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The last train for Chelsea — the very last ever, it now turns out — steamed out of the station in 2011. And now crews are going to tear up the tracks.

For six years, ever since the latest landslide washed out the tracks, backers had talked of a return someday of the little locomotive and the green cars that carried thousands of passengers up the Gatineau River to Wakefield every year.

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The train ran breathtakingly close to the scenic river, passing the rapids and islands and the colourful autumn forests.

It dropped tourists on the main street of Wakefield and brought them back to the city later. A hand-operated wooden turntable turned the locomotive around so that it could pull the cars back.

Tourisme Outaouais estimated in 2008 that four in 10 reservations made through its office included tickets on the train. Train service to Wakefield dates from 1892.

Now Chelsea has officially killed any chance of reopening the Wakefield Steam Train, voting to pull up some 20 kilometres of track that washed out once too often.