Cape Breton's Magazine

think the first decline of the thing was when they took the mails off. That was in 1954 • and she started going down then. She carried the mail for all those years. 1902 or '03 to 195' • that was quite a revenue in itself. The mail went by truck and it's still going by truck. I was on the train the last night that the mails were car? ried. March of '5't I believe. The god- damnedest snowstorm that ever was. Well, she started gradually going off. First thing they took the passenger train off and they used the way freight then • and the way freight had one coach on it which carried passengers. Hughie Dan: A freight train with a coach on the back end. Gussy: It was a substitute for a- while. But it started losing passengers there. People couldn't wait for that. It got to be too slow an operation. So the cars came in as the trains went out. Hugh? ie Dan:-And the railroad stations started getting in bad shape and they weren't re? pairing them. Hughie Dan: Instead of a passenger train, they had a jitney on here for awhile too. Just one car for passengers, with a diesel engine. It was only a dark car, not up to date. It had the power unit right on the coach. Passengers only and a little bag? gage. That was in the early fifties. Gussy: Then they gradually started cutting out the stations, doing away with them. They left 3 or 4 of the main stations in between Point Tupper and Inverness. Then they gradually did away with them. Now there's no stations at all. Not even In? verness. It's there but it's not operat? ing • they're in the freight shed. Then they started running a train here three times a week. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Then it came down to two. And now it's one day a week • one train. Goes up in the morning and back in the evening. Hugh? ie Dan: There's an odd boxcar on it and a- bout 10 or 12 cars of coal, coming from the mine at St. Rose. The primary reason for the train was to serve the coal mines. According to J.L. Mac? Dougall 's HISTORY OF INVERNESS COUNTY, the line was begun by William Penn Hussey in the late 1880s, as part of his Broad Cove Coal Co. He laid a narrow gauge railway from his seam at Big River to a shipping pier at the harbour. The Inverness Railway and Coal Co. succeeded him, controlled by Mackenzie and Mann. They were to build 100 miles line from Pt. Tupper to Cheticamp harbour. However, 60 miles of building brought them to their own coal mine at Broad Cove, and the railroad never went any further. In 1929 the line was taken over by Canadian National. The train carried coal to the pier at Port Hastings, and men like those above served as trimmers as the coal was loaded aboard vessels. Vincent MacLellan was able to help us with some names;we'd appreciate learning of any additions or corrections our read? ers can supply. Front Row, left to right; Duncan MacDonald (?), Alex LaFave, Eddi'e MacQuarry, Billy King, ?, ?, Hector Maclsaac. Second Row: ?, Billy MacLean, ?, Ben MacDonald, Murdoch MacFarlane, Archie Fraser (?), Murdoch Maclnnis (?), Angus Fraser. Third Row: Jimmy MacQuarry, ?, Murdoch Skinner, Archie Chisholm, Jimmy Alex Skinner (foreman), Alex MacDonald, Hector Maclsaac, Archie MacDonald, Archie Chisholm. Our thanks for their help in gathering photos to Mr. and Mrs. Doug MacNeil, Mrs. Robert Skinner, Mona Smith, Mrs. Innis Freeman, Everett Skinner, and Ned and Terry MacDonald • all of Inverness. Gussy Campbell of Judique supplied us with photos from his area, as did Alex MacKinnon of Port Hastings. Our thanks as well to A.W.D. Mac- Bean of Halifax who has taken an avid interest m the Inverness Railway and who lent us some of his pictures.