The Intercolonial Railway operated until 1918, when it was merged into Canadian National Railways, who continued to operate the station until 1972, the year it was closed. Passenger service had already been discontinued in 1960, the station being used solely for freight until 1972. In 1976 the station wa sold. All service to Tatamagouche was discontinued in 1986 and all railways on the Island closed on December 31, 1989 and the tracks taken up. Almost the entirety of the old railbed has been turned into rail trail, the
Confederation Trail, which is part of the Trans Canada Trail.
Opened in 1989, the station remains in operation as a Bed & Breakfast, the
Train Station Inn. Beautifully restored and renovated, the Inn consists of the station and railway cars alongside. They have a railway dining car, which is open for lunch & dinner from mid May through mid October and seven cabooses now renovated into deluxe accommodations. See more information on the inn further below, shamelessly lifted from their website.
The Train Station Inn was registered as a Municipal Heritage Property in Colchester County in May, 2006. The Intercolonial Railway constructed its "Short Line" from Oxford Junction to Stellarton through Tatamagouche in 1887. The ICR commissioned the Rhodes Curry Company of Amherst to build a passenger station in the village immediately east of the creamery. The ICR was merged into the Canadian National Railways in 1918 and CN operated this line as part of its "Oxford Subdivision", servicing mainly agricultural communities, as well as the salt mines at Malagash and Pugwash as well as a quarry in Wallace.
Passenger service through Tatamagouche was discontinued in the 1960s and the station was used as an office for railway employees handling freight until 1972 when it was closed and sold in 1976. CN discontinued freight service on the line in 1986 when the Oxford Sub was abandoned; the rails were removed in 1989. Today the passenger station is a bed and breakfast with restored historic rail cars located on the property. The rail line through the village is a recreational trail, designated as part of the Trans Canada Trail and the point where the Nova Scotia portion of the trail branches south to Truro, Halifax and southwestern Nova Scotia, making Tatamagouche a good starting point for a short waterfront walk or a major biking expedition.
The Train Station Inn maintains a web presence. You can view their page by
clicking here.
From the County of Colchester