Yarmouth Gas Light Company Limited
Yarmouth Street Railway Company Limited
Yarmouth Electric Company Limited
Yarmouth Light & Power Company Limited
Western Nova Scotia Electric Company Limited

Historical Notes

• Contents:
• #   General Overview, Corporate History
• #   Yarmouth Gas Light Company Limited
• #   First Electric Street Lights in Yarmouth
• #   Yarmouth Light & Power Company Limited

General Overview

Following is quoted from pages 8, 9, and 10 of an undated document titled Western Nova Scotia Electric Company Ltd. Appraisal of Property, prepared by Engineering Service Company Ltd., Halifax.  These pages are part of Murille Schofield's collection.  A Property Appraisal was an important official legal document whose main purpose was to list and describe all property and equipment owned by a utility company; upon completion it was forwarded to the Public Utilities Board and was used by the PUB to establish the total invested capital or the "rate base", which in turn was the basis for the calculation of that portion of the company's annual income legally allowed for return on invested capital.

First Electric Street Lights in Yarmouth

6th January 1888

The Electric Light

[ICS]  The "Friday evening last" would have been January 6th, 1888.  The "Electric Light Company" probably meant the Yarmouth Street Railway Company Limited, which was incorporated in 1887 and had the legal power to generate and distribute electric power.  The "present system of street lamps" referred to the gas lights then operated by the Yarmouth Gas Light Company Limited under contract with the Town of Yarmouth.

Tax Payer

Yarmouth Gas Light Company Limited

On 9 September 1909, the Yarmouth Gas Light Company's rate schedule was as follows.  The "Rate" column gives the price per 1000 cubic feet.
[Source: Public Utilities Board records.]

[1000 cubic feet = 28.3 cubic metres = 28,300 litres]

First Electric Streetcar Line

The first electric streetcar line in the Maritime Provinces, and the third in Canada, began regular operation in the evening of 6 August 1892, in Yarmouth.  (The first electric streetcar line in Ottawa, Ontario, began operation on 29 July 1891.  The first electric streetcar line in Hamilton, Ontario, began operation on 29 June 1892.  The first electric streetcar line in Toronto began operation on 15 August 1892.  The first electric streetcar line in Winnipeg began regular operation on 5 September 1892.  The first electric streetcar line in Montreal, the Belt Line, began regular operation on 21 September 1892.  It has been claimed that Windsor, Ontario, had "the continent's first electric streetcar" but this claim is not supported by any details, not even a date.)

It was built and operated by the Yarmouth Street Railway Company.  The route followed Main Street from the southern town limit to the northern town limit, about three miles [five km].  It was a single-track line, except for a short double-track section past the car barn at King Street.  From April 15th to November 15th, cars ran every 15 minutes, beginning from the south end at 6:45am and continuing until 10:45pm.  From November 15th to April 15th they ran every 20 minutes, beginning at the south end at 6:40am and continuing until 10:40 pm.  The fare was five cents cash, or four cents if you bought a book of 25 tickets for $1.  Several years later, the track was extended in a northward direction, about one mile, along the shore of Lake Milo to Murphy's Bridge, near Lakeside Park; an open car operated along this line during the summer, connecting with the regular Main Street cars near the Pumping Station at the northern town limit.

The Yarmouth streetcars continued running until operations ceased in October 1928.

Yarmouth Light & Power Company Limited

Incorporated 1912

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First uploaded to the WWW:   1997 September 05
Latest update:   2012 March 10

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