That makes me smile when I see things from 40 years ago so faithfully recreated Paul! Couldn't tell you how many times we pulled up to those gates in Greg's van full of band gear ("Cobra") ready to play for yet another graduation dance.
Between the messes at Greenwood and even the rec centre and Cornwallis graduations, that made up 75% of our bookings.
Yes, I think it was once an apple warehouse before Cornwallis was a naval training base. It's changed over the years, there are only the two doors on the east side, no windows and no other doors but it's close enough to the tracks that it could have had a siding at one time.
Yup. Sure enough. Checked the 1951 Digby east topographical and you're exactly right. Tracks ran right in front of it. Could have been a freight shed too because it's so small or a very old warehouse. Topo doesn't show a siding though.
For reference, the station is just to the right of center/middle. To the far left of center at the middle of the building is the warehouse I suspect started life as a fruit warehouse until the military had other ideas. At the time of this photo the trackside doors appear to have been covered.
This shot is from the Cornwallis Museum I found on line while Googling "CFB Cornwallis NS", there are others. The site is terrible to navigate.
One thing I did discover, this shot is post 1947. The Nova Scotia Archives has one shot of Cornwallis but you have to search for Deep River to find it. It's a shot taken from the other side of the base that shows the same structure. It also shows that the PE&RT building is still under construction, only the floor and the pools are there, no walls yet, the shot is labelled 1947. In the shot the "apple warehouse" shows the two doors and a couple of windows on the south and east sides.
Here's a link to the Cornwallis Museum if you'd like to ask about their photos:
So you can see from those photos I emailed you from the site you gave me that it looks like there was another building at the end that was torn down. And yes there was a siding too.
The building on the left next to the station, yes, when I was there in 1980 there was still part of the platform that was slowly being torn up. This was served when the switch to the siding came off the mainline near the station. When I was there the switch had been moved north so it was just inside the passing siding.
Interesting to see the steam train stopped at the station and the crossing was equiped with gates back then.
Almost the same shot that you sent but taken a few seconds later... unless it was from a balloon!
