Hedley Junction

[sailormatlac]

.....The next picture shot from the passenger train in Charlevoix ....

A beautiful scenery and prototype.

Until it reach the paper mill in Clermont, the track find its way in this landscape for about 60 miles. Passenger rail service (thrice per day) as been restored. There is talk to resume interurban service over the next years if government funds are available (OK, let's be realistic, we are in Canada so it will probably take dozen of studies, surveys and we will all be dead by then!) But at least, there's local political will which didn't exist about 5 years ago. I can't read the future, but the fact this rural area is turning into a generic North American suburbia will probably make it possible in a decade or two. You can't stop "progress" as they say! But this beautiful landscape means this track COST a lot to maintain every year. No wonder QRL&PCo was never crazy enough to build it when they surveyed the location. It ended up being a electoral gimmick for a local deputy (Forget) who built the original paper mill (which is our layout end-of-line).

The actual location is a small cove near Cap Brûlé (Burnt Cape) (I guess there was a fire there during French colonization time). The small cove is known as l'Anse de la Montée du Lac - a very long and unpoetic name I would tentatively translate as Lake Uphill's Cove... hock: This area is infamously known for the first criminal plane crash in Canada when a civilian DC-3 was bombed in 1949 killing 23 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Guay http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/edu/ViewLoit...EN&id=4482 The plane is still decaying in the woods.

There is many such capes and coves along the track and mony have very small sidings nested againts the cliffs and river. Nearby, a old 40ft OSB boxcar converted as a tool shed. No paint is remaining, everything was stripped by salty breeze. In this area, St. Lawrence river turns in a real estuary. It's almost the sea with salty waters. Most small cape like the one on the picture have a small lighthouse or range lights and shacks. I'll probably add one too.

Matt