The Charlevoix Railway () is a

short-line railway A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that operates over a relatively short distance relative to larger, national railroad networks. The term is used primarily in the United States and Canada. In the former, railroads are ...

that operates in the

Charlevoix Charlevoix ( , ) is a cultural and natural region in Quebec, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River as well as in the Laurentian Mountains area of the Canadian Shield. This dramatic landscape includes rolling terrain, fjords, headlands ...

region of

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. From 1994 to 2009 it was a subsidiary of the Quebec Railway Corporation, a short line operator. Since April 2009 it has been owned by Train touristique de Charlevoix Inc., a Groupe Le Massif Inc. (owners of

Le Massif (, ), known as just Le Massif, is a ski area in Quebec, Canada, northeast of Quebec City and directly overlooking the St. Lawrence River. Description ski area is located in Petite-Rivière-Saint-François, Charlevoix, Quebec, 90 km northea ...

) subsidiary. With a length of it connects the city of Clermont in the Charlevoix region to a freight yard of the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

(CN) located in the

La Cité-Limoilou La Cité-Limoilou () is the central borough of Quebec City, the oldest (in terms of architecture), and the most populous, comprising 19.73% of the city's total population. As an administrative division, it is very new, having only been formed ...

borough of the city of

. The railway runs along both the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...

and the

Malbaie River The Malbaie River in the Charlevoix region empties into the Saint Lawrence River at La Malbaie. Until 1985 the river was used to transport logs downstream. It flows through a steep valley known as Les Hautes Gorges. A sugar maple and American e ...

and consists of a single non-electrified track. The railway carried passengers at its start in the 19th century, for much of the early part of the 20th century, and as part of a

dinner train A dinner train is a relatively new type of tourist train service whose main purpose is to allow people to eat dinner while experiencing a relatively short, leisurely round trip train ride. This contrasts with conventional passenger trains, whose ...

operation in the 1980s and again in the 1990s. Passenger service on a

tourist train A heritage railway or heritage railroad (U.S. usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) ...

between Quebec City and

La Malbaie La Malbaie () is a municipality in the Charlevoix-Est Regional County Municipality in the Province of Quebec, Canada, situated on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River at the mouth of the Malbaie River. It was formerly known as Murray Bay ...

began in September 2011. As a

freight railway Rail freight transport is the use of railways and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) hauled ...

the main commodities transported are:

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

woodchips Woodchips are small- to medium-sized pieces of wood formed by cutting or chipping larger pieces of wood such as trees, branches, logging residues, Tree stump, stumps, roots, and wood waste. Woodchips may be used as a biomass solid fuel and are r ...

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...

, and

peroxide In chemistry, peroxides are a group of Chemical compound, compounds with the structure , where the R's represent a radical (a portion of a complete molecule; not necessarily a free radical) and O's are single oxygen atoms. Oxygen atoms are joined ...

History

The Quebec, Montmorency and Charlevoix Railway Company (QM&C) was incorporated by an act of the Legislature of Quebec in 1881.In 1881 Quebec had a bicameral legislature composed of the

Legislative Council of Quebec The Legislative Council of Quebec (, ) was the unelected upper house of the bicameral legislature in the Canadian province of Quebec from 1867 to 1968. The Legislative Assembly was the elected lower house. The council was composed of 24 memb ...

and the

Legislative Assembly of Quebec A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the authority, legal authority to make laws for a Polity, political entity such as a Sovereign state, country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with th ...

. For details see:

4th Legislative Assembly of Quebec The Fourth Legislature of Quebec was the provincial legislature of Quebec, Canada that existed from 1878 to 1881, following the general election of 1878. The 1878 election was called by Premier Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière, leader of the ...

. The railway was to be built along the Saint Lawrence River and was intended to provide service to as far east as

Baie-Sainte-Catherine Baie-Sainte-Catherine () is a town in Quebec, Canada. The municipal's territory extends along the Saguenay and Saint Lawrence rivers, whereas the town itself is on the small St. Catherine Bay, which is located at the confluence of these two rive ...

