Not so long ago, back in 2011, the last freight train to Clermont ran over the hundred years old rail linking Quebec City, Montmorency County and Charlevoix. The goal was simple but charged with deep meaning as all freight cars were towed back to Quebec City, ending effectively regular railway traffic on the line since 1889. Not only it was a sad say for railroading, but it also meant Côte-de-Beaupré and Charlevoix's industrial core was no longer viable enough to support rail service. While the first will be succumb to Quebec City's urban sprawl, the fate of the latter is still unknown. There is always a limit to what tourism can accomplish.
That said, someone took the effort to document that last trip over the subdivision and as since posted his pictures online. This is a rare and late glimpse at what regular operation on the line looked like. At some point, it is quite weird to model a railroad that is now gone when that was only 6 years ago. I must admit the last few years made this particular railway a nostalgia vignette similar to a transition era prototype. What used to be the peaceful and almost uninteresting line got a new veneer of respectability as memories of it started to fade away.
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