Zinc Extra

Dodging the late day darkness, CN 580, the twice a week Matagami Turn, is racing hours of service over the time-consuming Chapais subdivision, leaving a trail of dust in this remote world. With empty cement and fuel cars on the rear end pulled in the dark hours of the night in Matagami, the train was made entirely of gons, all of them loaded at the Matagami and Langlois Zinc mine, and all bound for the Canadian Electrolytic Zinc processing plant in Valleyfield,QC.

 

With a single unit today assigned to them, the Senneterre-based crew leaved tonnage at Franquet, the junction point between Chapais and Matagami subdivisions, in order to be pulled by an extra work train tomorrow, allowing the photographers a bonus run on this quite remote line in northern Québec.

 

In June 2022, both Matagami and Langlois mines closed their operation leaving the remote 62 mile-long Matagami subdivision without any profitable customer. Harsh forest fires in the summer of 2023 severely damaged the line and CN didn't reopen it yet as we speak.

 

CN L58021-13

9450

Milepost 56.5 Chapais subdivision

Lebel-sur-Quévillon,QC

September 13th 2017

Done