, which was in turn expected to be developed into a major seaport with ice free shipping even in winter. Manoir Richelieu 1895

The first part of the line between Limoilou and Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, Quebec went into service on Saturday 10 August 1889. It was built at the time for the pilgrimage to the

Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré The Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré () is a basilica set along the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada, east of Quebec City, and one of the six national shrines of Canada. It has been credited by the Catholic Church with many miracles of c ...

, and the railway was nicknamed the "Railway of Good Saint Anne". Initial operations were with

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

hauled trains. The line was electrified in 1904, when the company changed its name to Quebec Railway Light & Power (QRL&P). Between 1904 and 1959 electric trains provided an

interurban The interurban (or radial railway in Canada) is a type of electric railway, with tram-like electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between cities or towns. The term "interurban" is usually used in North America, with other terms u ...

type service for passengers between Quebec and Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. The second part of the line, extending from Beaupré to Clermont in Charlevoix, was built between 1909 and 1919.

Rodolphe Forget Colonel Sir Joseph David Rodolphe Forget (December 10, 1861 – February 19, 1919) was a Canadian business investor, stockbroker, and politician. He held national directorships and had major investments in energy companies, as well as industr ...

had built his large Manoir Richelieu at Pointe-au-Pic (now part of

) in the 1890s. At first hotel guests would get to the hotel via

Canada Steamship Lines Canada Steamship Lines (CSL) is a shipping company with headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The business has been operating for well over a century and a half. Beginnings CSL had humble beginnings in Canada East in 1845, operating river ...

steamships. Rodolphe Forget ran for the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

in 1904 promising voters to extend the QM&C line, which was eventually done. This part of the line is very scenic because it is literally wedged between

mountains A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher ...

and river. It required huge investments in time and money: there are two

tunnel A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...

s and 900

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

s and

culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe (fluid conveyance), pipe, reinforced concrete or other materia ...

s, or an average of one every . 547 - Beaupre QC

With the line extended Manoir Richelieu hotel customers could use the QRL&P trains instead of CSL vessels to get to the hotel. The hotel building burned down in the fall of 1928 but was rebuilt to designs by

John Smith Archibald John Smith Archibald (December 14, 1872 – March 2, 1934) was a Canadian architect. Biography John Smith Archibald was born in Inverness, Scotland on December 14, 1872. He arrived in Montreal in 1893. He worked as chief architect in Edward Max ...

and reopened in June 1929. CSL vessels continued to call on the hotel until 1966. In 1951 CN took over as owner of the railway. The line became known as the Murray Bay Subdivision of CN, Murray Bay being an English name for ''La Malbaie''. In 1959 CN terminated passenger service and dismantled the

overhead line An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, Electric multiple unit, electric multiple units, trolleybuses or trams. The generic term used by the International Union ...

s used for electrification between Limoilou and

Saint-Joachim Saint-Joachim (; ) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. It is in the centre of the Brière marsh, and comprises a group of "islands" within the marsh. Population See also *Communes of the Loire-Atlantique depar ...

. In 1984 the line saw the reintroduction of passenger service when a

known as the '' Le Tortillard du Saint-Laurent'' started operating between Quebec and La Malbaie. The train ran through the 1985 season before closing. The ''Tortillard du Saint-Laurent'' dinner train was restarted under another company and ran again in 1995 and 1996 before declaring bankruptcy. In 1996 the Charlevoix Railway Company created a major timber transshipment yard at Clermont, which is used by almost all timber processors of the

Côte-Nord Côte-Nord (Region 09) (, ; ) is an List of regions of Quebec, administrative region of Quebec, on the Quebec-Labrador peninsula, Quebec-Labrador Peninsula, Canada. The region runs along the St. Lawrence River and then the Gulf of St. Lawrence, ...

