Technical Institute, later renamed the Nova Scotia Institute of Technology, on Leeds Street in Halifax. This was the last time any electric transit service was extended into previously-unserved territory anywhere in Nova Scotia. The actual length of the new 600-volt overhead was 2200 feet 670 metres which comprised a double-track extension on Robie as far as Normandy, thence a one-way loop circling the block formed by Normandy Drive, Rosemead Avenue, Leeds Street and Robie Street. Previously, route 7 turned at the Highland Park loop which circled a small triangular piece of land bounded by Robie Street, Lady Hammond Road and Duffus Street. After this date there were minor alterations in electric transit routes for various reasons, but none of any consequence.
1965
CJCH Radio Sold to CHUM
The CHUM Group of Toronto purchased Halifax radio station CJCH.
1965 March 17
Eight Die in Plane Crash
Upper Musquodoboit
Date: 17 March 1965
Time: 9:22am
Type: Handley Page HPR-7 Herald 211
Operator: Eastern Provincial Airways
Registration: CF-NAF (160)
Total airframe flight time: 4135 hours
People on board: 3 crew and 5 passengers, 8 fatalities
Location: Upper Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia
Nature: Scheduled Passenger
Flight: Halifax - Sydney (Flight number 102)
The Herald departed Halifax runway 33 at 0910h and was instructed to turn right and climb to FL130. Last radio communication was at 0915h.
PROBABLE CAUSE: "Failure of corroded skin area along the bottom centre line of the aircraft beneath stringer No.32 which resulted in structural failure of the fuselage and aerial disintegration."
Information excerpted from: ICAO Circular 88-AN/74 (39-44)
Source: Aviation Safety Network website at
http://aviation-safety.net/
and http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/9575/aff.htm
and http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/9575/c.htm
1966 March 4
Studebaker Quits
On this day, Studebaker of Canada, a long-time automobile manufacturer, stopped producing cars. The Studebaker company began in 1852 when brothers Henry and Clem built three covered wagons in South Bend, Indiana. Producing horse-drawn wagons and carriages, starting in 1854, was a profitable business. All in all there were five Studebaker brothers and over the years they all participated in company affairs. Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company of South Bend supplied the North during the U.S. Civil War and the British during the Boer War. They also supplied the British and American governments during World War I. In 1902, Studebaker built 20 electric automobiles that were designed by Thomas Edison. Studebaker began building combustion-engined automobiles in 1904. They built electric vehicles until 1912 and ceased building horsedrawn implements in 1919. The United States factory in South Bend, Indiana, where Studebaker had built automobiles and trucks since 1902, was closed in 1964 and production was moved to Canada, but the company's losses continued. The final Studebaker car was produced in Canada in 1966, although the Avanti continued as a low-volume independent into the 1980s.
Sources:
The National Post, 4 March 2000
and http://www.detnews.com/1998/autos/9809/27/09270043.htm
and http://www.ktsmotorsportsgarage.com/ault97/kt.cde97-studebaker.html
References:
Antique Studebaker Club website at
http://www.dochemp.com/9stude.html
Studebaker Clubs website at
http://www.studebakerclubs.com/
Studebaker Drivers Club, Atlantic Canada Chapter website at
http://www.car-list.com/carclub/studebakeracc.html
Studebaker Drivers Club, Ontario Chapter website at
http://www.studebakerclubs.com/ontario/
Studebaker Drivers Club, B.C. Coastal Chapter website at
http://www.graphex-inc.com/~istvan/studebaker/index.html
More than 1,000 Studebaker pictures online
http://home1.swipnet.se/~w-85663/main.htm
More than 650 Studebaker advertisements online
http://home1.swipnet.se/~w-85663/project/adverts.htm
1966 April 12
Exemption from Registration
of Motor Vehicles Operating on
the Islands of Ironbound, Pictou, Big and Little Tancook
Order in Council dated April 12, 1966, made under subsection 25(1) of the Motor Vehicle Act, chapter 293, Revised Statutes of Nova Scotia 1989:
The Governor in Council on the recommendation of the Minister of Highways dated
the 31st day of March, 1966 and pursuant to Section 17(1) [subsection 25(1)] of the Motor Vehicle Act, is pleased to determine that all motor vehicles operating on highways on Pictou Island, Big Tancook Island, Little Tancook Island and Ironbound Island shall be exempt from registration as from January 1, 1966.
Source: (Posted online 1 July 1999)
http://www.gov.ns.ca/just/regulations/regs/mv3666.htm
1966 September
CBHT Broadcasts in Colour
This month, network colour broadcasting arrived at CBHT, the CBC's television station in Halifax. This meant that colour television programs could be brought in from Toronto and broadcast in Nova Scotia, but there was no production of colour TV shows here. In December 1966, CBHT broadcast its first locally-produced colour show, Christmas Eve with Catherine MacKinnon.
The first transmission of colour television in Canada was on 1 July 1966, from CTV's CFTO-TV in Toronto. These transmissions were in the NTSC analog format – for the next four decades all broadcast television in Canada would be analog NTSC.
