The joy of the discovery: Roberval Saguenay Railway…

The Roberval Saguenay Railway in Quebec, Canada along the north shore of the St Lawrence is a private railroad I was until recently completely unaware…

My Dad, who had been based at Shefferville  in Labrador during his 20s doing post graduate research had spoken fondly of the QNS&L and from that I had found the Cartier mining railroad down the coast. The RS though had evaded my detection even though I found the tiny SOPOR only a few years ago. My Mum has recently returned from a holiday in the Maritimes and I teased her to take some train photos for me, not expecting anything! Imagine my surprise when the only trains she saw I had never seen or heard of before!

What are these? Port Albert, photo Alison Hilton.

A quick study of the photo and knowing the location identified the prototype, and I was immediately drawn to two things, well three if you count this post. First, the wonderful livery, it truly is a lovely combination of colours and design, I would love to recreate it one day. Second, the locomotive, a rebuilt GMD GP40, to a GP38-3 (I love these sorts of conversions). Thirdly, this looks worth investigating to find out more (hence this post).

Map drawn by James Hilton, based upon original in Branchline October 1999 (http://www.bytownrailwaysociety.ca/phocadownload/branchline/1999/1999-10.pdf)

Sharing the top photo with Chris and he dived into a whole world of yellow Alcos (a conversation for another day) but also shared the Baytown Society magazine that netted a map (above). Wikipedia doesn’t give much clue though, and the article in the above referenced magazine is more a railfan trip than one that tells me about the railway… Trainweb shed a little more light, and so did Matthieu whose photographs and description show that in N perhaps this is doable in a typical British layout room footprint with a little selective compression.

Yard at Port Albert, photo Alison Hilton.

None of these tells us much about operations. This overhead photo shows the setup at Port Albert, and the deep water harbour for trans loading raw materials. The railway is owned by Rio Tinto Alcan providing a second clue. The abundance of water at different heights in the vicinity suggests a third clue, plentiful hydro power, and the raisin d’etre of the RS… aluminium manufacture (although apparently there are a few paper mills that the RS also serves). Bauxite is today imported and shipped from Port Albert to the smelters, along with fuel oil and coal. The output can also be seen on trains in both open flat cars and box cars. Trains, Matthieu suggests are around 30 cars with 3 locos, considering compression, twin locomotives in 15 cars could still look the part in N (remember the visual limit of length?) 

Yard at Port Albert, photo Alison Hilton.

Facility at Port Albert, photo Alison Hilton.

No plan today, because without a space identified for the layout it’s difficult to create a workable scheme. Reflecting on this experience, the excitement of discovering a new prototype, spending several hours researching, trawling the internet for as much material as possible, contemplating how it could be modelled and if anything has cameo or small layout potential is one of my favourite armchair pastimes. Just the shear pleasure in learning more. It’s joyous, it feels full of potential and hence positivity, and fuels my creativity and modelling energy. It sure beats watching mindless reality TV. In the past it’s included the Pinsly empire (especially the Claremont and Concord), the San Luis Central (and hence Rio Grande), Lapeer, Ballard Terminal and the Calais branch in North America, and countless examples in the UK too, most recently Cornish China Clay and the Scottish Markinch branch.

What railways have you discovered and enjoyed researching? How did they make you feel?

Have you any suggestions for me to dig in to that perhaps I’ll be unfamiliar with?

Until next time, more soon…

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