. On 7 May 2007 Nancy Belley, who had spent more than 10 years managing the Chemin de fer Charlevoix subsidiary of the Quebec Rail Corporation, was hired by Le Massif to serve as the manager of their railway project. In April 2009 Le Massif de Charlevoix organization purchased the line between Quebec and La Malbaie from the Quebec Railway Corporation. Track rehabilitation for a new tourist line began in October 2009.

Infrastructure Canada Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada (HICC) () (formerly Infrastructure Canada or INFC)''Infrastructure Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Office of Infrastructure of Canada (). is a de ...

announced in November 2009 that the governments of Canada and Quebec will contribute $5 million toward the railway line upgrade. CN still uses the line to haul freight between Clermont and Quebec via

trackage rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may c ...

. The

Port of Quebec The Port of Quebec () is an inland port located in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. It is the oldest port in Canada, and the second largest in Quebec after the Port of Montreal. History In the 19th century, the Port of Quebec was one of the most im ...

City lists the Chemin de fer Charlevoix as a rail transport provider to the port's facilities. Beginning in September 2011, a new tourist train service began operation along the Charlevoix Railway between Quebec City and

Stations served

There are several stations served by the railway from Quebec running east and north to Clermont: *

Quebec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...

* Limoilou * Hedley (or Hedleyville) which has been part of

since 1903 * Villeneuve *

Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré () is a town in La Côte-de-Beaupré Regional County Municipality, Quebec, Canada, along the Saint Lawrence River, north-east of Quebec City. The population was 2,803 according to the Canada 2006 Census. Major religious ...

* Donohue (just east of Beaupré) the paper mill was sold to

Abitibi-Consolidated Abitibi Consolidated Inc. was a Canadian pulp and paper company based in Montreal, Quebec. Abitibi-Consolidated was formed from the merger of Abitibi-Price Inc. and Stone Consolidated Corp. on May 29, 1997; the Company merged with Bowater in 20 ...

in 2000, then merged into

AbitibiBowater Resolute Forest Products (French: ''Produits forestiers Résolu''), formerly known as AbitibiBowater Inc., is a Canada-based pulp and paper company. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, the company was formed in 2007 by the merger of Bowater and ...

in 2007 *

labelled "Les Caps" by CN * Point D'Aulne (northeast of

Petite-Rivière-Saint-François Petite-Rivière-Saint-François () is a municipality in Quebec, Canada, along the St. Lawrence River. It is considered the gateway to the Charlevoix region. It is named after the Petite rivière Saint-François (Little Saint-François River), a ...

) *

Baie-Saint-Paul Baie-Saint-Paul (; 2021 Population 7,371; UA population 4,308) is a city in the Province of Quebec, Canada, on the northern shore of the St. Lawrence River. Baie-Saint-Paul is the seat of Charlevoix Regional County Municipality. The city i ...

* Wieland *

Clermont, Capitale-Nationale, Quebec Clermont () is a ''ville'' in the Canadian province of Quebec, and the seat of government for the Charlevoix-Est Regional County Municipality. It is located on the southern banks of the Malbaie River. History Around 1800, the first settlers mov ...

line ends at a former

Donohue Donohue is a surname of Irish origin abbreviated from O'Donohue (). Notable people with the surname include: * Adam Donohue (born 1990), Australian rules footballer * Charles D. Donohue (1880–1928), New York politician and judge * David Dono ...

paper mill along ''rue de la Donohue''

Quebec Railway Light & Power Network

This route map shows stations served by Q.R.L.& P.Co. from 1889 to 1959, including car stops and Upper Line to Kenthouse (Manoir Montmorency). The original stations were: *Hedleyville (Limoilou) *Giffard (Beauport) *Village Montmorency *L'Ange-Gardien *Château-Richer *Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré *Beaupré *Saint-Joachim

References

External links

* {{Canada Class 2 La Malbaie Companies based in Quebec Quebec railways Transport in Capitale-Nationale Railway companies established in 1889 1889 establishments in Quebec Canadian companies established in 1889

History

Stations served

Quebec Railway Light & Power Network

See also

References

Further reading

External links