page_title: Windsor and Annapolis Railway
section_title: Merger and renaming
hierarchical_section_title: Windsor and Annapolis Railway / Merger and renaming
caption_attribution_description: English: Work at the Trestle, a sculpture by Ruth Abernethy, depicts entrepreneur and engineer T.T. Vernon Smith, who helped open the Annapolis Valley by building the Windsor and Annapolis Railway and its extension to Yarmouth. The sculpture was donated to the town of Wolfville, Nova Scotia by Allen Eaves, Vernon Smith's great grandson. Photograph by Cassandra Koch
context_page_description: The Windsor and Annapolis Railway was a historic Canadian railway that operated in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley.
  The railway ran from Windsor to Annapolis Royal and leased connections to Nova Scotia's capital of Halifax. The W&AR played a major role in developing Nova Scotia's agriculture and tourism industries, operating from 1869 until 1894 when it evolved into the larger Dominion Atlantic Railway.
  The W&AR was formed by British railway investors and Nova Scotian railway promoters in 1864. The company's operations centre was in Kentville, although corporate headquarters remained in London, United Kingdom. The Windsor and Annapolis negotiated running rights over the government-owned "Windsor Branch" of the Nova Scotia Railway to connect Windsor to the city and harbour of Halifax. Vernon Smith, an experienced railway manager and engineer from Britain was the engineer in charge of construction and became the first general manager. The resident engineer was Henry Ernest Milner, also from England.
  Construction began in 1866 with locomotives landed for work crews at Windsor, Wolfville, Nova Scotia and Kentville.
context_section_description: A formidable rival to the W&AR was the Western Counties Railway (WCR), based in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, which used political allies to threaten the exclusive W&AR access to the critical "Windsor Branch" connection into Halifax.  However, the W&AR was able to buy out the WCR in 1894 to create the Dominion Atlantic Railway, thus providing a through line from Halifax to Yarmouth.  The W&AR set the direction for the new united company which took over the W&AR headquarters in Kentville as well as the W&AR's "Land of Evangeline" identity.
  The Windsor and Hantsport Railway continued to operate over portions of the old Windsor and Annapolis mainline until 2011.
  A monument to the Vernon Smith and his work constructing of the Windsor and Annapolis Railway was installed beside the line at the waterfront park in Wolfville in 2013.
caption: "Work at the Trestle" sculpture by Ruth Abernethy in Wolfville, Nova Scotia showing the Vernon Smith planning the W&AR.
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