Trip Synopsis
This is a one week motorcycle trip to Northern Quebec and
Northeastern Ontario, with one of the highlights is seeing one of VIA Rail
Canada’s Remote and Northern Service Trains.
Train #606 (the Abitibi), this train and #604 operate only three times a
week (Montreal to Senneterre), and on Sunday it leaves Senneterre at 8:45 vs
5:45, which improves the daylight photo and video.
There is also one additional Pinetree Line Radar site to visit at Senneterre, and after that I will have been to 8 sites counting this one at Senneterre.
Senneterre is not the end of the line, in fact the line
through Senneterre formed the NTR (National Transcontinental Railway from
Quebec City all the way to Vancouver, and was the fastest route to the Atlantic
for western grain from Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In early 2000 the line was severed between Cochrane,
Ontario and La Sarre, Quebec, which ended the once a week train from Cochrane
to Montreal.
My close friend Ben Gerard (of North Bay) will be joining me
on this 2,200km travel through the spectacular scenery of Northern Quebec and
Norther Ontario, along with the HOOT as it is his turn for a trip.
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| Ken on the Watershed Tour 2015 - Northern Quebec and Ontario |
The NTR didn't go all the way to Vancouver. The Canadian government built it with the intention to lease it to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. The NTR was started in Moncton and built through Quebec to Winnipeg. The Grand Trunk Pacific built their end of the line from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert B.C., but reneged on their promise to lease the NTR. The NTR was operated by Canadian Government Railways which became part of the CNR in 1919 and took over the GTP in 1920.
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