Middleton Railway Museum

Middleton Railway Museum The Middleton Railway Museum displays Canada's largest collection of Dominion Atlantic Railway memorabilia and much more!

While visiting MRM for our opening day on Wednesday please also join the Town of Middleton’s AccessAbility Week flag rai...
06/01/2026

While visiting MRM for our opening day on Wednesday please also join the Town of Middleton’s AccessAbility Week flag raising at nearby Centennial Park. MRM is fully accessible inside and out. If you experience any sort of barrier while at the museum, we want to know – making spaces barrier-free for one person, makes it better for everyone

To become a member, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/become-a-member/
To become a museum volunteer, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/volunteer/
To make a donation to the museum, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/make-a-donation/

Tourism was big for the DAR and for years the company ran an annual contest for the most attractive railway garden at st...
05/31/2026

Tourism was big for the DAR and for years the company ran an annual contest for the most attractive railway garden at stations along their lines. Not sure if either of the Middleton stations ever participated in these contests. In any case, the MRM would probably not win at the moment; however, the grounds are only now coming to life and improving all the time thanks to our volunteer grounds crew. By opening day on Wednesday June 3, weather gods allowing, the newly planted flower boxes will be bursting with colour.

To become a member, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/become-a-member/
To become a museum volunteer, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/volunteer/
To make a donation to the museum, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/make-a-donation/

The “Bridge to Nowhere”It won’t be Nowhere for long. Work on the garden train is moving forward. Of course, the first st...
05/30/2026

The “Bridge to Nowhere”

It won’t be Nowhere for long. Work on the garden train is moving forward. Of course, the first step is to ensure the train(s) can get out of the engine house, aka the toolshed, and onto the G scale layout on the platform. Fred Huntley is building this impressive arch bridge, together with the moveable truss bridge that spans the gap so they can. Once the placement of the platform tracks is settled, Fred said he’ll likely hold them in place with a mixture of crusher dust, cement, and a bit of water.

To become a member, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/become-a-member/
To become a museum volunteer, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/volunteer/
To make a donation to the museum, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/make-a-donation/

No. 9059 on the tracks of the MRM HO scale layoutBy Aug 1956 passenger service on the DAR changed over from steam to the...
05/29/2026

No. 9059 on the tracks of the MRM HO scale layout

By Aug 1956 passenger service on the DAR changed over from steam to the first two diesel Dayliners, including No. 9059 with the Dominion Atlantic lettering arriving at the Middleton station (its sister 9058 was the other). Other CPR Budd Rail Diesel Cars (RDC-1s) continued passenger service, there were always two running on DAR lines, until VIA took over; however, 9058 and 9059 were the only ones that ever had “DOMINION ATLANTIC” on their sides. (Information from Gary Ness’s Dominion Atlantic Railway)

To become a member, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/become-a-member/
To become a museum volunteer, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/volunteer/
To make a donation to the museum, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/make-a-donation/

Yellow door, green door The MRM’s own CNR boxcar 575520 has received a new paint job since its arrival in Aug 2021. Note...
05/28/2026

Yellow door, green door

The MRM’s own CNR boxcar 575520 has received a new paint job since its arrival in Aug 2021. Note the yellow loading door. CN really got into the colour coding of whole boxcars and/or their doors in the 1960’s and 1970’s, phased out by the 80’s. (Apparently the CNR had a range of door colours with different meanings but the main two seen travelling the roads in NS were the yellow and green door CN boxcars.) Yellow doors meant clean loading only: no dirt, odours, debris or anything else that might affect the products had been or could be placed in the boxcar, it was ready to accept its clean freight, mostly newsprint and other paper products, which would remain pristine until reaching their destination. Green door boxcars, on the other hand, could carry freight that did not need such five-star accommodations, in NS this was primarily raw forest products like logs. This system was easily recognizable to anyone loading the cars and effective until replaced by electronic or computer coding of freight types in more recent times. The logs being loaded at the Middleton station yard in 1956 would have predated any colour-coding and might even be going into a DAR/CP boxcar at that time (anyone know?)