1966 September 10
MT&T Act of Incorporation Amended
Premier Robert Stanfield Exacts Harsh Revenge
Special Session of the Legislature
On 18 August 1966, Bell Canada, the largest telephone company in the country, made a surprise offer to buy control of the telephone companies that served the three Maritime Provinces. On 24 July 1962, Bell Canada had acquired 99% of the shares of Avalon Telephone Company [later named the Newfoundland Telephone Company and in 1998 known as NewTel]. In 1966, Bell decided it wanted control of both Maritime Telegraph & Telephone (MT&T) of Halifax, which served most of Nova Scotia, and the New Brunswick Telephone Company [now NBTel] of Saint John, which served New Brunswick. MT&T owned 56% of the Island Telephone Company of Charlottetown, which served Prince Edward Island. If Bell's offer to buy shares was approved, it would increase its stake in each of the two companies to 51%, from the 35% it already held in NBTel and the 6% it held in MT&T. That 51% share ownership would give Bell complete control of the telephone services in all three provinces (except for the insignificant territories then served by the 124 independent telephone companies then operating in Nova Scotia, all of which were tiny companies typically serving from 10 to 50 customers each). It was estimated the deal would cost about $60,000,000 and would require about 1,190,000 common shares of Bell; the proposal was to swap three Bell shares for five MT&T shares, and five for eleven of NBTel's shares.
This sudden decision, to buy control of the Maritimes telephone companies, was the result of Bell's humiliating failure, in its attempt to buy Quebec Telephone of Rimouski, which served 109,000 customers along both sides of the St. Lawrence River downriver from Quebec City, including the Gaspe Peninsula on the south shore, and the north shore up to the Labrador boundary. While it was deep in negotiations with Quebec Telephone, Bell was taken completely by surprise when, on 17 March 1966, Quebec Telephone signed a deal to sell control to Anglo-Canadian Telephone Company of Montreal, which was owned by General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (GTE) of Stamford, Connecticut, the second-largest telephone company in the United States. Through Anglo-Canadian, GTE then owned 50.3% of British Columbia Telephone Company, Canada's second-largest telephone company. [In 1998, GTE still controls BCTel]. Bell had been trying to buy control of Quebec Telephone, "to take them out of play for GTE," according to Robert Scrivener, then vice-president of finance at Bell, and later president and chairman of both Bell Canada and Northern Electric.
In a public statement made at the time of the offer to buy control of MT&T and NBTel, Marcel Vincent, Bell's president, said: "The directors of Bell Canada feel strongly that, in the best interests of the progressive development of this essential Canadian industry, we must do all we can to insure that as many as possible of the key elements of the telephone industry remain permanently under Canadian ownership and control." The offer to buy control of MT&T and NBTel was made on 18 August 1966, and was set to expire on 8 September. Bell did not expect any significant resistance.
But Robert Stanfield, then premier of Nova Scotia, was livid at Bell's attempt to acquire control of MT&T. Contrary to Stanfield's popular image as a meek politician known for his underwear business, he proved to be far more dangerous to Bell than anyone thought possible. With the Nova Scotia Legislature as his weapon, the premier was determined to use the force of law to stop Bell in its tracks.
Stanfield also had a second weapon which turned out to be even more potent in what became a bitter and intense campaign against Bell's scheme. In 1962 Bell had bought 100% of the shares of Northern Electric, the large Canadian telephone equipment manufacturer. Immediately following the announcement of Bell's bid for MT&T, the federal anti-combines watchdog D.W.H. Henry, Director of Investigation Research (DIR) under the Combines Investigation Act, received complaints about Bell's purchasing practices and relationship with Northern Electric. Henry used that complaint as the pretext for launching an extensive investigation. He obtained search warrants, and a team of investigators from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided Bell's executive offices on 29 November 1966. The investigators remained on the premises collecting and copying documents until 9 December. This raid marked the beginning of a legal battle that lasted sixteen years. The DIR's target was Bell's relationship with Northern Electric and the goal of the investigation was to force the breakup of the two companies. Henry's investigation was initiated on the grounds that he had "reason to believe" that Section 33 of the Combines Act was either being or was about to be violated. But the investigation was precipitated by the flurry of acquisitions of independent telephone companies, launched by Bell early in 1966 to expand its system. Bell's intent was to become dominant in the telephone business in Canada, and, except for Quebec Telephone, it had been successful in buying several independents.
Stanfield linked the two events – the DIR's investigation of Bell and Bell's offer to buy control of MT&T – in his statement released on 22 August 1966:
It is important that the Maritime Telegraph and Telephone Company Limited be free to acquire telephone equipment that is best suited to our needs and will give the best service. MT&T should be free to buy telephone equipment from any supplier. Clearly, therefore, MT&T should not be controlled by a company which manufactures telephone equipment, either directly or through a subsidiary ... If the Bell company were to acquire control of MT&T, MT&T would not long be free to exercise any independence of decision in acquiring telephone equipment.
