I am Locomotive No. 5 and I have ridden these rails in the service of people and businesses from Lunenburg County and beyond for many years. There have been so many treks from the Atlantic to the Bay of Fundy, I have lost count.

 The people, the engineers, the passengers, the brakemen, the firemen, too many to remember. Their faces are a blur. But I know the route well. I live for the route. The beauty of the voyage is not in my destination, nor my precious cargo - it is in the journey.

 It is 6:32 a.m. here in Lunenburg, and I have been turned about after yesterday's trek, facing northward, bound for the return voyage. This morning I pull passengers, but the next time it could be lumber or ore.

 The sun has not yet fully risen on this new day, Thursday, October 13, 1898, yet the people of this seaside community scuttle back and forth on the platform at my side, loading and unloading, making decisions, waving goodbye.

 Boxes are thrown hastily into my cars, the doors are sealed, the final preparations made.

 The engineer pulls on a cord and I let out two loud, short whistles right on schedule.

 It is now 6:35, and it is time to begin the day, begin my journey.

 After steaming through the woodlands between Lunenburg and Mahone, passing the occasional farmer engaged in his morning chores, I arrive at Mahone Station at exactly 6:52, precisely on schedule.

 I pull up to the station and take on a handful of passengers. Most of them, I suspect, are bound for Bridgewater to conduct some sort of business, perhaps with the many shops on Commercial Street, perhaps at the courthouse - you just never know with those types from Mahone.

 After lurching away from the station, I am able to make Blockhouse by shortly after 7 o'clock, a very respectable clip. As fate would have it, there are no passengers who requested to be let off at this village so, as per the schedule, my engine and precious cargo of people and goods steam onward to Bridgewater.

 After coasting down the small grade outside of Blockhouse, I sit back and enjoy the cool autumn breeze. Eventually, after rounding a bend, to my right a sparkling entity crawls into view between the trees.

 It is Blysteiner Lake, shimmering in the morning light, as the sun continues to rise at my back. It is a glorious sight, one that I lack the words to fully describe. The boosters of the county have yet to reach this region, it has yet to be tarnished by buildings or the remnants of abandoned engines.

 At 7:27 we pull into Bridgewater along the eastern bank of the LaHave River. Somewhere along the journey we have lost time and we are two minutes overdue. Nothing to get too excited about, but still, James Brignell, the manager of the line, prefers that everything be kept prompt and on time.

 Perhaps my wheels are just a little sluggish this morning or a brakeman was too eager on the lever. In all likelihood, my engine just didn't quite reach its normal temperature in the cold October morning air.

 In Bridgewater we take on cargo and a number of passengers get off, including a pair from Lunenburg, who step off me and head directly for a rendezvous with a driver from Balcom's Stage Line. The coach will take them from Bridgewater, via the Post Road, to Liverpool.

 I wait alongside the impressive Bridgewater station as people hurry up and down the platform. The building was constructed in 1889 upon a granite foundation, the blocks having been cut and transported down from Cookville.

 That same year the Nova Scotia Central Railway was completed from Lunenburg through to Middleton. It had been a long, arduous project, which many people thought would never be completed.

 Some of the workers in the railway yard still joke about it.

 Local representatives presented the government with a petition on behalf of the people of Lunenburg County requesting a railroad link with the outside world in 1873. By 1877, thanks to the investment of some American businessmen, the first sod was turned for the construction of the Nictaux & Atlantic Railway.

 The two original investors, Thomas G. Sterns and Lewis B. Page, hoped to transport ore mined in the nether regions of Annapolis to Lunenburg for refinement, and they were partially funded by the government, which promised subsidies in the amount of $4,000 per mile of track.

 That amounted to a total of more than $28,000 in aid over the length of the proposed 70-plus-mile corridor, but a provincial engineer dispatched to assess the project calculated that it would cost more than $750,000 to complete the entire track.

