Canadian Railroads > The Chaleur Around Chandler in 2010

Chandler is a major town on Quebec's Gaspé peninsula, and was once the site of a large paper mill with its own railway connecting the mill and the dock.  By the time of my first visit to the region in 2001, the mill was idle, and on subsequent visits it was being dismantled and scrapped, to the point that about the only thing left now is a GE switcher.  (De)Evolution in Chandler, QC (trainorders.com)  links to a post about the switcher.

We had decided to set aside two days to chase the Chaleur in case of bad weather or a late train.  That didn't happen, but we used the second day, March 15, to explore some harder to get to and less photographed locations.  The first of those was at the west end of the beach where the track crosses onto the barrachois.  Getting here requires driving all the way to the Chandler station, and then back tracking several miles west again to get to the bridge.

On the return trip the same day, we got the Chaleur nearing the station and about to cross the RoW of the mill railway.  The rails were still embedded in the grass, but the diamond had been gone for a number of years, cutting off access to the track on the pier (to the right).  8 minutes later, with the station stop out of the way, train 17 was heading along the beach towards that same through truss bridge seen in the first picture.  The track is on what is essentially a long sandbar, with one side towards the Bay of Chaleur, and the other a calm, shallow, but still salt water inlet.

GTD

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When I was in Chandler, the tracks from the mill crossed the CN on a diamond, apparently not interlocked. There were a number of sheds which could have been train order offices.

There was a old wooden shed at the diamond and when VIA came, a flagman came out of the shed and flagged the crossing.

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON