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A Railway to the Isle: A History of the Strait of Canso Railway Car Ferries 1890-1955        

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By Ted Rafuse                                                                                                Price: $20.00

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A student of Canadian railway history for many years Ted Rafuse has written articles for several periodicals including CNLines, CP Tracks, Canadian Railway Modeller, The Canadian (Canadian Association of Railway Modellers) and Steamboat Bill (Steamship Historical Society of America). A Railway to the Isle reveals the author's interest in Canadian railway car ferry history. The Intercolonial Railway (later part of Canadian National Railways) car ferries S.S. Mulgrave, S.S. Scotia I and S.S. Scotia II linked mainland Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island. This railway car ferry saga from 1983 through 1955 is enlivened through photographs, historical text, personnel recollections and diagrams. As a youngster visiting his grandmother in Port Hawkesbury, special permission was granted by the adults whereby he spent many hours observing the car ferries from the hill above the Point Tupper railway yard. A great uncle, a chief engineer on Scotia II, often enthralled his young visitor with an amazing array of sea tales. A Railway to the Isle is a fond recollection of those days of half a century ago. 

Scotia People Tales from the Strait       

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By Pat Meagher                                                                                        Price: $11.95

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Pat Meagher was born 1908 at Mulgrave on the Strait of Canso. In 1929, he became a student operator on the CNR at Pirate Harbour, whee he learned the telegraph key. But it wasn't until 1936 that he was hired on the spare board. Through the lean 30s, he fished, unloaded lumber and did whatever survival demanded. When the causeway was completed in 1955, he was station agent at Point Tupper. He later moved to the ticket office in Sydney, Nova Scotia and retired in 1973. He died in his 84th year. To commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Canso Causeway, the Point Tupper Historical Society asked to use some of his fathers poems and stories. Pat and his brother Alden and Darrell wrote this book together with an eye for the Scotia generations and their children who hardly knew what they or the railway were about. 

Books For Sale 

 

Books available for purchase at The Point Tupper Heritage Association Historical Museum during summer months of July and August. 

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