The Charlevoix Railway (french: Chemin de fer Charlevoix) is a

short-line railway :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly (game), Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad co ...

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 ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. From 1994 to 2009 it was a subsidiary of the

Quebec Railway Corporation Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen p ...

, 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, a 50-minute dr ...

) 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 (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

(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 21.85% of the city's total population. As an administrative division, it is very new, having only been formed on ...

borough of the city of

. The railway runs along both the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

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 el ...

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 ma ...

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

tourist train ''Tourist Train'' (Italian: ''Treno popolare'') is a 1933 Italian comedy film directed by Raffaello Matarazzo and starring Marcello Spada, Lina Gennari and Carlo Petrangeli. The film portrays the comic adventures of a group of summertime travelle ...

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. La Ma ...

began in September 2011. As a

freight railway Rail freight transport is the use of rail transport, railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of Railroad car#Freight cars, freight cars (US) or goods wagon ...

the main commodities transported are:

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

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 mix ...

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, stumps, roots, and wood waste. Woodchips may be used as a biomass solid fuel and are raw material ...

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...

, and

peroxide In chemistry, peroxides are a group of compounds with the structure , where R = any element. The group in a peroxide is called the peroxide group or peroxo group. The nomenclature is somewhat variable. The most common peroxide is hydrogen p ...

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 (French; ''Conseil législatif du Québec'') was the unelected upper house of the bicameral legislature in the Canadian province of Quebec from 1867 to 1968. The Legislative Assembly of Quebec, Legislative Assem ...

and the

Legislative Assembly of Quebec The Legislative Assembly of Quebec (French: ''Assemblée législative du Québec'') was the name of the lower house of Quebec's legislature from 1867 to December 31, 1968, when it was renamed the National Assembly of Quebec. At the same time, t ...

. For details see: 4th Legislative Assembly of Quebec. 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, 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 (french: Basilique Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré) is a basilica set along the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada, east of Quebec City, and one of the eight national shrines of Canada. It has been credited by ...

, 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, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

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 Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...

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 b ...

steamships. Rodolphe Forget ran for the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the 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 parliament. ...

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 th ...

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

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

s and 900

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

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, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom ...

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 Ma ...

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, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipmen ...

s used for electrification between Limoilou and

Saint-Joachim Saint-Joachim (; br, Sant-Yoasin) 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. See also *Communes of the Loire-Atlantique dep ...

. 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 (, ; ; land area ) is the second-largest administrative region by land area in Quebec, Canada, after Nord-du-Québec. It covers much of the northern shore of the Saint Lawrence River estuary and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence past Tadous ...

. 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 Infrastructure Canada (INFC)''Infrastructure Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Office of Infrastructure of Canada (french: Bureau de l'infrastructure du Canada). is a department of the Government o ...

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 con ...

. The

Port of Quebec The Port of Quebec (french: Port de Québec) 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 ...

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 ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), 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 Communauté métrop ...

* 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 l ...

* 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 2 ...

in 2000, then merged into

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

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 Saint Lawrence River. It is considered the gateway to the Charlevoix region. It is named after the Petite rivière Saint-François, and home to Le Massif ski resort. ...

) *

Baie-Saint-Paul Baie-Saint-Paul ( 2011 Population 7,332; UA population 4,535) is a city in the Province of Quebec, Canada, on the northern shore of the Saint Lawrence River. Baie-Saint-Paul is the seat of Charlevoix Regional County Municipality. The city is ...

* 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 moved ...

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 Donohue ...

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

History

Stations served

Quebec Railway Light & Power Network

See also

References

Further reading

External links