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The last train for Chelsea — the very last ever, it now turns out — steamed out of the station in 2011. And now crews are going to tear up the tracks.
Fo six years, ever since the latest landslide washed out the tracks, backers had talked of a return someday of the little locomotive and the green cars that carried thousands of passengers up the Gatineau River to Wakefield every year.
The train ran breathtakingly close to the scenic river, passing the rapids and islands and the colourful autumn forests.
It dropped tourists on the main street of Wakefield and brought them back to the city later. A hand-operated wooden turntable turned the locomotive around so that it could pull the cars back.
Tourisme Outaouais estimated in 2008 that four in 10 reservations made through its office included tickets on the train. Train service to Wakefield dates from 1892.
Now Chelsea has officially killed any chance of reopening the Wakefield Steam Train, voting to pull up some 20 kilometres of track that washed out once too often.
The rails and ties are to be gone before winter, leaving a multi-purpose trail: Cross-country skiing and snowshoeing (which already take place now), and walking or cycling or both, but no ATVs or snowmobiles.
The former track will be covered in stone dust.
Chelsea Coun. Barbara Martin voted against pulling up the rails and ties, but not to preserve the train. She wanted to wait until three studies are completed, including a geotechnical study of the stability of the old rail bed and an environmental study.
Bur she said no one has really kept any hope of saving the little train.
“I’m sure that people are sorry about the train. I’m sorry to lose the train; I love the sound of the whistle. But the economics just don’t make sense,” she said.
The death blow was a deluge of rain that fell in late June of 2011, after the train had been running on a repaired track for about two years. The storm washed out roads all over the Outaouais, and it washed the unstable Leda clay down a hill and destroyed a stretch of track.
“The washout that occurred in 2011 was huge, at the southern end” of the route, Martin said.
“It would take millions to repair it, and no one has been able to say that it would make financial sense.”
As well, there was an idea of running commuter service only along the middle and northern sections of the track, from Chelsea up to Wakefield. But they “never got off the ground. Issues of financing were always at stake, and it has just been dragging on for so long.”
In 2014, a group of train lovers founded the Wakefield Steam Train Group, hoping to attract investors at least to run between Chelsea and Wakefield. Spokesman Neil Faulkner says the train “is in our DNA.”
The Gatineau-Wakefield Steam train parked in Gatineau, June 06, 2017.
“We see a smaller operation running a shorter distance” than the old route, he said. But with the Chelsea track being taken out that would leave about 4.5 kilometres of track in Wakefield — probably not enough to attract an investor.
“Most of the people who were interested in running wanted to go to Chelsea and back because you get more of the river. It’s a no-brainer, really.”
Last September, the municipality of La Pêche suggested bringing the train to Wakefield just to leave it on display for the heritage value. But it couldn’t raise the cost of moving the train, which Faulkner set at $80,000.
In the meantime, the tracks on Wakefield will stay where they are even with a new riverfront redevelopment.
Tammy Scott, a backer of the trail system, said there are now only two north-south routes connecting the many small communities that make up Chelsea — highways 5 and 105. Only Highway 105 allows walking and cycling and she says it’s too dangerous.
“I’m not bringing my seven-year-old on the shoulder of the 105.” She feels a walking trail will solve that.
Shana Hedges owns Les Trois Érables, a B and B in Wakefield.
“The rails-to-trails idea is a great one,” she said. “On a personal level and on a business level, it would be very nice to have bicycle trails and walking trails and be able to connect the villages in a nice, peaceful, way.”
She wants a safe trail to cycle to the post office, “because I’m taking my life in my hands on Riverside Drive,” she said. (Riverside, the main commercial street in Wakefield, is notoriously narrow and winding.)
She feels future waterfront development in Wakefield could link up with the Chelsea trail.
“I get a lot of cyclists and nature lovers and trail people (as customers). The train was great. The train was wonderful … but it’s not there any more,” she said.
“You are going to have little kids who are able to ride their bikes to their friend’s house. How wonderful is that?”
But if the train tracks disappear, it doesn’t mean their engineering problems will be left behind. The studies continue.
“There is significant erosion in the bed, so if you remove the ties, what happens? Do things just collapse? And we don’t know that,” Martin said.
tspears@postmedia.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1
查看原文...