"They looked at it as ... an invasion of Atlantic Canada," Jean de Grandpre said of the Nova Scotia government twenty-four years later. "You have no idea how vicious it was ... You would think there was a war between Ottawa and Halifax," he said, referring to the front-page headlines of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald. De Grandpre was Bell's corporate counsel at the time, and did much of the legal work for all the acquisitions that summer. The souring of the MT&T deal led Scrivener and Vincent to turn to de Grandpre as a trouble-shooter in their abortive eleventh-hour attempt to get the deal pushed through. Out of anger, and believing they had no need to negotiate with the provincial government, Bell's officials spurned Stanfield's request for a meeting to work out a compromise, leading the premier to recall the Nova Scotia Legislature into session on Friday, 9 September 1966. He made good on his threat to introduce special legislation severely curtailing the voting rights of MT&T shareholders, which could be done legally because MT&T had been incorporated under an Act (chapter 156, 1910, 10 Edward VII) passed by the Legislature on 22 April 1910. MT&T was incorporated under provincial legislation, and the Legislature could revise that legislation as it saw fit. The amendment, to the Act to incorporate the Maritime Telegraph & Telephone Company Limited, was passed on Saturday, 10 September, and received royal assent the same day. The legislation allowed Bell to buy any number of MT&T shares, but it prevented Bell from voting more than one thousand shares. Outside the Legislature, Stanfield declared: "During my ten years as premier, I have never encountered men who pursue their own interests so ruthlessly while expressing patriotic sentiments."
After the dust settled, Bell had acquired 52.4% of MT&T's shares. De Grandpre threatened to challenge Stanfield's legislation in court, but this was never done. But the legal problems Bell encountered for years afterward, from the Combines Investigation and related developments, were enough to prompt Bell historian Lawrence Surtees to write: "Stanfield could not have exacted a harsher revenge on Bell. The complaints to the DIR over the MT&T acquisition not only provided ammunition for the combines inquiry, but also jeopardized Bell's objectives in Parliament."
[Excerpted from pages 109-111, Pa Bell: The Meteoric Rise of Bell Canada Enterprises by Lawrence Surtees, Random House, 1992, ISBN 0394221427.]
1967 June 1
New Passenger Train Put Into Operation
Between Sydney and Montreal
On this day, The Cabot, Canadian National Railway's new Montreal - Sydney passenger train began regular service. Known named passenger trains operated by CN or its predecessors to/from Nova Scotia are:
Date of
first run
1 Mar 1898 The Maritime Express Montreal - Halifax
3 Jul 1904 Ocean Limited Montreal - Halifax
26 Jun 1927 The Acadian Montreal - Halifax
28 Jun 1929 Down Easter New York - Halifax
28 Jun 1929 Pine Tree Acadian Boston - Halifax
2 Mar 1930 The Gull Boston - Maritime Provinces
16 Mar 1941 The Scotian Montreal - Halifax
14 Jul 1956 The Bluenose Edmonton - Halifax
1 Jun 1967 The Cabot Montreal - Sydney
[Source: Canadian National in the East, Volume Three (book) by J. Norman Lowe, ISBN 0919487149, October 1985. Published by the Calgary Group of the British Railway Modellers of North America, 5124 33rd Street NW, Calgary, Alberta T2L 1V4.]
1967 December 3
Cunard Liner Carinthia's
Last Departure from Halifax
On this day (perhaps a day or two earlier or later) the Cunard passenger steamship Carinthia sailed out of Halifax Harbour for the last time, after the company had cancelled all regularly-scheduled service to Canadian ports. The 22,000 tonne liner was one of several that were sold soon after by Cunard. "It's the last trip for both of us," said Captain Herbert Stonehouse. "It's the end of an era. People don't seem to want ocean travel these days. They would rather get to their destinations fast, in giant jet airplanes."
[The Chronicle-Herald, 5 December 1997]
Picture of Carinthia
http://www.bytenet.net/steamers/carinthia3.html
Cunard Steamship Pictures
http://www.bytenet.net/steamers/cunard.html
This was Cunard's third ship named Carinthia. Here are some details about this ship, from the
Cunard history website. 21,947 tons gross tonnes; dimensions 173.7 × 24.5m (570 × 80.3 feet); one funnel; steel hull; powered by steam turbines driving twin screws through double reduction helix gears; service speed 21 knots; built by John Brown & Co., Glasgow, Scotland; launched 14 December 1955; passenger accommodation, 154 first class, 714 tourist class.
Short history:
After the Second World War the vessels that Cunard had been using on the Canadian route were becoming outdated. In 1951 it was decided to build a completely new class of ships to serve the Liverpool to Montreal route. Despite financial problems Cunard persisted and completed all four vessels, Saxonia, Ivernia, Carinthia and Sylvania. All of the new ships were built by John Brown & Co., Glasgow. Carinthia was completed late in 1955 and then, after being fitted out, made its maiden voyage, from Liverpool to Quebec and Montreal, on 27 June 1956. During the coming years the number of passengers crossing the Atlantic by sea remained static, but the number of those travelling by air grew steadily. Once the four sisters were in service Cunard provided six sailings a month to Canada. In April 1959 Carinthia buckled one of its propellers on the ice in the St. Lawrence River. Then in June there were two fires on board which, although easily extinguished, were obviously the work of an arsonist. Strikes in July meant that Cunard was compelled to cancel a voyage and assist the passengers in making alternative arrangements. In November 1960 Carinthia was chartered by the Canadian Government to undertake trooping voyages. These continued until mid-December and then the ship returned to the Liverpool to New York route. On arrival in Liverpool for its annual overhaul the ship's problems continued as the shipyard engineers went on strike. It was over four months before it sailed to Montreal. On 30 August 1961 Carinthia collided with Tadoussac, a Canadian ship, in the St. Lawrence River during heavy fog. Fortunately both ships only suffered slight damage. Losses suffered by the company meant that a rescheduling of services left only Carinthia on the Liverpool-Montreal route. By October 1967 it was announced that Carinthia, along with several other Cunard vessels, was to be withdrawn from service. By December it was laid up in Southampton and on 1 February 1968 it was sold to the Italian Sitmar Line. The ship was renamed Fairland, but little else was changed. In January 1970 it sailed from Italy for refurbishment. It was now registered in Liberia and could carry 925 passengers. It was completely rebuilt and now had a large theatre, five nightclubs, three swimming pools and 11 passenger decks. It was soon based in North America. The ship operated profitably for its new owners before passing back into British ownership in 1988 when P&O bought the Sitmar Line, at some point being renamed Fair Princess. In 1996 the ship was sold to Regency Cruises, but reverted to P&O when this company went bankrupt. In 1997 it was transferred the P&O Australia.
