Ottawa Central RS-18m #950 in Penn Central black

In 2004, the Société des chemins de fer du Québec started slowly winding down its operations, and the LT&L made irrestistable offers for subsidiaries Ottawa Central and, in 2007, the Chemin de fer Charlevois (the rest of the SCFQ’s subsidiaries ended up back in the hands of the Canadien National, which the Parsons Vale board still regrets.) The OC was in fairly sad shape, so the new management needed to shovel a lot of money into it to fix up the track (as well as purchase & rebuild the line from Pembroke to Mattawa), but by 2011 the line was again making enough money to pay for itself.

All of the locomotives it owned prior to the merger are still operating, most still in their original goth black paint..

In late 2024, the Algoma Southern, Huron Central, and Ottawa Valley railways made into OC subsidiaries to simplify traffic flows from (the edge of) Lake Superior to Montréal. These railways maintain their identities, but are all dispatched as if they were part of the Ottawa Central.

  • Copyright © 2024 by Jessica L. Parsons (orc@pell.portland.or.us) unless otherwise noted
    Sun Feb 12 23:38:50 PST 2023