Apple Trains

Apple Trains

Massive amounts of apple freight were a staple of the DAR. From September to April, apples were loaded at 150 fruitwarehouses along the DAR. Local trains brought them to Kentville to be marshalled into freights bound for steamships in Halifax, often in peaks season as massive double-header freight specials. Apple movements often required and extra switcher to be sent by the CPR from Montreal as well as additional cabooses. Apple traffic helped build the DAR. The loss of the British export market during World War Two crippled the apple industry and greatly reduced DAR freight traffic from the 1940s onward.

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  Apple train in Halifax in 1925.

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  Typical DAR scene, circa 1930: small country station with giant apple warehouses.

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  Map by Willard Longley showing apple warehouse locations in 1931.

References and Footnotes

• Kentville Advertiser, 1936
• Some Economic Aspects of the Apple Industry in Nova Scotia by Willard Longley