1969 September
Lurcher Lightship Cancelled
The 20-man crew of the Lurcher lightship was informed that the boat would be taken off its station by the end of September 1969. The Vanguard reported that for 55 years a lightship has been stationed off the Lurcher Shoals, serving as "a faithful guide and beacon to many ships from the smallest fishing vessel to the passenger liners that sailed up and down the Bay of Fundy." The lightships that were stationed there became known as the "ships that never sail."
[The Yarmouth Vanguard, 2 September 1969]
1969 October 25
Last Passenger Train on H&SW Railway
Yarmouth to Halifax
Mixed train 244, Yarmouth to Halifax, disembarked its last passengers Saturday night, October 25th, at the Canadian National station in Halifax to mark the end of a passenger service to the South Shore area of the province, which was more than sixty years old. There was no fanfare, no special celebration, at the end of the line for the train. The three cars, one for baggage, one for express mail, and another for passengers, were quickly shunted to one side and the two engines returned to the roundhouse in Fairview. Only a handful of railway personnel and passengers were aware that it was the last passenger run for the train. Engineer Charlie Hatfield, Truro and Bridgewater, who replaced the regular engineer, John Woodsworth, had the distinction of making the last trip carrying passengers on the line. Mr. Hatfield, leaning out of the engine, described the trip as fairly "normal" and "uneventful."
[The Halifax Chronicle-Herald, 27 October 1969]
References:
History of the Halifax and Southwestern Railway by J. Simmons (original site)
http://www.webpage-fx.com/NovaScotiaRailways/
Features/HalifaxAndSouthwestern/index.html
History of the Halifax and Southwestern Railway by J. Simmons (new site)
http://www.trainweb.org/canadianrailways/Features/
HalifaxAndSouthwestern.html
A Legislative History of Nova Scotia Railways by J.R. Cameron
http://www.trainweb.org/canadianrailways/Features/
LegislativeHistoryOfNSRailways.html
Railways of Canada Archives Robert Chant's excellent website
http://www.trainweb.org/canadianrailways/index.html
Railways of Nova Scotia Historical Society
http://www.webpage-fx.com/NovaScotiaRailways/index.html
1969 December 31
End of Electric Transit Service
The final day of operation of electric trolley coaches in Nova Scotia. The next day, the Halifax transit system was taken over by the City, and a fleet of new diesel buses was put into service. The last trolley coach, number 243 driven by Bill Forbes, pulled into the Young Street terminal shed at 12:45am on New Year's Day. This was the last electrically-powered public transit vehicle to run in Nova Scotia.
1970 February 4
Oil Tanker Arrow Grounds
in Chedabucto Bay
On this day, the oil tanker Arrow ran aground in Chedabucto Bay, Nova Scotia, between Canso and Port Hawkesbury. Attempts by industry and government to prevent the loss of its cargo of Bunker C oil were unsuccessful. Clean-up efforts lasted for the next two years and cost about $4,500,000, but had little useful effect.
1970 February 19
Harbourville Post Office Closed Permanently
Effective today, the Harbourville Post Office is closed. All mail formerly addressed to Harbourville and RR#1 Harbourville should henceforth be addressed to RR#5 Berwick. It is understood most Harbourville residents will have their roadside mail boxes near their homes, and a few will share a lock box. A resident remarked: "The closing of this post office is to be deplored – a sad sign of progress."
[30 Years Ago in the Berwick Register, 23 February 2000]
Harbourville, in Kings County, is located on the shore of the Bay of Fundy, about 13km north of Berwick.
1970 February 21
First Organized Snowmobile Race in the Annapolis Valley
The first organized snowmobile race to be held in the Annapolis Valley was successfully staged at the Meadowvale Raceway (probably Saturday, February 21st). It was the first competitive race to be held in the area and was sponsored by the Aylesford District Lions Club. It was estimated approximately 500 spectators were on hand to watch the thrilling events. The race was open to anyone who wished to enter and a number of drivers were present from around the Maritime Provinces, including Maritime racing champion Henry Wilson of Fredericton. He is the owner of several snow machines, among these a 776 c.c (cubic centimetres) Blizzard, valued at $2,000.
[30 Years Ago in the Berwick Register, 23 February 2000]
1971 January 20
Avon River Bridge Demolished
On this day, the Dominion Atlantic Railway bridge across the Avon River at Windsor was blown up, following completion of the causeway across the river. The railway's main line track had been relocated to cross on the new causeway, and the bridge was no longer needed. The easiest and cheapest way to bring it down was to use strategically-placed explosive charges to cut the steel at selected points, to allow the structure to fall onto the ice below, where it was speedily cut up and removed.
