July 30, 2012

I left Sydney around 7:00 this morning in a rain that lasted until around noon.  Stopped in St. Peter's for breakfast, and then boogied down the Trans-Canada Highway to Moncton, NB for the night.  I stopped at the Nova Scotia Museum of Industry in Stellarton, and that was quite interesting.  I didn't realize it, but in the 19th and up to the 1960's or so, Nova Scotia was a big coal-mining, iron-and-steel-making, and manufacturing hub for railroad equipment.  As times changed, though, those industries slowly faded away, and the province is struggling with replacing those jobs.  The mines in and around Stellarton were particularly deadly, as they released a relatively lot of methane gas, and consequently, were prone to deadly explosions.  Some of the exhibits in the Museum are below:

This is the "Samson", the first locomotive in Canada and the first locomotive in North America that ran on iron rails instead of wooden rails.  It was build in 1838 and shipped over to Nova Scotia for service in the mines in and around Stellarton.  Interestingly, the engineer sat on a stool to the right in the picture and the fire box, where the fireman would shovel coal, was in the front of the engine.

This is an ingot of steel about 6 feet long and 2 feet square as it was cast in a Nova Scotia steel mill.  It weighs about 10,000 lbs.

This is a 1912 McKay automobile produced by the McKay brothers in Kentville, NS.  Pretty nifty, but the company only built about 175 cars before folding up in 1914.

At any rate, the museum was interesting with a lot of unique displays.  I left Stellarton and headed west toward Moncton for the night.  Tomorrow, it's on to Bangor, Maine and the good ol' US of A.

Miles today:  302
Total:  4,568