Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway

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Locomotive of the QNS & L

The Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway (QNSL, French : Chemin de fer QNS & L ) is a Canadian railway company whose 420 km long route is located in northeast Québec and west Labrador . It connects Labrador City and Wabush via an unpopulated area with the port city of Sept-Îles on the St. Lawrence River . The QNSL is owned by the Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC). Together with the route of the Tshiuetin Rail Transportation , the Chemin de fer Arnaud (CFA), the Wabush Lake Railway and the Bloom Lake Railway , it forms an isolated route network with no connection to the North American rail network.

history

The railway line was built between 1951 and 1954 and originally connected Sept-Îles with Schefferville, 578 km away in the province of Québec. In 1958, the Wabush ore deposit in the border area between Québec and Labrador near Labrador City was developed by the IOC and the Wabush Mining Company . The QNSL then built a 58 km long branch line west of the main line in order to be able to service the mines. Train operations began there in 1960. At the same time, the Wabush Mining Co. was building the relatively short Wabush Lake Railway from its mines in Labrador City to the QNSL branch line in Wabush.

In the 1980s, the iron ore deposits in Schefferville were depleted, so most of the residents moved to Labrador City. Still, the QNSL maintained subsidized passenger train and freight traffic north of the branch to Labrador City to supply the indigenous communities along the route. The line, known as the Menihek Subdivision , was operated by the company until December 1, 2005, when it was sold to Tshiuetin Rail Transportation . Goods will continue to be transported on the remaining sections of the Northernland Subdivision and Wacouna Subdivision , including cars for the employees, various mining products, large pieces of equipment and everyday consumer goods for Labrador City and the track maintenance facilities along the route.

In 2010, the Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines, west of Labrador City, opened the Bloom Lake Mine. A contract was signed with the company Genesee and Wyoming to transport iron ore from the mine to the Wabush Lake Railway with the Bloom Lake Railway . The Wabush Lake Railway, for its part, takes over the Bloom Lake Railway's trains and transports them to Wabush Junction, where they are transported further south via the QNSL and Arnaud Junction via the CFA for shipment to Point-Noire .

Web links

Commons : Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 33 ′  N , 65 ° 41 ′  W