Canadian Railroads > Day #3 on the Cartier with some QNSL tidbits 22 years ago OTD

Day #3 started off with some impressive Snow Squalls and we started at "Queen" on the Cartier hoping to get an early morning northbound set of Empties. Oh, by the way ,our rental for this trip was a 2000 Lincoln Town Car. We certainly got some second looks from the locals who had never seen one on Rte. 389 before or ever again for that matter. After 2 hours with no train or radio chatter my buddy Mike Harting found an open phone box on the Relay Cabinet at Queen, took a chance and rung up the dispatcher. He explained that we were a group of shutterbugs that came all the way up here from Pennsylvania to see the QCM. The dispatcher was very sympathetic and informed him that the first northbound wouldn't be up to Mt. Wright until 11 AM. Mike thanked him and the dispatcher wished us good luck for the rest of our trip. How cool was that !  We had a few hours before the northbound Empties got here so we headed over to Labrador City,NL.to see what was happening on the QNSL. Their 250 Ton Bucyrus Erie Hook looked great in the QNSL scheme.

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We found the 259 sorting things out in the yard at Labrador City. At the time I believe there were only 2 QNSL SD40-2s left in the old paint scheme that were still on the roster. (261 was the other one)  There were a set of 300s and the Budd Cars for the "Carol Lake Express" by the station. More on that tomorrow. Roster shot of QNSL RDC-2 6218 (ex-VIA,CN RDC-3 6355,nee-DW&P 301 blt.12-56)

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Checked out the Cleveland Cliffs Wabush Mines Scully Mine at Wabush,NL. and found the Wabush Lake Railway RS18 909 (blt.4-65). More on the Wabush Lake Railway tomorrow as well. Now it was time to head back down into Quebec and try and intercept those northbound QCM Empties. The weather was getting a little bit better with a few patches of blue showing up between the snow squalls. Caught the Empties at MP 226 south of Queen.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/22 08:06 by perklocal.

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Next 2 shots coming and going away at "Rob" (MP 242). Bottom shot arriving at Mont Wright,QC. (MP 259.4)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/22 09:04 by perklocal.

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The Empties ran around the loop track and started to load. We shot QCM 77,67 (C636,RS18) in the yard a Mt.Wright putting the Mixed Misc. Freight together.

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Top shot of the QCM 67 RS18 shifting some Box Cars around the Yard at Mt. Wright. Middle roster shot of QCM 77 C636 (ex-Alco Demo 636-3 blt.6-68). Cartier had 3 of the ex-Demo C636s (QCM 77,78,79).  Bottom shot of QCM 34 C-630 (ex-DMIR 907,nee-UP 2907 blt.10-66). This was the last C630 on the roster and was kept at Mt.Wright as a Protect Engine in case a southbound Loaded Train developed trouble. This unit has been repatriated back down to the U.S. and has been beautifully restored back to UP 2907. It is at the Arkansas Railroad Museum in Pine Bluff which has a great collection of locomotives. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/22 09:11 by perklocal.

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It usually took around an Hour and 45 minutes to load a train at Mt.Wright, but today there was a problem with the Silo and it took over 3 and a Half Hours before they were fully loaded and ready to head back south. While we patiently waited we were visited by one of the Locals. I guess he never saw a Town Car on Rte. 389 before either. Middle shot was taken just south of Mt.Wright at MP 254.3. This was the biggest patch of blue sky we saw all day. Last shot of the southbound Loads on the S-Curve at "Rob" (MP 242). Tomorrow we will do the QNSL and Wabush Lake Railway. Stay tuned.

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An "A+" set of images!
Bob

Wonderful - Love these.
 

You guys had a great trip.  I really enjoyed this series.

Thanks it was a wonderful trip you had. I'm jealous-well done.

A great group of photos, thank you for posting this series!

Rich

Great series. The penultimate photo is really sweet - no weeds at the rail head.
Fred