Western Railroad Discussion > The Old Becomes New

Shot taken 30 years ago almost to the date showing the Sierra Pacific mill in Susanville California and
ex-SP TR-6A #1100 waiting between runs to Wendel. So why is this in a current group? Well it's because the
mill was paid for, the line to Wendel was paid for as well as the locomotive. The mill was in excellent
shape with a veteran production and maintenance force, timber was low cost mostly salvage cut and yet,
they still couldn't make money! The Jel-Wend door facility down the tracks a mile depended on the mill for
raw material and when the mill was running they were one of Jel-Wend's most productive facility. So,
what was the issue? Cheap Canadian lumber, which finally thirty years later someone is finally addressing!

Out

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Yep, those dirty, rapeing Canuks, speaking French and plotting against poor ol' Uncle Sam, have a lot to answer for--eh?

There was a battle between Quincy and Susanville, and Quincy won. There are a couple things to take into consideration. First and probably the most important is the 100 year timber plan, which Susanville could not maintain. I am a SPI employee, and although I cannot comment on Susanville information, I can tell you Quincy's information which Susanville could not maintain.

How the Quincy 100 year Timber plan works in a nut shell;

*SPI owns roughly 20% of Plumas County
*SPI currently is only purchasing and harvesting timber from the forest service. In the region, it is expected that the Gov't will stop timber sales on its land in roughly ten years. At that point, SPI will start harvesting their own land while the National forests are given time to rejuvenate. There is not enough timber to support two large mills for an extended period of time (Quincy is now considered a 'Super-mill' in the timber industry)
*Quincy is on a much larger site (just acquired more land, now over 100 acres) with more access to water and precipitation. For those that don't know, Mills use a crazy amount of water.

There are other benefits to Quincy over Susanville, such as a closer interchange to the RR. Quincy is roughly 4 miles, and Susanville was over 20 miles one way. Quincy also has a larger Cogen (which is currently being rebuilt and doubling in size). For many years, SPI has been buying mills and systematically shutting them down in the area. Twain, Sloat, Crescent Mills, Loyalton, and Susanville has succumb to their tactics. All at the same time, moving many different components and equipment to Quincy. Much of the equipment still being used in Quincy is labeled and numbered for Susanville and Loyalton. The next mill North of Quincy is Burney, which is scheduled to be torn down later this year and rebuilt just the same as the Quincy Large Log Mill (Mill B). Burney being a smaller facility, and only a single Large Log Mill (Cuts fewer trees, but more valuable timbers) equals smaller acreage to obtain the 100 year Timber Plan.


In the years of working as a Mill-billy, I have learned that SPI stands for Sanity Prevention Institute, and those Emmerson's (now the third, going on 4th generation owners) are ALWAYS willing to step over dollar's to pick up pennies.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/17 16:35 by Anglingthewild.

railwaybaron Wrote:
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> Yep, those dirty, rapeing Canuks, speaking French
> and plotting against poor ol' Uncle Sam, have a
> lot to answer for--eh?

Just a thought, the Emmerson's are third, going on 4 generation owners. Old Red and his dad bought the first mill, with really no money. They turned that first Mill into a few Mills and few different companies. poof! they are the second largest timber company in America, own more then 1% of California, they are billionaires and a fortune 500 company. I bet they've met Trump once or twice...

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/17 17:01 by Anglingthewild.

Quincy was enlarged after Susanville shut down and yes it shut down because Quincy could be enlarged. Susanville was handling
all the cutback along Hwy 44 and in fact the last section of that had to he hauled to Quincy. I know the Emmersons well and
over the years they've been a bitch to deal with and at times have shot themselves in the foot. Doesn't detract from the fact
that they are smart operators. My point was that the imports killed enough of the margin in timber to make things like major
mill consolidations happen. Hell, we'd just finished upgrading all the hydraulics in Loyalton when they pulled everything out
and moved it to Washington!

Out

Interesting discussion.Thanks for the posts and insight into SPI.Bill Webb