Fo six years, ever since the latest landslide washed out the tracks, backers had talked of a return someday of the little locomotive and the green cars that carried thousands of passengers up the Gatineau River to Wakefield every year.
The train ran breathtakingly close to the scenic river, passing the rapids and islands and the colourful autumn forests.
It dropped tourists on the main street of Wakefield and brought them back to the city later. A hand-operated wooden turntable turned the locomotive around so that it could pull the cars back.
Tourisme Outaouais estimated in 2008 that four in 10 reservations made through its office included tickets on the train. Train service to Wakefield dates from 1892.
Now Chelsea has officially killed any chance of reopening the Wakefield Steam Train, voting to pull up some 20 kilometres of track that washed out once too often.
The rails and ties are to be gone before winter, leaving a multi-purpose trail: Cross-country skiing and snowshoeing (which already take place now), and walking or cycling or both, but no ATVs or snowmobiles.
The former track will be covered in stone dust.
Chelsea Coun. Barbara Martin voted against pulling up the rails and ties, but not to preserve the train. She wanted to wait until three studies are completed, including a geotechnical study of the stability of the old rail bed and an environmental study.
Bur she said no one has really kept any hope of saving the little train.
“I’m sure that people are sorry about the train. I’m sorry to lose the train; I love the sound of the whistle. But the economics just don’t make sense,” she said.
The death blow was a deluge of rain that fell in late June of 2011, after the train had been running on a repaired track for about two years. The storm washed out roads all over the Outaouais, and it washed the unstable Leda clay down a hill and destroyed a stretch of track.
“The washout that occurred in 2011 was huge, at the southern end” of the route, Martin said.
“It would take millions to repair it, and no one has been able to say that it would make financial sense.”
As well, there was an idea of running commuter service only along the middle and northern sections of the track, from Chelsea up to Wakefield. But they “never got off the ground. Issues of financing were always at stake, and it has just been dragging on for so long.”
In 2014, a group of train lovers founded the Wakefield Steam Train Group, hoping to attract investors at least to run between Chelsea and Wakefield. Spokesman Neil Faulkner says the train “is in our DNA.”
The Gatineau-Wakefield Steam train parked in Gatineau, June 06, 2017.
“We see a smaller operation running a shorter distance” than the old route, he said. But with the Chelsea track being taken out that would leave about 4.5 kilometres of track in Wakefield — probably not enough to attract an investor.
“Most of the people who were interested in running wanted to go to Chelsea and back because you get more of the river. It’s a no-brainer, really.”
Last September, the municipality of La Pêche suggested bringing the train to Wakefield just to leave it on display for the heritage value. But it couldn’t raise the cost of moving the train, which Faulkner set at $80,000.
In the meantime, the tracks on Wakefield will stay where they are even with a new riverfront redevelopment.
Tammy Scott, a backer of the trail system, said there are now only two north-south routes connecting the many small communities that make up Chelsea — highways 5 and 105. Only Highway 105 allows walking and cycling and she says it’s too dangerous.
“I’m not bringing my seven-year-old on the shoulder of the 105.” She feels a walking trail will solve that.
Shana Hedges owns Les Trois Érables, a B and B in Wakefield.
“The rails-to-trails idea is a great one,” she said. “On a personal level and on a business level, it would be very nice to have bicycle trails and walking trails and be able to connect the villages in a nice, peaceful, way.”
She wants a safe trail to cycle to the post office, “because I’m taking my life in my hands on Riverside Drive,” she said. (Riverside, the main commercial street in Wakefield, is notoriously narrow and winding.)
She feels future waterfront development in Wakefield could link up with the Chelsea trail.
“I get a lot of cyclists and nature lovers and trail people (as customers). The train was great. The train was wonderful … but it’s not there any more,” she said.
“You are going to have little kids who are able to ride their bikes to their friend’s house. How wonderful is that?”
But if the train tracks disappear, it doesn’t mean their engineering problems will be left behind. The studies continue.
“There is significant erosion in the bed, so if you remove the ties, what happens? Do things just collapse? And we don’t know that,” Martin said.
tspears@postmedia.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1
查看原文...
