| Orford Express | |
|---|---|
 Orford Express tourist train EMD FL-9 locomotive at Magog, Québec. | |
| Terminus | Sherbrooke, Quebec |
| Preservation history | |
| 2006 | Established |
| 2020 | Ceased operations |
The Orford Express was a tourist train between Magog and Sherbrooke, Quebec, operating seasonally on the former Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway line through Quebec's Eastern Townships. [1] A dinner train which operated from early May to end-December, [2] it was owned and operated separately from the underlying tracks.
The rail line through Farnham, Sherbrooke and Lac-Mégantic originally continued as the International Railway of Maine, part of the Canadian Pacific Railway system, through Brownville Junction, Maine, to Saint John, New Brunswick. Built in the 1880s, the CPR abandoned this line to the first in a series of short-line operators in 1994. Subsequent owners of the underlying line include Iron Road Railways (bankrupt 2002), Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (bankrupt 2013), the Central Maine and Quebec Railway, and now finally back to Canadian Pacific..
VIA Rail formerly provided Atlantic passenger train service on this line, but abandoned the route when the tracks were sold in 1994.
A long history of deferred maintenance under various short-line operators caused the tracks to deteriorate, necessitating speed reductions on much of the line. [3]
The Orford Express, launched in 2006, [4] covered one small portion of the route (Eastman to Magog and Sherbrooke) seasonally, at low speed using its own trains (owned and insured separately from the underlying freight short lines) with tourist panorama cars. The train ran from May to December, with special runs during the holiday season between Christmas and New Year's Eve. There were two dining cars and seating for 140 passengers. [5]
On October 8, 2020, the owners, PAL+, announced that they had made the decision to cease operations of the Orford Express tourist train. The train had been inactive for the previous few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On July 6, 2013, an unattended 74-car freight train carrying Bakken Formation crude oil rolled down a 1.2% grade from Nantes and derailed in downtown Lac-Mégantic, resulting in the fire and explosion of multiple tank cars and the confirmed death of forty-two people and five more missing and presumed dead. [6]
On October 11, 2013, Transport Canada imposed an embargo on the line between Lennoxville and Lac-Mégantic due to poor track conditions, [7] necessitating cancellation of a planned special train to Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, which was to have run from Thanksgiving to Halloween.
On April 25, 2014, the service was cancelled for the season due to accidental fire damage to one of the panorama cars. The season was to have started May 7. [8]
Regular operation of the tourist train resumed in 2016.
On October 8, 2020, it was announced that operations would permanently cease. The train had not operated for a number of months before that due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [9]
Estrie is an administrative region of Quebec that comprises the Eastern Townships. Estrie, a French neologism, was coined as a derivative of est, "east". Originally settled by anglophones, today it is about 90 per cent francophone. Anglophones are concentrated in Lennoxville, home of the region's only English-speaking university, Bishop's University. The Eastern Townships School Board runs 20 elementary schools, three high schools, and a learning centre.
The St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad, known as St-Laurent et Atlantique Quebec in Canada, is a short-line railway operating between Portland, Maine, on the Atlantic Ocean, and Montreal, Quebec, on the St. Lawrence River. It crosses the Canada–US border at Norton, Vermont, and Stanhope, Quebec, and is owned by short-line operator Genesee & Wyoming.
The Quebec Central Railway was a railway in the Canadian province of Quebec, that served the Eastern Townships region south of the St. Lawrence River. Its headquarters was in Sherbrooke. It was originally incorporated in 1869 as the Sherbrooke, Eastern Townships and Kennebec Railway, and changed its name to the Quebec Central Railway in 1875. In 1894, it built a line southward to Mégantic to connect to Canadian Pacific Railway's east-west line, the International Railway of Maine. It would eventually own around 300 miles (483 km) of track. In 1912, the Canadian Pacific Railway leased the Quebec Central for 99 years but continued to operate as Quebec Central Railway, including passenger service to American cities. The Quebec Central in turn leased the Massawippi Valley Railway, a short line from Lennoxville to Newport, in 1926; this allowed passenger service from Quebec City via Sherbrooke to the United States.
The International Railway of Maine was a historic railroad constructed by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) between Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, and Mattawamkeag, Maine, closing a key gap in the railway's transcontinental main line to the port of Saint John, New Brunswick.
