Eastman – Windsor Mills railway line

Eastman QC-Windsor Mills QC
Route length:	57.9 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from Waterloo from Elkhurst 0.0 Eastman QC Brookport – Mattawamkeag route to Sherbrooke (about 6) Lac Stukely QC 6.6 Khartoum QC 13.0 North Stukely QC 15.3 Lawrenceville QC 22.4 Valcourt QC 28.0 Racine QC 32.5 Flodden QC 42.6 Kingsbury QC Salmon River New Rockland Slate Quarry Railway (914mm) 48.9 Baie Golden QC (Golden Bay) 57.9 Windsor Mills QC (also Greenlay)

The railway Eastman Windsor Mills is a railway line in Quebec ( Canada ). It is 57.9 kilometers long and connects the cities of Eastman , Valcourt , Kingsbury and Windsor , among others . The line is closed and dismantled.

history

As early as the 1870s, the Missisquoi and Black River Valley Railway wanted to build a line from Eastman to the north. However, for financial reasons, the company did not get beyond the section-wise route work north of Lawrenceville. On July 12, 1888, the Orford Mountain Railway received the concession to build a line from Eastman to Lawrenceville with possible branches. Construction began in the summer of 1889, and plans soon became apparent to extend the line to L'Avenir, where it would join a line on the South Eastern Railway . On November 28, 1891, the line to Lawrenceville went into operation. The route to L'Avenir was postponed and instead Kingsbury was targeted, where a larger sawmill was located. In the summer of 1892, construction work began on the extension, for which the route, which had been graded 20 years earlier, could be used. The line was opened on December 1, 1892. On May 22, 1893, the company began passenger traffic on the entire route. Two pairs of trains, a passenger train and a mixed train initially ran daily on the route. The Flodden stop was only introduced in autumn 1893. In 1903 it was decided to extend the line to Windsor, which was completed in October 1905. At the same time, an approximately six-kilometer-long branch line to Lac Stukely was built north of Eastman , which was used on the one hand to transport timber and to carry tourist excursions. It was opened in 1905 and closed in 1914.

The further extension to Bromptonville was started in 1907, but canceled in the winter of 1907/08 and not resumed for financial reasons. The plan was actually to extend the route along the Rivière Saint-François to Sherbrooke . The company was leased on March 7, 1910 by the Canadian Pacific Railway and all extension plans were canceled.

Since the sparse industry along the route gradually ceased operations and the number of passengers barely justified a railway, the line was soon closed. First, around 1940, passenger traffic on the entire route was stopped. On December 23, 1941, the Canadian Pacific closed the section from Kingsbury to Windsor Mills. Valcourt was the end of the route from December 15, 1949. The remaining section was driven until April 30, 1965, before the fate of the rest of the route overtook it.

Route description

The line branches off north of Eastman Station from the Waterloo – Sherbrooke railway and leads northwards. A road runs on the route today. The railway runs along the east bank of Lac d´Argent , at the northern tip of which a line to Lac Stukely branched off from 1905 to 1914. The route now continues northwards and is occupied today by the Chemin de Khartoum . From the Khartoum stop to Lawrenceville there are quarries along the route that were connected to the railway. From Khartoum today the Route du 6 Rang and from shortly before North Stukely to Lawrenceville the Rue du Chemin de Fer runs on the railway line. From Lawrenceville to shortly before Valcourt, the route is also used as a driveway. The railway line ran east past Valcourt through the area where the airport is today. The southern part of the runway lies on the former railway line.

Here she turns north-east and after a few kilometers reaches Racine. Today's Boulevard Industriel runs along the railway line to a quarry northeast of Racine. From here on, the route is unused, and only after the Chemin Morrison level crossing does a road run along it again. Shortly afterwards Kingsbury is reached, where the route leads south around the Étang de Kingsbury and crosses the Salmon River . It then continues in a relatively straight line to the northeast, where it crosses the route of a narrow-gauge railway that was operated from around 1868 to 1893 and led from Corris over the Rivière Saint-François and east past Kingsbury to a slate quarry near New Rockland. Unlike this quarry railway, the railway line to Windsor Mills does not cross the river, but instead turns to the southeast and runs along its west bank to the village of Greenlay opposite Windsor. There was no track connection to the Grand Trunk Railway , which ran across the river.

Sources and further information

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Booth 2008, p. 72.
2. ↑ Mike Walker: Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. Quebec & Labrador + Newfoundland. SPV-Verlag, Dunkirk (GB), 2010.

literature

• Derek Booth: Railways of Southern Quebec. Volume II: From the Richelieu to the Chaudière. (2nd edition) Railfare / DC Books, Pickering / Montreal, 2008, ISBN 978-1-897190-31-9 .