Admiral Beez
Superstar
True. We'd need some major mineral find.
Oh, I know I am guilty of that. My Calcutta-Singapore Imperial Railway makes me guilty, for certain.
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General railway discussions
- Thread starter Urban Sky
- Start date
micheal_can
Senior Member
Straight line, is is about 1,200km. That is slightly longer than straight line Windsor to Quebec City. You would also be dealing with the fact ht it is a massive wetland subject to seasonal flooding. As much of a train nut as I am, even I, after looking at it over a decade ago came to the conclusion that unless the Hudson Bay and the Northwest Passage becomes ice free year round, there is no realistic reason to put it in.Very cool, thanks for sharing that.
I wonder if a railway from Moosonee to Churchill has ever been considered? With no roads, it could connect communities and possible commercial/resource expertise along the Hudson Bay shoreline.
View attachment 604742
RAC Canadian Rail Atlas
rac.jmaponline.net
Hudson Bay Lowlands - Wikipedia
Admiral Beez
Superstar
Looking at the national railway map I am surprised that the track ends just shy of Yellowknife. I'd figure the territorial capital merited a connection. But your note on difficult geography likely also applies here.
Outside of a tourist train from Skagway Alaska (I took this from a cruise in 2018), Yukon has no railways whatsoever. Same as Nunavut and Newfoundland (Labrador has the Schefferville-Sept-Îles, QC line passing through Labrador City).
micheal_can
Senior Member
The Newfoundland railway issue is less of terrain and more of viability. There was one and it was a narrow gauge.
crs1026
Superstar
Is that such a surprise? Railway lines only appear (or remain) where somebody has a very large amount of stuff to move to market. Not all provinces or large cities can meet that criterion.
- Paul
Admiral Beez
Superstar
Another question...
That depends. Is this a genuine inquiry from a place of intellectual, open-minded curiosity, or merely a rhetorical dismissal?
micheal_can
Senior Member
They only recently got a road connection to the rest of the network. Prior to that, they had to rely on a ferry or ice road.
Deh Cho Bridge - Wikipedia
lenaitch
Senior Member
Not too many places can say they need cattle grates to keep Bison off the bridge.They only recently got a road connection to the rest of the network. Prior to that, they had to rely on a ferry or ice road.
Deh Cho Bridge - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
lenaitch
Senior Member
Neither does PEI.
The coastline of the western side of Hudson's Bay in the Hudson's Bay Lowlands region is pretty much salt marshes and sand/gravel dunes with shallow approaches. As discussed earlier probably in another thread, any attempt at creating a commercial port would require significant and ongoing dredging. If you notice on the map, the Hudson's Bay RR takes a hard left just past Gillam. Originally, it was supposed to continue n/e and terminate at the mouth of the Nelson River. Most of the roadbed was set and they even built a bridge to an island. The whole thing was abandoned when they determined that silting, currents and shifting sandbars made the port unviable. Churchill sits at the extreme northwest end of the Lowlands and, atypically, has a fairly stable deep water harbour.
Even with resource activity in the area (the Ring of Fire isn't all that far inland), unless you are shipping something pretty much intact like coal, there is still a need for refining or processing, and there is no infrastructure for that. The fact that whoever owns the claims in the RofF (I loose track) is intending to schlepp it south should be telling. The FNs in the area say they want to be partners in resource development for, for the foreseeable future, have only the capacity to be junior partners and even that has a number of challenges.
crs1026
Superstar
I would indeed be interested in your rationale for why the places you mention need rail service.
- Paul