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The line shown in the video was in central Newfoundland at a place called the Gaff Topsails. The entire main line ran from St. John's on the east coat to Port aux Basque on the west covering 906 miles. It was a narrow gauge line of 3ft 6" . Canadian National took over the railway on Newfoundland in 1949, when Newfoundland joined Canada, and ran it until 1988 when they shut it down.

Probably for the same reason so many other old rail lines were torn up. The scrap value for the rails and whatever else was greater than the cost of removing them. It’s too bad no long sections could have been saved for a tourist railroad. There’s one short stretch (1.6 miles) in Avondale used for speeder rides, and the Trinity Loop was another one but it’s fallen greatly into disrepair.

iirc it was because of the railroad being not as popular as it was in the say, 20s, its sad

Now there are no buses since Greyhound went bankrupt in western Canada so everyone has to hitch hike or go buy another expensive old car to and pay more money for gas, unless you want to wait hours to charge an electric in far town before driving back out of the towns

A little birdie tells me that they are planning to restore these rails and run freight on the island again. There were members of this project in CN's Winnipeg campus a few months ago

That's from 1994

“nObOdY cOuLd GiVe A rAt’S aSs AbOuT oNe Of If NoT tHe MoSt ImPoRTaNt AnD iNfLuEnCiAl CrOpS iN tHe EnTiRe WoRlD.”

The genius graphic designer Allen Fleming to thank 🇨🇦

@@halon7476 I was 11 years old and a model train nut when the Noodle came out. I was so obsessed with it I stuck it on every loco I owned

The most we got from CN was several displays of rolling stock at various communities and museums around the island plus the Trinity Loop Railway park which is now sadly closed. In the years since the railway closed a few displays have been scrapped due to vandalism and lack of interest.

​@@shnorth888 I could understand why CN would've reduced service to "as needed" but scrapping the operation entirely was incredibly short sighted, I guess they were desperate to increase their profits to appeal to private investors as the Canadian government looked to privatize the railways.

@@rockguitarist931 True and the service was downgraded to a point where most shippers switched to road transport, although the privatization of CNR was still a few years off. That didn't appear until the 1994 federal budget but by getting rid of money loosing operations like the Newfoundland rail operation and PEI's railway in 1989 plus selling off non rail/transportation assets like CN Hotels and CN Telecommunications put CN in a better financial position for when the idea to privatize appeared several years later.

@@shnorth888 Many rail displays have been destroyed since the closure, breaks my heart. My friend and I volunteered at Avondale for several years and helped get the place noticed. Currently I’m on the board of the Railway Coastal Museum in Water Street, it shouldn’t be a struggle to preserve our heritage but it is. The Trinity Loop still has massive potential, unfortunately the government has been making it extraordinarily difficult to make any progress.

There was an effort by former St. John’s mayor John Murphy to preserve the line from St. John’s to Holyrood, running excursion trains. So many people today say it would have been great, and with how much the area has developed it could have even worked as a commuter train. Seems like CN had everything sold and did everything possible to make sure the railway was erased, purely political.

You said it brother.

Apparently it was looked at just after confederation but wasn't deemed done to the cost. Again in the 70's CN looked into it but the cost and time to do it wasnt worth it. Unfortunately the narrow gauge is what doomed the lines future.

@@shnorth888 had it been standard gauged, would it still exist? What commodities would it carry?

@@wavesnbikes Unknow if the re-gauging would've have extended the railroads life. CN probably wouldn't be running it anymore. selling it to a short line operator more than likely. As for commodities the Newfoundland Railway carried pulpwood and other wood products, newsprint, mining minerals, some oil was also hauled. Also some locally manufactured goods. However most goods were shipped in from Canada or the U.S.

@@shnorth888 The only contender in my mind would be avondale,, but then it be one hell of a task

@@marcleslac2413 Avondale to Whitbourne would make for a fine run.

Im not sure why the map was done that way. I know tracks were laid as far as Terranceville on the Burin Peninsula and one train was ran down that way but derailed and it was decided to scrap the idea and the existing tracks were taken up. The line was supposed to go to Burin itself As for the line going to Bonne Bay/ Woody Point, a rail bed was graded but no track was laid. Im not sure how far the railbed was built before this was dropped.

I was surprised to find the Trepassey line in there considering it only ran for a decade or two. To this day it's still hard to find the exact rail right-of-way, especially through LaManche

@@shnorth888 It would be very interesting to see any remaining evidence of the Bonne Bay line today...I guess one can only wonder what route it would have took through the mountains and where it would have crossed the mighty Humber.

I think these films are late 70’s.

Actually the cab itself is not wide its just the nose in front. The cab part is the same width as standard loco cabs. The CN cabs first appeared in 1973 on MLW M420W and the GMD GP38-2W locomotives. The MLW version had a different look from the GMD version with the outer cab windows being slanted at the top instead of being cut straight across. Also the headlight was off center due to the cab door position. Here's a pic. rapidotrains.com/sites/default/files/jason_images/2019/12/Rapido-News-119-14-M420.jpg

@@shnorth888 Yes, the nose.

as early as 1973 actually.

nanaimo is a good example of this

Part of history. Shame they let it rust away.

Just brutal. 😢

th-cam.com/video/abVKJtOjdL0/w-d-xo.html