CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · History & Society

Chemin de fer Arnaud

transport company in Canada

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 2, 2025
Entity authorityQ2962329 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Chemin de fer Arnaud, now Chemin de fer Arnaud Quebec (reporting mark CFAQ) (formerly ARND and CFA) (in English, the Arnaud Railway) is a private Canadian short line railway owned by Société ferroviaire et portuaire de Pointe-Noire (SFPPN) operating in the province of Quebec.

Opened in 1965 by the Wabush Mining Company, which mines iron ore in Wabush, NL, the railway operates a line running around Sept-Îles Harbour from Arnaud Junction, on the Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway to ship loading facilities at Pointe-Noire.

The ore is transported from the mine to a connection with QNSL at Wabush, NL by Arnaud's sister railway, the Wabush Lake Railway. QNSL transports the ore between Wabush, NL and Arnaud Jct., QC. At Arnaud Jct., the ore is transferred to Chemin de fer Arnaud for the final journey to Pointe-Noire, Quebec.

In 2011, Genesee & Wyoming began control of Northern operations on behalf of the owners under the name Western Labrador Rail Services. The new operation encompasses the Bloom Lake Railway and Wabush Lake Railway only. Arnaud Railway (Pointe-Noire operations) is operated by Société ferroviaire et portuaire de Pointe-Noire (SFPPN).

Currently, this railway (along with the TSH line, QNSX, and WABL) form an isolated railroad network, as it does not directly interchange with any other rail lines on the North American network at this time, aside from rail ferry service via COGEMA to the CN Rail port at Matane, Quebec.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Chemin de fer Arnaud” as transport company in Canada. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1965, 2011—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1965-01-01. The account is most persuasive where Chemin, Arnaud and transport can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as transport company in Canada. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 2, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2962329. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1965 and 2011.

Critical limits

Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Chemin de fer Arnaud”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Chemin de fer Arnaud primary sources, Chemin de fer Arnaud archive and Chemin research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Chemin de fer Arnaud”?
  2. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
  3. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Chemin de fer Arnaud” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.