July 27, 1957 saw the last steam locomotive arrive at the Musquodoboit Harbour Station and three days later, on July 30, the first diesel electric passed through the town. Canadian National applied in about 1975 to discontinue operation on the line and it was officially authorized abandoned on August 28, 1983. By that time the Musquodoboit Harbour Station had already been closed and turned into a community centre and museum. Today it remains a railway history museum and the Musquodoboit Harbour Visitor Centre, which occupies the station's waiting room. The rest of the station has been restored and refurnished to appear just as it would have while it served the community as a railway station. Inside are memorabilia, photographs, maps, artefacts, posters, tickets, and a small library.
Outside is where the train lovers will congregate. The highlight of the museum might be their small collection of rolling stock which is arrayed around the station. The collection includes a 44-ton GE diesel electric switching engine, a snowplow, a combination passenger/baggage car and a caboose painted in bright CN orange.
This is the combination passenger/baggage car, an ex CPR (Dominion Atlantic Railway) combine with designation "3252". Once in the collection of the George Warden Railway Museum in Kentville, NS, the combine was built by Canadian Car & Foundry in 1924 and saw service with the CPR until 1975. Canadian Car & Foundry, more familiarly known as "Can Car", manufactured buses, railroad rolling stock and later aircraft as far back as 1897. It was later to become part of Hawker Siddeley Canada through the purchase by A.V. Roe Canada in 1957. Today the remaining factories are part of Bombardier Canada.
Enjoy the story of Nova Scotia railways at the Musquodoboit Railway Museum on Route 7. Examine the posters, tickets, maps and photographs in the Canadian Northern Railway station of 1918. Don't miss the rare ex-CN GE 44-tonner and the unique mail crane. A DAR combine from Nova Scotia's last mixed passenger and freight train is another highlight. A Visitor Information Centre occupies the waiting room and you will find an ice cream stand beside the quiet picnic grove.
From Nova Scotia Railway Heritage