Turcot Yards

A couple of blogs have featured this location; Walking Turcot Yards, Worksongs, Falaise St jacques, Controleman and maybe even a few others.

This 9 million square foot yards divide NDG from St-Henri, they previously stored the merchandise before sending it to the Port of Montreal for further transportations. Around 2002 the yard moved their loading activities to the 360-acre Taschereau Yards in the area of Ville St-Laurent and LaSalle. Turcot Yard comes from the name of an old St-Henri family, the yards themselves were built over a drained lake (Otter Lake). The roundhouse at the eastern end was torn down to build the turcot interchange. The tracks have all been pulled up except for two that are still active.

When I was younger, I explored the Falaise St-Jacques without even knowing that exploring would become a future hobby and also, I did not know that I was walking in an area that was once a proposed park by mayor Jean Drapeau.
This forgotten area used to have shacks that homeless people would sleep in and mini camps with food cans and clothes laying around. Other things included structures that made it easier to travel around this area.

I forgot about the interesting things that could be found in the “falaise” when I and a small group of “explorers” started to explore Turcot yards. The demolition process had already started and some buildings had already disappeared. Armed with our point and shoot cameras we bravely entered these buildings and took snapshots of the offices and docks. Most of the offices were smashed beyond recognition and drywall was everywhere. Crude graffiti was painted on the walls and neon light fixtures hanged low to the ground. This spot was one of the most boring places to explore, we were soon interested in other, more interesting buildings such as the Canada Malt Plant and Turcot yards was forgotten until now.

Urban exploration Montreal spent extensive time in these buildings and many of their pictures are displayed on their website. Turcot Yards by UEM

Turcot pictures by Neath from Walking Turcot Yards

Pictures from my first trip in 2004-2005

calendar dated back to 1996

Most recent trips :

Last winter me and fellow explorer Atrix went over to take some pictures of the graffiti found close to dead dog tunnel.

Last spring, a trip with xAme and Controle Man

Interesting Links

Gazette article by Andy Riga

Falaise st Jacques

Urban Exploration Montreal