The RAWDON Subdivision
Glenn F. Cartwright

© 1965

Reprinted (and enhanced) from Canadian Rail, 172, (December 1965),  pp. 218 and 223.

A tiny two-coach train would wait at Gohier for the change from electric to steam power. This accomplished, the train would trundle along the l'Assomption Subdivision, entraining passengers at Ahuntsic and Pointe aux Trembles. At a place called Paradis, the train would turn on to the Rawdon Subdivision and travel up the remaining 15.8 miles to its ultimate destination, Rawdon (Quebec).CN1395

But as was the case on so many small branch lines, patronage declined and passenger service was curtailed. By the middle 1950s, it had been entirely eliminated. Still the occasional way freight would wander up to Rawdon with a box car or two, and perhaps a hopper car laden with gravel from the not-too-distant Joliette quarries. In the early 1960s, the only train to visit Rawdon one year was in the month of December in order to receive a load of Christmas trees.

It came as no surprise, then, when the CNR applied for permission from the Board of Transport Commissioners to abandon the Rawdon Subdivision.

Upon approval of the plan by the Board, the CNR issued this terse notice:

Pursuant to the authority given by order No. 112440 of the Board of Transport Commissioners for Canada, dated October 23, 1963, all rail operation on Rawdon Subdivision, between Rawdon, mileage 0.0, and St., Jacques, Mileage 8.5, will be discontinued effective 12:01 a.m., Monday December 16, 1963.
Montreal Area,
November 4, 1963.
In May of 1964, a small work train, including crane No. 50371, proceeded up the now officially abandoned stretch of the subdivision to Rawdon. The crane began to dismantle the turntable which, it is to be assumed, was sold for its scrap value. Next, the yard trackage in front of the station was torn up. Now came the hard task of disassembling the huge trestle which spanned Manchester Falls and carried the CNR right-of-way into Rawdon. For this complicated job, a heavy piece of machinery known as a "Bridge and Tank car" was brought in. Slowly the heavy steel girders were cut apart and swung into waiting gondolas. Within a few weeks, the steel deck had been completely dismantled and the large timbers at each end of the structure had been pulled out of position by bulldozers.

All that remained were the massive concrete pillars which had supported the bridge so nobly for many decades.

After this, the work began to progress more rapidly and the siding, which had been installed on the west side of the trestle to facilitate its dismantling, was removed. Similarly was the track to mileage 1.5 known as Hamilton, where the old Brouillette Sand Company siding was torn up. By mid-July, the rails had been removed as far as St. Alexis, and a few days later the conditions of abandonment were fulfilled, the track having disappeared up to mileage 8.5, one-half mile east of St. Jacques.

This was not the first time Rawdon had been deserted by a railway. In the late 1850s, the Industry Village and Rawdon Railway abandoned its line from Rawdon to what is now Joliette (see C.R.H.A. News Report No. 109, March, 1960.) [p. 19].

The job was complete: The CNR had been successful in deserting their unprofitable spur. The station remains, as do the freight sheds which are still used by the trucks that handle CNR express to and from the town. But as far as the rail service is concerned, Rawdon lies abandoned once more.