T he train ride from Sept-Îles, a port on the north shore of the mighty St Lawrence river in Canada, to Schefferville, a tiny, former mining town 355 miles north, is beautiful. Early in the journey, the train follows the winding Moisie river. Pine-covered mountains plunge steeply into the valley. Much of the dark blue water is still covered in ice and snow, even in May. Then the land flattens out and the train follows slim lakes that streak northwest across the Labrador plateau like oil on water. Under a grey sky, the landscape is quiet. Under a blue one, dazzlingly white.

Fast, the journey is not. It usually takes between 13 and 15 hours, and has taken as long as 24. Hunting and fishing parties are let off. Mine workers disembark at camps beside the tracks. At Emeril Junction, mile 224.5, the Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway (QNS&L) driver swaps with one from Tshiuetin Rail Transportation. Tshiuetin, North America’s first indigenous-owned rail company, means “wind of the north” in Innu, a native language spoken in northeastern Quebec and Labrador. Its driver increases the train’s speed from a leisurely 40mph to a breezy 45mph.