Wolfville Nova Scotia - Gary Ness's fascination with trains started in childhood.
 
But it was in 1976, when the retired Acadia University professor found an intriguing 1940s era photograph, that he became a train photographer and author.
 
Based on his own, time-honed collection, Ness has written a new book for the Nimbus series "Images of Our Past" entitled "The Dominion Atlantic Railway 1894-1994".
 
A group of retired Valley trainmen helped Ness complete the project by sharing their stories and photos.
 
They told him about the era when the train brought most of the goods into the Valley and a blizzard in the 1920s could shut down the railway.
 
"They told me a lot," Ness said.
 
The trainmen spoke of the on-the-job education they got aboard trains while working out of the Kentville terminal.
 
Speaking at a book launch at the Wolfville Memorial Library, once the town's train station, he spoke about a winter in 1923 when it took three weeks to clear the line.
 
"The railway was central to people's lives," he noted.
 
An audience member at the launch recalled the sound of the train whistle as something he misses.
 
He also remembered an old couple standing by the tracks, waving a handkerchief to request a ride.
 
Then there were floods like the Saxby Gale in 1869 that knocked out railway service.
 
Former conductor Dick Clark recalled a storm when the Dayliner filled up with snow up to the knees of the passengers.
 
For a century, the DAR served the people of western Nova Scotia, from Yarmouth to Halifax, faithfully.
 
Passenger trains had begun running back in the 1860s and were critical to bringing students to Acadia University and for military service during two wars.
 
The passenger diesel train stopped running in January of 1990 and the freight service ceased four years later.
 
There are those who say the construction of Highway 101 sealed the fate of the Dayliner service.
 
Changes to the VIA Rail schedule, federal cutbacks, and competing bus service were also blamed for the decline in passengers.
 
Ness traces the history of the line through gorgeous photographs and fascinating stories from the people who worked along the route and the passengers who used the trains to travel through the heart of the Annapolis Valley.
 
The book includes over 150 black and white photos, many of which were given to him by trainmen.
 
His photographs are found in many personal collections, and his photo essays have been published in several national railway periodicals.

Wendy Elliott.