[The Daily News, 20 January 2000]
1971 February
CJCH-TV Sold to CHUM Limited
In February of 1971, CHUM Limited purchased CJCH-TV Halifax. CJCB-TV Sydney was bought by CHUM in March 1971, and CKCW-TV Moncton, New Brunswick in April of 1972. When the purchases were complete, CHUM formed ATV (Atlantic Television Network) to serve the Maritimes.
1971 March 22
Electronic Media in Nova Scotia Legislature
Radio and television media were admitted to regular proceedings of the Nova Scotia Legislature, in a three-week experiment.
1972
CBIT Goes On Air
CBIT Sydney began regular operation.
[CBIT Cape Breton Island Television]
1972
Hewlett-Packard Introduces the First
Hand-Held Scientific calculator
This nine-ounce battery-powered scientific calculator,
small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, had
logarithmic, trigonometric, and exponential functions
and gives answers to ten significant digits
If you were born after 1960
chances are you've never used a slide rule,
maybe you've never even seen one
The HP 35, introduced in 1972, was the world's first handheld scientific calculator. In one of the most amazing displacements in the history of technology, the HP 35 electronic calculator quickly replaced the faithful "slip-stick" – the slide rule – used by generations of engineers and scientists for rapid calculation and simple computation. Until the 1970s, every high school physics student was required to have his/her own 25cm slide rule. Every high school physics classroom had a large
demonstration slide rule, which was used to teach students how to use their slide rules. By the 1990s, one generation after the invention of the HP 35, few high school physics students even knew what a slide rule is.
When Hewlett-Packard introduced the HP 35, a small revolution took place in shirt pockets around the world. It began in the early 1970s, when HP co-founder Bill Hewlett, impressed by the small size of an arithmetic calculator he'd seen, became convinced that HP could expand the technology into a pocket-size calculator capable of performing trigonometric, logarithmic and exponential functions. The result was the HP 35 – named for its 35 keys – a product that fundamentally changed the way engineers, scientists, mathematicians and students worked and banished the slide rule to the history books. A marketing study done in early 1971 alerted HP that there was a small market for a pocket-size calculator with scientific and mathematical functionality – it also recommended that the new calculator be the size of a typewriter or adding machine. But Bill Hewlett was convinced that engineers would prefer a calculator that would fit into a shirt pocket. Bill was right.
In the first three years after its introduction in 1972, sales of the HP 35 exceeded 300,000 units. The little "electronic slide rule" weighed only 250 grams. The device made it possible to make complicated calculations in the field and on the road with the speed and accuracy that far surpassed that of a slide rule and sold for $395 U.S.
Before the introduction of the HP 35, most people calculated more complex mathematical operations, such as reciprocals, trigonometric functions (sines, cosines, tangents, arcsines...) exponents (squares, cubes, square roots...) etc. with a slide rule.
If you were born after 1960, chances are you've never used a slide rule – maybe you've never even seen one. The HP 35 automatically placed the decimal point in the result, which no slide rule ever did. The placement of the decimal point was one of the tougher skills for novice slide rule users to learn, but the need for this skill simply disappeared when the calculator arrived.
Earlier calculators handled only four functions: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The HP 35 not only performed complex scientific and mathematical functions, but it was also the first calculator to use Reverse Polish Notation for programming efficiency. The HP-35 manual: The HP-35 has far more computational power than previous pocket calculators. Its ten digit accuracy exceeds the precision to which most of the physical constants of the universe are known. It will handle numbers as small as 10-99 and up to 1099 and automatically places the decimal point for you. It is the first pocket calculator to provide you with transcendental functions like logarithms and sines and cosines. The operational stack and the Reverse Polish (Lukasiewicz) notation used in the HP-35 are the most efficient way known to computer science for evaluating mathematical expressions.
Manufacture of the HP-35 ceased in 1975.
Sources:
The 'Powerful Pocketful': an Electronic Calculator Challenges the Slide Rule
Hewlett-Packard Journal, June 1972
http://www.hp.com/hpj/72jun/ju72a1.htm
HP celebrates the 25th anniversary of the HP 35
Hewlett-Packard Journal, 26 September 1997
http://www.hp.com/abouthp/features/hp35calculator/
References:
Dave Hicks' Museum of HP Calculators website at
http://www.hpmuseum.org/
Explanation of Reverse Polish (Lukasiewicz) Notation
http://www.hpmuseum.org/rpn.htm
Jan Lukasiewicz, 1878 - 1956
http://www.fmag.unict.it/PolPhil/Lukas/Lukas.html
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Lukasiewicz.html
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/References/Lukasiewicz.html
http://www.math.bme.hu/mathhist/Mathematicians/Lukasiewicz.html
http://www.hd.uib.no/corpora/1995-2/0155.html
Slide Rules
Keuffel & Esser Company 1867-1987, manufacturer of Slide Rules
http://www.sphere.bc.ca/test/ke-sliderule.html
Slide Rules, history and explanation of
http://www.hpmuseum.org/sliderul.htm
Eric Marcotte's Keuffel & Esser Slide Rules (many pictures)
http://tor-pw1.netcom.ca/~marcotte/ke.htm
Advertisement, Penn State Engineer, October, 1953
Keuffel & Esser Slide Rules
http://weblab.research.att.com/~davek/slide/kne/
Log-Log Duplex Decitrig, K&E 68 1210, perhaps the best slide rule ever made
http://weblab.research.att.com/~davek/slide/kne/lldd.html
John Current's Slide Rule Website
K&E, Dietzgen, Pickett, Faber-Castell, Jason...