To become a member, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/become-a-member/
To become a museum volunteer, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/volunteer/
To make a donation to the museum, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/make-a-donation/

Join MRM’s Bill Linley on Friday at Emmanuel Congregational Christian Church in Middleton for “Annapolis Rails”.
05/27/2026

Join MRM’s Bill Linley on Friday at Emmanuel Congregational Christian Church in Middleton for “Annapolis Rails”.

Identifying rail carsIt is interesting to take a deeper dive into the freight train depicted in Paul Charland’s 1973 vir...
05/27/2026

Identifying rail cars

It is interesting to take a deeper dive into the freight train depicted in Paul Charland’s 1973 virtual image alongside the dairy and other buildings in Middleton from yesterday’s post. Moving from back to front: The caboose is easy. Next is the yellow-doored boxcar (CNR BOXCAR 575520 at the MRM is like this one), the yellow indicating it was used to carry clean products only which usually meant newsprint and paper. To the best of my knowledge, the white CN car was a re**er (short for "refrigerator car"- love that name), or perhaps only insulated, for carrying perishables like produce or other temperature-sensitive foodstuffs. Then we come to two hoppers, not sure what they might be carrying but it must have been heavy since there are two locomotives hauling this relatively short train- of course, it may have been destined to add more cars along its journey. Totally open to correction and input on this interpretation by our knowledgeable railroad followers.

To become a member, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/become-a-member/
To become a museum volunteer, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/volunteer/
To make a donation to the museum, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/make-a-donation/

Prior to trucking, all the industries in a town needed access to the railways for shipping goods to their destination. T...
05/26/2026

Prior to trucking, all the industries in a town needed access to the railways for shipping goods to their destination. This would include dairies in Middleton, Farmers and Twin City Dairy which was nearer to the station (see comments for a photo of its predecessor in 1960). To compare: the top photo shows the Farmers buildings in 2012 (I believe) along the abandoned rail line (photo by Stefan Ferron), and the lower image is from the very well-researched and accurate computer-built depiction which Paul Charland continues to create. Paul’s work will allow us to ride the rails virtually while seeing the actual buildings that were there at the time, this one captures things as they looked in 1973 but I think he is creating a 1956 version too. Pretty cool stuff and another way to preserve railway history. (Lower photo was posted by Steve Meredith)

To become a member, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/become-a-member/
To become a museum volunteer, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/volunteer/
To make a donation to the museum, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/make-a-donation/

Middleton: a shared stationThe magnified signs to the left of the door in this rail-side photo from 1974 show that the M...
05/25/2026

Middleton: a shared station

The magnified signs to the left of the door in this rail-side photo from 1974 show that the Middleton station was served by and, to some degree, operated by both railways where their lines crossed. From way back in the Windsor & Annapolis Railway (later the DAR/CP) and Nova Scotia Central Railway (later the Halifax & South Western/CN) days to CN’s abandonment of their lines in 1984, the railways had an arrangement to share the costs of operating the Middleton station which they both used. The shared costs included the DAR personnel who would have issued train orders and sold tickets on both lines. Since at least the 1890’s many railways operated Express companies that dealt with ”financial papers” among other secure movements of goods and monies. By 1921, this included the CN’s “CANADIAN NATIONAL EXPRESS”, shown on the sign here. Not sure, but I don’t believe the DAR/CP ever had their own Money Orders-type business (anyone know?).

Do money orders actually still exist?

To become a member, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/become-a-member/
To become a museum volunteer, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/volunteer/
To make a donation to the museum, go here: https://middletonrailwaymuseum.ca/make-a-donation/

Address

61 School Street
Middleton, NS
B0S1P0

Opening Hours

Wednesday 9am - 12pm
Friday 9am - 12pm

Telephone

+19028256062

Website

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