Canadian Railroads > Gare du Palais - Beautiful !!

VIA Train #622 from Montreal has just arrived at Gare du Palais in Quebec City.

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Looks like P42DC #912….ready to depart for Montreal on Train #29....has been in a bit of a fight!

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Where beauty and railroads meet!
Bob

Very nice images!
Good photo story.

611

     There is simply no end to the old world charm oozing from every crack in this wonderful city.  And, to those who care, home to the most elegent and beautiful women on our continent.
AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

agentatascadero Wrote:
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>      There is simply no end to the old world
> charm oozing from every crack in this wonderful
> city.  And, to those who care, home to the most
> elegent and beautiful women on our continent.
> AA

The narrow streets......the walls, gates and fortifications. Fascinating!

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As elegant and priceless the station building is, the train shed looks like it could withstand a nuclear bomb. Is it rather too much concrete or over-engineered ?

What is the story about what appears to be an old CC&F CN coach in the third photo ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/17 17:49 by joemvcnj.

Just an absolutely lovely city, with wonderful people.  Delightful food, great architecture at every turn.  Love it!

I speak a little French, but the Quebecois love Americans, or did last time I was there.  Great place to get away for a few days.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> As elegant and priceless the station building is, the train shed looks like it could withstand a nuclear bomb. Is it rather too much concrete or over-engineered ?

The covered tracks, and fewer of them, were a later revision.
 

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CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
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> joemvcnj Wrote:
> > As elegant and priceless the station building
> is, the train shed looks like it could withstand
> a nuclear bomb. Is it rather too much concrete
> or over-engineered ?
>
> The covered tracks, and fewer of them, were a
> later revision.

​The tracks are now 90 degrees to what you see in CA_Sou_MA_Agent's wonderful photo.  A bus terminal was added to the rear of the station with new hi-level platforms for the trains on the west side.

​Photo 1: View from the south-east.
​Photo 2: View from the north-west.

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON

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joemvcnj Wrote:
> What is the story about what appears to be an old
> CC&F CN coach in the third photo ?

​It is the VIA party car Glenfraser built as a coach in 1954 for the CNR.  CN coach 5585 was acquired by VIA in 1978.  Sold to a group who operated a short-lived wine train in the Okanagan Valley of BC.  It kept its number but was named "Vernon".  Bought by the BC Rail in 2001 it was converted into a lounge car, numbered 1750 and renamed "Glenfraser".   After BCR ended all passenger services in 2002 VIA reacquired the car.  It has 2 lounges with a total of 56 seats.

Gerry Gaugl
​Ottawa ON

Here's some pictures from Nov 1974. The last shot is CN#75 to Senneterre and Cochrane. I was connecting through Levis and Quebec City on a trip that turned out to be quite an adventure. Here's a link to that previous post:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2551826,2551831#msg-2551831



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/17 01:20 by ghCBNS.

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I am lucky enough to use this station every 2 months or so.  Unbelievable that it was almost lost a la Penn Station NYC.

Here's an aerial shot that shows the building that was later placed in the area where the station tracks used to be.

Of course, situations like this are always touted as an "improvement."

On a different note, the 1953 Alfred Hitchcock movie "I Confess" was filmed extensively in the old portion of the city. Note the interesting plug for Canadian Pacific.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/17 08:56 by CA_Sou_MA_Agent.

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CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
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> Here's an aerial shot that shows the building that
> was later placed in the area where the station
> tracks used to be.
>
> Of course, situations like this are always touted
> as an "improvement.".....

And this was certainly an improvement. A beautifully restored station, enclosed high-level platforms, modern bus terminal attached for easy intermodal connections. Last winter I took the bus from Chicoutimi with a seamless connection in Gare du Palais to VIA..

During the time that Gare du Palais was closed from the mid ‘70s to the ‘80s....all trains used the suburban Sainte-Foy station....so just moving back downtown was a big improvement.