http://home.att.net/~jcurrent/srule.htm
Dietzgen Model 1732 Maniphase Multiplex Decimal Trig Type Log Log Slide Rule
http://home.att.net/~jcurrent/diet1732.htm
Todd Tolhurst's Slide Rule Collection
http://www.w3xpert.com/toto/sliderules/
Sphere Research Slide Rule Site
http://www.sphere.bc.ca/test/sruniverse.html
Kung's Slide Rule Links
http://www.post1.com/home/kung/srule.htm
1972 January 1
End of Cigarette Advertising
on Radio and TV
Canadian cigarette manufacturers and distributors were ordered to end radio and television advertising, effective this day.
[The Daily News, 21 September 1999]
1972 September
ATV Begins Regular Operation
The Atlantic Television Network, comprised of three television stations, CJCH-TV Halifax, CJCB-TV Sydney, and CKCW-TV Moncton, began operation.
1972 November 9
Anik A1 Satellite Launched
On this day Telesat Canada made history with the launch of the world's first commercial
communications satellite - the Anik A1. Anik is an Inuit word for brother and should be pronounced a-NEEK. Before Telesat's Anik A1, communications satellites such as Telstar could only transmit for a few hours a day, because they moved faster than the earth's rotation. By succeeding in launching a satellite into a geostationary orbit above the equator, Telesat was able to bring Canada the world's first national satellite broadcasting system.
1973 July 1
Cape Breton Steam Railway Opening
On this day, the Cape Breton Steam Railway's inaugural train pulled into the Victoria Junction station. Steam locomotive number 42 pulled three ex-Canadian National passenger cars, Miners' Museum, Ocean Deeps Colliery, and Fortress of Louisbourg. The CBSR owned no track; its trains ran on the Lingan Branch of the DEVCO Railway.
1974 September 3
Metric System Comes to Yarmouth
In an effort to help adults to become more familiar with the metric system of measurements, now replacing the familiar Imperial system of measures, the local continuing education program in Yarmouth was planning a course on the subject. "Already the change to metric terms is being introduced for study in the public school system."
[The Yarmouth Vanguard, 3 September 1974]
1974 November 16
The Whiskey Wreck at Ingramport
In the evening of this day, CNR freight train number 518, from Bridgewater to Rockingham, was wrecked at Ingramport. At the west end of the siding, mile 25.7 of the Chester Subdivision, an open switch derailed two diesel locomotives and seven cars. The cause was traced to children who had broken the switch lock and left the handle raised above the proper locked position. The vibration of the train caused the switch points to move far enough to catch the wheel flanges. The diesel units were numbers 1330 and 1327. The derailed cars included two box cars loaded with cases of distilled spirits in bottles. These had been loaded at the Bridgetown bottling plant, which was served by a spur from the CN main line; the Bridgetown bottler was the last customer (nearest to the end of the line) after the track to Port Wade had been abandoned. These two cars had travelled from Bridgetown over the CN track through Middleton, Springfield, New Germany, Bridgewater, Mahone Bay, and Chester, to the wreck site. The news spread quickly, that two carloads of whiskey had been wrecked at Ingramport. The wreck site was only a one-minute walk from Highway 3, and a crowd of onlookers gathered to view the proceedings, and to "case" the two boxcars full of liquor, with their mostly intact cargo. CN police kept these cars under continuous surveillance, but it is said that, through the night following the wreck, some of the unbroken bottles found their way to unauthorized destinations. The next day, CN retrieved some of the liquor, but most of it was dumped at the wreck site and buried by a bulldozer. The dumped cases were pushed into a hole dug for the purpose, and covered with earth – after the dozer driver, as instructed, ran the heavy machine back and forth over the dumped cases, to ensure that the bottles were crushed and the contents could not be salvaged by anyone. The CN track through Ingramport was abandoned in 1994, but, in 1997, the location of the wreck is easily found, and it could be that some future archaeologist will dig through those piles of crushed glass. Some say that a few bottles remained unbroken, despite the bulldozer's best efforts. [The last revenue traffic on that siding was a boxcar loaded with flour for Snair's Bakery at Black Point, about 1992.]
1975 January
Kentville Town Hall Gets a Computer
An NCR399 computer was installed in the Kentville Town Hall.
[25 Years Ago in the Kentville Advertiser, 4 January 2000]
NCR used to be the National Cash Register company.
1975 February
Kentville Telephone Exchange Converted
to Solid-State Switching Equipment
A whole new generation of solid state, computer controlled switching equipment, worth $5,000,000, is beginning to provide direct distance dialling for the 38,000 customers on the Kentville telephone exchange, owned and operated by MT&T, Maritime Telegraph and Telephone Company. The project, expected to be complete by March 1976, is replacing the Strowger electromechanical switching equipment – magnets, relays, stepping relays, etc. – which has been the core of this exchange for decades.
[25 Years Ago in the Kentville Advertiser, 22 February 2000.]
