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I left my good old Newfie home in the year of sixty-one,
I decided to come to Carol to see what was being done;
We took a train to Moncton, then a train to Mont-Joli,
And from there to Seven Islands, glad we flew with H-U-T.
Hollinger-Ungava-Transport!
A DC-3 across the Saint Lawrence!
When we left Seven Islands, well, the weather wasn't bad,
To see snow-capped Voisey Mountain it made me kind of sad;
From Ross Bay Junction to Carol it took us quite a spell,
The slowest train that I ever rode was the QNS&L.
That train was so slow!
The wheels went backwards!
We pulled into the station about four o'clock that day,
And Patty Marnes was waiting to take the passengers away;
He stopped at accommodations and got us all a key,
And he drove us down to the county site to bunkhouse number three.
Bought us hard hats, working boots, and safety glasses!
But deducted it from our first pay!
Well since I've been in Carol, I've been working all the time,
Still trying to get the power up to the iron ore mine;
We worked all through the winter, through the bitter frost and snow,
And I promise here that we're almost done, just three more miles to go.
A tribute to the men on power distribution!
Well, there's only one complaint, my boys, that I got to make,
There's not enough of women down here in Carol Lake;
But I'll bet they'll see more families when the blue ore starts to mine,
And we'll tip our hats to Doctor Mott for a job he had done fine.
And we'll tip our hats to Doc Thomas for the words to this song!
I left my good old Newfie home in the year of sixty-one,
I decided to come to Carol to see what was being done;
From Ross Bay Junction to Carol it took us quite a spell,
The slowest train that I ever rode was the QNS&L.
Yes, the slowest train that I ever rode was the QNS&L
Recorded by Labrador Black Spruce [1989-1999] (Love Of The Land, trk# 3, 1992, Black Spruce Music, Labrador City, NL, recorded at CBC Radio, produced by Glen Tilley).
See more songs by Labrador Black Spruce.
Iron Ore Company (IOC) began producing iron ore from its Carol Lake (Labrador West) project in 1962. Canada's largest iron ore pellet producer operates a mine, concentrator and pellet plant at Carol Lake, port facilities in Sept-Iles, Québec and a 420-kilometre rail line that links the mine and the port. The mine, mill and pellet plant employ approximately 1,100 people. Iron ore concentrate and pellets are shipped via the company's subsidiary, Quebec North Shore and Labrador (QNS&L) Railway, to IOC's port facilities in Sept-Îles, PQ, for distribution throughout North America, Europe and the Far East. Hollinger Ungava Transport, Ltd, another subsidiary of IOC, has a twice-weekly air service that carries only company personnel and freight to and from the company's facilities.
From the American Geological Institute's Glossary of Geology by Klaus K.E. Neuendorf, James P. Mehl, Jr., Robert I. Bates, Julia A. Jackson: Blue Ore - residually enriched cherry oxide iron formation composed of fine-grained, blue to dark gray-black hematite with lesser amounts of red hematite, martite, and brown geothite found in the Knob Lake iron range of Quebec and Labrador, Canada.
