The train station that houses the Middleton Railway Museum is the third station to be built on or near the site. It’s a Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) design and was constructed following a disastrous fire that destroyed the original Windsor & Annapolis Railway 3-story station in 1915. It opened in 1917.
The station is painted in the original Windsor & Atlantic “straw” yellow with dark brown trim. The use of the straw yellow continued into the Dominion Atlantic Railway (DAR) days but after the CPR lease of the railway eventually all stations were repainted the familiar Tuscan red. Paint samples were taken from protected locations on the building and scrupulously matched by a local paint supplier to ensure the authenticity of the museum’s exterior.
A 61-tonne 1905 steam locomotive on display outside of our train station! The 10 WHEELER (4-6-0) CNR 1274/1521 is the fourth oldest steam locomotive once owned by CN, and the only one of the four in the Maritimes. It rounds out an extensive Dominion Atlantic Railway collection – a collection that continues to grow and now includes a second locomotive, 6 WHEELER (0-6-0) CNR 7260, several boxcars and more!
The museum also houses the Middleton Railway Museum HO layout that depicts the Annapolis Valley from Windsor to Annapolis Royal. It has several purposes: to show how the Dominion Atlantic Railway influenced the economic and social development of the valley, to represent the history of the Dominion Atlantic, and to recreate accurate scenes which may no longer exist since the railway’s closure.
The layout is in HO scale, 1:87. This is the most common scale used in model railroading, but other scales exist. HO scale was chosen for its combination of small size with clear details, availability of quality models, and relative affordability.
Photograph by Lawrence Powell.