References describing the Strowger automatic (no operator required to make plug connections) switching equipment for telephone exchanges:
1975 March
Cable TV Coming to Windsor
Cable television is now set to arrive in Windsor, after being held up by financial reasons and CRTC regulations. Those have now been resolved, and the method of sharing the cost of the microwave link has been settled. Local residents soon will be able to watch the additional channels brought by cable which are not available over the air. The cost is expected to be about $250,000 for the first phase. Phase 2 will extend the service to Hantsport, and phase 3 to outlying areas. Studio facilities in Windsor have already been set up.
[25 Years Ago in The Hants Journal, Windsor, 1 March 2000]
1975 April
First Mobile Telephone Customer in the Valley
Waterville businessman Cornelius Holleman became the first mobile telephone customer in the Annapolis Valley recently.
[25 Years Ago in the Kentville Advertiser, 25 April 2000.]
1975 April 1
Change to Celsius
On this day, Canadian radio and television stations began giving temperatures on the Celsius scale. Until today, the Fahrenheit scale had been used since the beginning of radio broadcasting.
[The National Post, 1 April 2000]
1975 November
CBC's FM Stereo Network Starts Up
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's English FM (frequency-modulated) stereo network service was started in November, 1975, linking by microwave new and existing stations in St. John's, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver.
1975 December
Heavy Passenger Traffic on CN
The heavy holiday traffic in late December 1975 resulted in longer passenger trains and extra sections. Eastbound trains arrived in Halifax with up to twenty cars and five diesel locomotives, and on December 23rd #14 ran in two sections. Westbound, #15 ran in two sections a total of eight days. First 15 usually had 18 or 19 cars and Second 15 averaged 14. The Sydney sections of #11 and #14 combined and split at Truro as usual, but the Gaspe sections ran through to and from Montreal.
[From the January 1976 issue of SRS News, a newsletter published by the Scotian Railroad Society.]
A regularly-scheduled passenger train usually has a fairly standard "consist," that is, under normal circumstances it is made up of pretty much the same number of cars for each trip. But sometimes there are unusual circumstances which cause a much larger number of people to want to travel – the Christmas and New Year's holidays have traditionally been times when the number of railway passengers is much above the average. When extra passengers show up, railway managements can provide additional capacity by adding extra cars to the regular train. These extra cars make the train longer and heavier. The extra weight requires additional motive power – more cars means more locomotives must be placed on the train. These extra cars and extra locomotives make the train longer, and there is a limit to how long a train can be and still be worked properly along the line – for example, if the train becomes longer than the passing sidings there will be problems, and it is undesirable for a passenger train to exceed the length of the station platforms.
In practice, there is a limit to how many extra cars can be added to a passenger train. If there are more passengers than the longest feasible train can accommodate, the management often decides to run a second train, called a "second section." The First Section departs and travels according to the published schedule. The Second Section follows the First Section as closely as possible, perhaps twenty or thirty minutes later. The interval between the First and Second sections must be enough to ensure safe operation of the signalling and dispatching system.
When a passenger train runs in sections, it is obvious that the number of passengers travelling is much larger than usual. Sometimes the demand is so large that a train will be run in three or more sections. (In 1946, the army ordered a special train to carry a large group of prisoners of war from detention camps in Upper Canada to Halifax to board ships to return them to Germany, and the newspapers of the day reported that this train ran in three sections.)
1975 December 26
DAR Passenger Train Wrecked at Avonport
The Dominion Atlantic Railway had to resort to chartered bus service between Kentville and Yarmouth for three days after Dayliner 9067 was damaged in a level crossing accident at Avonport, Kings County, on Saturday, December 26th. A dairy truck was unable to stop for the crossing due to icy roads. The truck driver was taken to hospital but no injuries to train passengers were reported. Dayliner 9067 was sent to Montreal for repairs and 9049 was brought in to replace it. The DAR operates two RDC-1s between Kentville - Yarmouth and Kentville - Halifax. (RDC means Rail Diesel Car.) Both are lettered CP Rail. When the DAR first placed dayliners in service 9058 and 9059 were painted with distinctive "Dominion Atlantic" lettering. Both have since disappeared to Upper Canada and have been relettered CP Rail.
[SRS News, volume 2 number 6, January 1976. This was a newsletter issued monthly by the Scotian Railroad Society, Halifax.]
1976 January
Continuous Welded Rail Installed
on Dartmouth Subdivision
Starting on January 12th, CN installed continuous welded rail in the railway's track between Windsor Junction and Dartmouth, known as the Dartmouth Subdivision. From mile 0.0 (Windsor Junction) to mile 8.0, rails in individual lengths of 1800 feet 549m were installed. From mile 8.0 to mile 10.0 (Wrights Cove), 78-foot 23.8m rails were installed – the shorter lengths being necessary here because of the large number of switches in Burnside Industrial Park. A rail cannot be continuous through a switch, it must be cut at the frog.
[SRS News, January 1976]
"Double-length" 78-foot continuous rails were widely used; they were made by welding together two of the 39-foot rails which were/are the standard length produced by rail manufacturers throughout North America. (When the H&SW track between Chester and Liverpool was dismantled in 1992, the scrapping contractor encountered many 78-foot rails.) Railways installed these double-length rails because they eliminated half of the rail joints, compared to the use of the standard 39-foot rails. The joints between rails were/are the source of much of the cost of maintaining track, and eliminating half of the joints would reduce maintenance costs significantly.