 But as was often the case in those days, things didn't go exactly as planned. The investors had underestimated the cost of the project and they had overestimated their own resources. It took a long time, much more government funding, and a few company name changes before the final spikes were driven in to finish off what had evolved into the Nova Scotia Central Railway.

 And, since the railway was completed - eventually - I am obliged to pursue my regular journey on the track along the LaHave River, moving out of Bridgewater at 7:35.

 For some distance out of Bridgewater, the track of the Nova Scotia Central parallels the curves and tucks of the LaHave. This time of year, in the fall, it's always beautiful. The river, in and of itself, is enchanting.

 As you pass by the E.D. Davison buildings and milling equipment leaving Bridgewater, the river goes through a series of transitions from rapids to calmed pools and back again. I almost feel unfortunate for any passenger who happens to be looking at the thick forest on my right-hand side, because the view from the perch of the railway bed down on the river is breathtaking.

 Northfield, like Blockhouse, is a passenger stop only if a specific request has been made. Today, there has been no such request, so I proceed onward up the line.

 By 8:10, now two and a half hours out of Lunenburg, I stop briefly at Riversdale before proceeding on the final 15-minute leg to New Germany. Along these upper regions of the LaHave, we frequently come across timber holding areas, where freshly cut trees are stacked to await milling or shipment down the river.

 Once again, however, I lose speed on the approach to New Germany and I arrive a few minutes late. After a brief exchange of passengers, and a few more pounds of cargo are loaded on my rear cars, we prepare to get under way near 8:30.

 From New Germany through to the Cherryfield stop at 8:50, then across the county border to the Springfield station 12 minutes later, the tributary elements of the LaHave weave in and out of view.

 As the sun gets higher in the sky behind me, the turning foliage on the countryside's trees is illuminated like an autumn bonfire, bleeding with shades of yellows, reds, oranges, greens and browns seen only at this most visually brilliant time of year.

 The passage between New Germany and the county line is as striking as any part of the Nova Scotia Central line's swath.

 After the Springfield stop, I charge onward into the heart of Annapolis County. I am now on the home stretch. There are passenger stops at Ridge Road, Dalhousie and Albany, and on this day, one of our passengers from Mahone has requested to get off at Dalhousie. Apparently he is visiting a cousin.

 The remainder of my journey up the Nova Scotia Central line features stops at Alpena, just before 10 o'clock, and Nictaux at 10:13, before finally arriving at Middleton, as anticipated, by 10:25.

 From here, my Lunenburg County passengers leave the interior of the province behind. Some will stay and do business in the Annapolis Valley, perhaps taking care of some agricultural business before the final harvest.

 Others going beyond the Valley, however, have a few options at their disposal. For passengers bound for Halifax, they'll have to wait until the early afternoon for the connecting train, while passengers going to the southwest, to Digby and Yarmouth, will immediately board the Dominion Atlantic train scheduled to leave by 10:37.

 Some will take the steamer Prince Rupert from Digby to Saint John, while others may wait until Yarmouth to meet an ocean-going vessel. Once there, they'll have the choice of boarding a Yarmouth Steamship Company vessel, which departs Yarmouth for Boston on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, or they may catch a ride on the Prince George, which runs on Mondays and Thursdays.

 But as for me, lowly Locomotive No. 5, for now I will rest here in Middleton. At some point in the days to come, shortly after 2 o'clock in the afternoon, I will be asked to turn about once again and make the journey back down the beautiful reaches of the LaHave toward Lunenburg County.

 This colourful, enchanting corridor of the Nova Scotia Central is my alpha and omega; it was my beginning and it will be my end.

 Sources: DesBrisay, M.B., "History of the County of Lunenburg"; www.trainweb.org; Harlow, Audrey (Ed.), "History of Bridgewater" (Published by the DesBrisay Museum Trustees); The Bridgewater Bulletin; "The Busy East of Canada" (Sackville, NB: Busy East Press), Vol. 9, 1918.1.

Written and researched by Patrick Hirtle.