Railways of Southern Quebec: Vol. II – From Richelieu to the Chaudiere

Railways of Southern Quebec, Volume II, continues the study, begun in Volume I, of various railway companies that operated in Quebec south of the St. Lawrence River. The featured railways illustrate the many diverse elements of 19th century railway construction. Also covered are aspects of the railway network rationalization resulting from railways having lost their transportation primacy to cars and trucks.

Volume I dealt with the earliest railways in southern Quebec, including the St. Lawrence & Atlantic (later Canadian National’s Grand Trunk New England line to Portland), as well as railways lying west of the Richelieu River in southern Quebec.

Volume II focuses on the central Eastern Townships with the histories of the Waterloo & Magog Railway, the Missisquoi & Black Rivers Valley Railway, and the Orford Mountain Railway. Also covered are other associated lines, including the Canadian Pacific Railway’s “Short Line” which continued from Megantic, Quebec to Saint John, New Brunswick through Maine. There are overviews of several other railway companies, all of which, together, formed the extensive network of railways that lay south of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec.

Volume III examined the history of the Quebec Central Railway. Operating in the eastern and northern margins of the Eastern Townships, the QCR – primarily a resource railway – emerged as the largest regional carrier in Quebec by the beginning of the twentieth century.