1976 January
Trenton Works Building Rail Cars for Cuba
The Trenton Works of Hawker Siddeley Canada Limited is working on a $3,500,000 order from Empresa Cubana Impreortadore de Ferrocarriles. The order, funded by the Export Development Corporation, is for fifty side-dumping iron ore cars, spare parts, related equipment, and technical assistance.
[SRS News, January 1976]
1976 January - February
The National Dream Rerun
The National Dream, CBC Television's series based on Pierre Berton's two best-selling books on the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, will be repeated on national television, in the original eight episodes to be aired on successive Sundays at 7:00pm.
Jan 4 The Great Lone Land
Jan 11 The Pacific Scandal
Jan 18 The Horrid B.C. Affair
Jan 25 The Great Debate
Feb 1 The Railway General
Feb 8 The Sea of Mountains
Feb 15 The Desperate Days
Feb 22 The Last Spike
[SRS News, volume 2 number 6, January 1976]
1976 April 26
CN Passenger Schedule Changes
CN's new system timetable, which became effective on this day, made only minor changes in the passenger train schedules in the Maritimes.
Westbound: The Ocean, Train 15, leaves Halifax at 1130 instead of 1115 and takes 25 minutes longer for the trip to Montreal. The Scotian, Train 11, departs at 1715 as before but takes 20 minutes longer.
Eastbound: The Ocean, Train 14, leaves Montreal 10 minutes earlier and arrives at Halifax at 1555 instead of 1600. The Scotian, Train 12, is unchanged with a Halifax arrival at 2235.
There were minor time changes to other Maritime trains, but no new trains were added and no existing trains were curtailed.
[SRS News, volume 3 number 2, May 1976. This was a newsletter issued monthly by the Scotian Railroad Society, Halifax.]
1976 April 30
Railway Stations Closed
As of this day, CN train order offices at French Village, Chester Basin, Port Clyde, Tusket, New Germany, Bridgetown, and Caledonia were closed permanently.
[SRS News, volume 3 number 2, May 1976]
1976 May
Telephone to Replace Morse Code
on the Southwestern
The train dispatching wire (the vital communications system that carries messages between the train dispatcher and the train-order offices in the stations) along the Halifax & Southwestern Railway will be changed over from Morse telegraph to telephone.
[SRS News, volume 3 number 2, May 1976]
1977 January 3
Apple Computer Incorporated
On this day, the Apple Computer company was incorporated in California.
1977 February 28
On this day, Parliament creates VIA Rail Canada Incorporated, to take over the operation of almost all passenger trains in Canada.
[The National Post, 28 February 2000]
1977 March 17
R.B. Cameron Buys Kentville Publishing Company
On this day, R.B. Cameron "formally took control" of Kentville Publishing Company Limited ... A few weeks later, R.B. acquired Fundy Group of Yarmouth, which brought to eight the number of weekly newspapers in the fold ... Later The Berwick Register was acquired and I was offered the managing editorship of the group, which had now become incorporated as Cameron Publications Limited. I was pleased to accept...
[Harold Woodman's column "Fond Memories of R.B. Cameron," in the Kentville Advertiser, 29 February 2000. Robert Burns Cameron died in New Glasgow on 17 February 2000.]
1979 April 1
Letter Postage Increases to 17 Cents
Along with other Canadian postal rate increases which became effective on this day, the cost of mailing a first-class letter increased from 14 cents to 17 cents.
[The Toronto Globe and Mail, 21 November 1978]
1979 September 4
Discovery Train Departs Yarmouth
The Discovery Train, a travelling exhibit sponsored by the National Museum of Canada, left Yarmouth after spending a couple of days there. The Vanguard reported that 12,840 people visited the train while it was in town. The Discovery Train arrived in Yarmouth over the track of the Dominion Atlantic Railway. From Yarmouth, the train went to Liverpool over the track of the Halifax & South Western Railway. The train was scheduled to make 43 stops all told during its 1979 tour.
[The Yarmouth Vanguard, 4 September 1979]
There is an NFB film, 1978, 26.4 minutes in length:
Once upon a Train: The Discovery Train, Year One
The film chronicles the first year tour, 1978, across Canada by the Discovery Train. It includes interviews with visitors, and an overview of the train's exhibits.
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1979 October 28
VIA Rail Takes Over The Atlantic
On this day, VIA began operating a new passenger train service between Halifax and Saint John, New Brunswick, shown in the railway timetable as trains 615, northbound from Halifax, and 616, southbound to Halifax. This was the same day that VIA Rail took over operation of the The Atlantic, a daily passenger train formerly operated by Canadian Pacific, running between Montreal and Saint John. Trains 615 and 616 were operated with RDCs (Rail Diesel Cars, often known as Budd cars).
[Volume 37 Number 3, dated March 1998, of Branchline, the monthly newsletter of The Bytown Railway Society, Ottawa]
1979 November 1
Lingan Generating Station Begins Regular Operation
The coal-fired Lingan Generating Station on Lingan Bay, near New Waterford, began operation on this day. In 1997, the Lingan Generating Station produced 4,455,000 megawatt-hours of electrical energy, a plant record.
[The Cape Breton Post, 19 October 1999]
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Taking the value of one megawatt-hour of electric energy to be worth about $50 (a reasonable estimate at this time) the 1997 production of Lingan Generating Station works out to be about $220,000,000, a daily average of about $600,000.
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