The bridge, the station and the railway

Overall view of the railway bridge from Pierreville. We see the village of Saint-François-du-Lac in the background. Note the boat near the bridge. Considering the height of its mast, the bridge was a limit to the navigation of such boats on the river.

We see the imposing wooden scaffolding connecting the bank to the portion of the steel deck above the river, on the concrete piles. This bridge had its share of tragedies during its lifetime.

On August 19, 1975, a major fire destroyed the bridge over a section of about 500 meters, condemning rail traffic. For more than a decade, the remains of the wooden scaffolding that withstood the fire will remain visible in the landscape of the village. The metal part of the bridge was removed in 2007.

The photo would have been taken around 1985, near the intersection of Lacharité street and route 132. In the foreground we see the switching device that allowed the train to change tracks.

Detail of aerial photography from the 1940s.

The railway bridge saw its first convoy pass in 1904. The railway belonged to the South Shore Railway company. 

But twenty years earlier, in 1882, a first railway planned by the Great Eastern Railway company was to cross the region via Nicolet, Pierreville, Saint-François-du-Lac and Yamaska.

In 1887, only a few kilometers were completed, starting from Yamaska and stopping at a point on the west bank of the river, opposite Pierreville. 

Despite the developer running trains there to promote further construction of the line, the line did not materialize and Great Eastern Railway declared bankruptcy in 1890. The tracks were dismantled a few years later, in 1897. (PELLETIER, 2014)

Take a look at the aerial photo that was taken during the 1940s: we see the route of the railway built by the South Shore Railway and which crosses the villages and the river by creating a diagonal which goes from top to down the photo.

But take a better look to the right of the line: there is another diagonal, less visible, which seems to detach from the railway line at the very bottom of the photo. 

This line crosses wooded terrain and fields and seems to end somewhere just before joining the current route 143. 

Could this be a portion of the previous Great Eastern Railway?

On the ground, the embankment and adjacent ditches would still be there. Some remember finding cross nails there in their youth.

Here, perpendicular to the street, the path of the old railway is still visible. On one side the layout makes a gap between the trees; on the other, it continues in a straight line, well aligned with the concrete piers in the river.

These five concrete piers that still stand in the Saint-François River are the remains of the old railway bridge. Its central portion was made of steel while large portions of the bridge connecting the banks were made up of imposing wooden trestles. These scaffoldings of planks, which extended over a length of more than 500 meters on the shore of Saint-François-du-Lac, must have been impressive to see.

Built between 1900 and 1904, the bridge had its lot of accidents and tragedies, with at least 5 deaths. On April 15, 1902, a violent wind caused the trestles on the shore of Saint-François-du-Lac to collapse, causing the death of 4 workers. A fifth man survived despite serious injuries. In 1913, another worker lost his life while rebuilding the same bridge, damaged after an ice jam. 

Finally, on August 19, 1975, at the end of the afternoon, an imposing fire almost completely destroyed the wooden portion of the Saint-François-du-Lac side. Thick smoke was emerging from the blaze, visible for several kilometers and can even be seen from Trois-Rivières. Fortunately, this time no loss of human life was suffered.

We can replace the place where the station and its boarding platform were. About 50 meters from Notre-Dame street, near the gravel path that joins the William Houde facilities, there is a clump of trees: the station was located approximately there.

Interviews with Léo Chapdelaine and Gérard Boisvert.

PELLETIER, Michel Louis. Histoire des chemins de fer du Québec, Québec, les éditions GID, 2014, 750 p.

LACROIX, Sébastien. Bas St-François: quelques piliers du pont ferroviaire seront démolis, Lecourriersud.com, 6 février 2013.

Le Nouvelliste, Trois-Rivières, mercredi 20 août 1975, Cahier 1, page 2, dans BAnQ numérique.

YOUNG, Jeffery. «Chemins de fer, rails et cours de triage de»,  L’Encyclopédie Canadienne, Accessed date: Novembre 21st, 2022.

Photo credits :

Saint-François-du-Lac station: Fonds Fabrique de la paroisse de Saint-François-Xavier, Saint-François-du-Lac.

The railway bridge circa 1910: Auteur inconnu. Pont du chemin de fer Québec Montréal & Southern, Pierreville, QC, vers 1910. Collotype 8.8 X 13.7 mm, Musée McCord Steward, online collection.

View of Saint-François-du-Lac: Fonds Fabrique de la paroisse Saint-François-Xavier, Saint-François-du-Lac.

Ruins of the bridge after the fire, 1980: COSSETTE, Jean-Marie. Brossard, La salle, Saint-François-du-Lac, photographies, Fonds Point du jour aviation limitée, 1980, P690, S1, D80-076, BAnQ Vieux-Montréal, in BAnQ numérique.

Railway: PELLETIER, Michel-Louis. Histoire des chemins de fer du Québec, Québec, Les Éditions GID, 2014, page 300.

The tracks of the railways: Centre d'archives régionales Séminaire de Nicolet, Fonds Fabrique Saint-François-du-Lac, F320-P47-6.