Canadian Railroads > CN with better looking power on the old KPR

On the CP main WB at Campbell Creek, BC after coming down the hill from the Vernon, BC area. The power has become a little more rag tag these days and they are running only 2 units rather than 3.

Bob Ritchie
Chase, BC

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This looks like the power set of three rebuilt GP40's that CN was using on the Vernon branch this past winter and spring.
I saw the same train two days ago and it had a pair of well worn and weathered CN SD40-2W's for power.
I'm not sure or not, but I think CN may have lost the wood chips on this branch line from the saw mills to highway trucks, as I haven't seen any wood chip hoppers on the CN in this area in the past few months.

If I'm not mistaken two of those units are the rare ex-Algoma Central GP40-2 units that found their way into CN via the WC. When CN took back the Okanagan trackage they need four axle units with dynamic brake. Having none in service they turned to the scrap line at Homewood where they found the two ex-WC, ex-ACR, ex-SOO, ex-MILW units which were fixed up and returned to service.

Good catch.

KG



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/14 05:23 by kgmontreal.

Nice look, how much traffic is there?? Train frequncy??

Thanks,

Bob

The shut down of the KPR saw the end of woodchips by rail from Lavington and Larkin, which now travel by truck.

One of the reasons CN rebuilt the line was the fact that Tolko Lumber based in Vernon BC promised to continue to operate the sawmills and plywood plants along the line for the foreseable future.

Tolko has a large lumber mill at Kelowna, but have shifted to truck for all shipments. Gorman Brothers in West Kelowna (Westbank) never was served directly by CN .

Any details on what made them move away from rail service?

kgmontreal Wrote:
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> If I'm not mistaken two of those units are the
> rare ex-Algoma Central GP40-2 units that found
> their way into CN via the WC. When CN took back
> the Okanagan trackage they need four axle units
> with dynamic brake. Having none in service they
> turned to the scrap line at Homewood where they
> found the two ex-WC, ex-ACR, ex-SOO, ex-MILW units
> which were fixed up and returned to service.
>
> Good catch.
>
> KG

Yes those units in CN paint do have an interesting background and so does the Illinois Central unit in the middle. It began life as CNW GP50 5051 before being wrecked and rebuilt internally as a GP40-2 but on the outside it still looks to have the appearance of a GP50. Very interesting transplants from the Midwest for this line.

The IC 3140 has moved to the Edmonton Alberta area. It is currently paired with a GP40-2W and an SD40-2W on the Scotford switcher assignment.
Trevor

TCnR Wrote:
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> Any details on what made them move away from rail
> service?

Woodchips are very cheap, made from waste parts of trees not utilized in lumber, and require the cheapest transportation available. One reason that the chips are no longer moved by rail is the destination, Fibreco Export in North Vancouver, stopped taking chips in favor of wood pellets. As chips are basically waste they are not economical to ship by rail over short distances, hence trucks can do a better job.

The woodchips in the Okanagan used to go to three destinations, Weyerhauser in Kamloops, Fibreco Export, and Fletcher Challenge (Now Catalyst)reload adjacent to CN's Thornton Yard. Woodchips are not stored at mills unless absolutely necessary, they are produced and loaded into rail cars directly or small above ground storage facilities enough to load trucks and therefore are shipped on demand, something trucks do better with availability as needed. The woodchips to the Weyerhauser pulp mill in Kamloops (Now Domtar) were mainly handled by CP in modified GS gondolas, CP refused to rebuild or invest in more cars as the original modified cars wore out, also CP stated the woodchips that fell on the ties would rot the ties faster than if they were not in contact with them. CP got out of the business in 1989 with the closure of the Princeton, Slocan and Boundary Subs allowing and paying for Arrow Transportation to invest in the equipment required to handle the chips from the South Okanagan. At the same time CP handed off the transportation of North Okanagan chips to DCT Chambers of Vernon, which had taken over short haul loads of chips from mills not directly connected by rail since the late 1960s. CN continued to handle the chips to Fibreco and Fletcher Challange until Fletcher (Catalyst) stopped reloading at Port Mann in 2008. Fibreco stopped receiving chips in approx. 2012. When KPR stopped operating the mills had to quickly find alternative transportation and DCT was quick to offer their services.

DCT Chambers now hauls most of the chips from Kelowna, Lavington, and Larkin. Sutco Transport also handles chips from Kelowna. DCT Chambers began in the 1960s and has expanded greatly, it took over Langley Freight Lines in 1996 (renaming it LFL Chambers) and recently took over Glenn Transport of the Kootenays. DCT Chambers is unique in the fact it mainly hauls only forest products (Woodchips, lumber, plywood, other forest waste).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/14 17:50 by eminence_grise.

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Nice looking trucks for woodchips. In the southeastern US these would be very much admired by the woodchip haulers. Lots of basically scrap trailers(and cabs) are used in this service here.

On a hot summer day, I still remember the nice, combined smell of freshly cut and chipped pine and diesel fumes as the Georgia Railroad train of mostly pulpwood racks and chip cars passed the depot in Thomson, GA.

Jay