Cartier Iron Ore - Quebec

In the mid 2000's my work took me to the Cote Nord (North Shore) of the St. Lawrence in Quebec.  This sojourn allowed me opportunities to see the various iron ore hauling railways in the region.  These include the Quebec Iron and Titanium (QIT), Wabush Railway, Quebec North Shore and Labrador (QNSL) and the Cartier.  I'll focus this post on the last operation and cover the other lines in future posts.  

Cartier 47 ex CN 2312 M636 in Port Cartier.  Photo by Larry Russell, used with permission

Ex Morrison Knudsen exx Alco demonstrator C636-3 shortly after it arrived on the Cartier. Photographer unknown, my collection

GP9 #56 in 1975 somewhere on the Cartier.  Photographer unknown, my collection

The Cartier started operations in 1958.  There is a good Cartier history and modeling the railway at this link: https://chemindefercartier.wordpress.com/2016/08/20/histoire-du-cartier/ . The Cartier was well known for it's long lived fleet of 4 and 6 axle Alco and MLW locomotives along with their somewhat less well known GP9 fleet.  The GP9 were sold off by the mid 1980's when the Cartier was all Alco/MLW.  

In the early 2000's the MLW units started to be replaced by new AC4400CW units.  Unfortunately I missed the pure MLW era by a few years, but I still caught a couple of active rebuilt M636 mixed into the GE dominated motive power.  

Whenever I had time I would pop over to Port Cartier to see what was happening.  I flew in and out of Sept Iles and often had to overnight due to flight delays and cancellations.  This gave me both time and a vehicle to get around in.  

By the mid 2000's new mine ownership had put the shops and yards off limits to non-employees so getting into the property was a non-starter.  I had to be satisfied with whatever I could see from outside the fences.  

First generation iron ore car, converted to MOW service

Current generation (at the time) iron ore cars

Austin Western side dumps for MOW service, possibly these were used in ore hauling service in the early days of the railway

Home built rail carriers

When your hopper cars are no longer rail-worthy you can still use them for a loading platform base...

Some older equipment was stored in a gravel pit north of town, and in some Google Earth images you can see this is where some of the MLW units were scrapped.  No traces of these units were around when I was wandering around the pits.  

I also ventured north into the Port Cartier-Sept Iles Wildlife reserve, which has great scenery and some decent dirt roads to follow the trains on.  The quality and maintenance of the road falls off the further north you go, and I didn't venture past about 75km north of Port Cartier due to the poor road conditions.  You can get some great scenic photos along the route.

The highway overpass northeast of Port Cartier gives a good shot of northbound trains.

The road crosses the railway near Able siding, the first siding along the railway.  You can also see a two span bridge in the background.

The road roughly parallels the railway, giving numerous good photo locations.  I neglected to note the name of this location at the time, but it is one of my favourite Cartier images.

MacDonald tunnel is basically a giant culvert the train runs through

The deep cut at the north end of the tunnel has great sound when the units are running full throttle up hill.

The digital camera I had at the time could take 30 seconds of low resolution video.  It gives you the sense of what you will see and hear at this location

The scenery is wonderful along the line, as it runs through a provincial nature reserve.  The scenery dwarfs the trains.  This is Lac Quatre Lieues (I think)

Work service cars that look like they are converted from old ore cars.

The road past this location (who's name eludes me) degrades significantly so I didn't follow the railway any further north.

 

I found a nice spot on one trip when my return flight was delayed by a day (this happened a lot) to sit and wait for trains at one location.  I wasn't disappointed with a southbound loaded ore train and a northbound empty pulp train.  While most of the motive power were the new GE units, the southbound had a rebuilt M636 in the consist so I could say I saw an active MLW on the property.  

Besides the ever present iron ore trains there is significant pulp log traffic to the paper mill in Port Cartier.  Ex CN and DWP pulp cars make up the bulk of cars used in this service.  I was fortunate to catch a northbound train of empties that had met the southbound ore train a bit further south of my location.  A single AC4400CW sufficed for this train. 

Sometimes you see odd things like this Cartier ore car on a truck flatbed in Sept Iles.  Does this qualify as interchange?  

I enjoyed my time in the area and hope someday to get back for another visit to see the iron ore lines.