The fate of the Dominion Atlantic Railway in the Valley was sealed in the late 1980s when highway 101 between Kentville and Yarmouth was completed. Now, decades later, the abandoned railbeds are walking trails and the only visible remnants indicating the railway was once here.

As for other remnants, a few books of railway history have been published, with at least one focusing on the Annapolis Valley. Some museums have token railway displays; only a few, such as the Macdonald Museum in Middleton with its all-encompassing exhibit, celebrates the fact that this was once a railway hub.

Besides museum exhibits, some remnants of the railway also can be found in private collections. Put together by people with a passionate interest in the railway and its lore, these collections are priceless; since they preserve artefacts and historic material that surely would have been lost forever, calling the collections “priceless” doesn’t say enough about their value.

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(Note: Tentative plans are being made to recognize an early Kentville police officer, Rupert Davis. The following account about Davis is based on a column I wrote in 2001 and from information found in the archives of the Kings County Museum).

In the December 26, 1938 issue of The Advertiser, the newspaper reported that Kentville’s former Chief of Police was in critical condition after being struck by an automobile on a town street.

“Rupert Davis, for 45 years Kentville Chief of Police… is in critical condition in Eastern Kings Memorial Hospital, Wolfville”, reads the newspaper report. “Returning to his home on his bicycle, the former Chief, now nearing 80 years of age, was struck by an alleged hit-and-run auto driver. Davis sustained a broken left arm, other injuries and severe shock.”

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