The Atlantic was a passenger train operated by Via Rail, serving both Canadian and U.S. territory between Montreal, Quebec, and Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was previously operated by Canadian Pacific Railway as The Atlantic Limited between Montreal and Saint John, New Brunswick. It formed part of the transcontinental service for both systems.
The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad was a United States railroad company that brought rail service to Aroostook County in northern Maine. Brightly-painted BAR boxcars attracted national attention in the 1950s. First-generation diesel locomotives operated on BAR until they were museum pieces. The economic downturn of the 1980s, coupled with the departure of heavy industry from northern Maine, forced the railroad to seek a buyer and end operations in 2003. It was succeeded by the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway.
The Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway was a Class II freight railroad that operated in the U.S. states of Maine and Vermont and the Canadian province of Quebec between 2002 and 2014. It was headquartered in Hermon, Maine.
Lac-Mégantic is a town in the Estrie region of Quebec, Canada. It is located on Lac Mégantic, a freshwater lake after which the town was named. Situated in the former Frontenac County in the historic Eastern Townships, Lac-Mégantic is the seat of Le Granit Regional County Municipality and of the judicial district of Mégantic.
The Canadian Atlantic Railway (CAR) was a Canadian and U.S. railway that existed from 1988 to 1994.
A dinner train is a relatively new type of tourist train service whose main purpose is to allow people to eat dinner while experiencing a relatively short, leisurely round trip train ride. This contrasts with conventional passenger trains, whose main purpose is to transport passengers to some destination as quickly as possible but which also might serve dinner on long-distance routes.
One-person operation (OPO), also known as driver-only operation (DOO), one-man operation (OMO), single person train operation (SPTO), or one-person train operation (OPTO), similarly to driver-controlled operation, is operation of a train, bus, or tram by the driver alone, without a conductor.
Rail World is a rail transport holding company. Its specialties include railway management, consulting, investment, privatizations, and restructurings. Its purpose is to promote rail industry privatization by bringing together government bodies wishing to sell their stakes with investment capital and management skills.
The Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway is a private Canadian regional railway that stretches 414 kilometres (257 mi) through the wilderness of northeastern Quebec and western Labrador. It connects Labrador City, Labrador, with the port of Sept-Îles, Quebec, on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. QNS&L is owned by Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC), and is a common carrier.
Lac des Nations is an artificial lake located in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. It was created during the construction of a hydroelectric dam used to power the old Patton Co factory.
The Lac-Mégantic rail disaster occurred in the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, Canada, on July 6, 2013, at approximately 1:14 a.m. EDT, when an unattended 73-car Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) freight train carrying Bakken Formation crude oil rolled down a 1.2% grade from Nantes and derailed downtown, resulting in the explosion and fire of multiple tank cars. Forty-seven people were killed. More than thirty buildings in Lac-Mégantic's town centre were destroyed, and all but three of the thirty-nine remaining buildings had to be demolished due to petroleum contamination. Initial newspaper reports described a 1 km (0.6-mile) blast radius.
The Massawippi Valley Railway was a short line railway established in 1870 between Lennoxville, Quebec, and the Vermont border. Part of the Quebec Central Railway from 1926, the line was abandoned in 1990 and removed in 1992. Most of the former railway's right of way is now used for bicycle trails.
Edward Arnold Burkhardt is a railroad executive, the founder and current chairman of Rail World Inc.
The Central Maine and Québec Railway was a Class II freight railroad operating in the U.S. states of Maine and Vermont and the Canadian province of Quebec with headquarters in Bangor, Maine. It was owned by Railroad Acquisition Holdings, LLC, a subsidiary of Fortress Investment Group, LLC. It is now a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific Railway since June 2020.
The technical investigation of the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster looked into the instigating and mitigating factors regarding the incident, one of the deadliest in Canadian railway history, with 47 deaths. It identified 18 factors related to the cargo, maintenance of the tracks, maintenance and operation of the train, and weak government oversight all combined to produce the disaster. Five recommendations for change resulted from the investigation.
Colette Roy-Laroche is a former Canadian politician who served as mayor of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec from 2002 to 2015. She is best known for her handling of the 2013 Lac-Mégantic rail disaster, which earned her the affectionate nickname "The Granite Lady" for her unflappable strength.