Western Railroad Discussion > Not a Good Time for PNW Shortlines

Two shortlines in the PNW have been handed some devastating news recently due to customer shutdowns.

Boise Cascade has announced the closure of the sawmill in Elgin, OR, further retrenching the active portion of the former UP Wallowa Branch two what will largely be a switching operation in the La Grande/Island City area. It will be rare to catch a train beyond there. The Elgin mill was a very active shipper producing several carloads a day. This will impact the Idaho Northern & Pacific in a hard way.

https://www.lagrandeobserver.com/home/6248885-151/boise-cascade-to-partially-close-mill


Columbia River Carbonates announced the closure of thier quarry at Wauconda, WA. This means the already marginal Cascade and Columbia River RR will lose it's Calcium Carbonate Ore traffic makes makes up a large share of the traffic on the railroad.

http://www.omakchronicle.com/news/2018/may/24/columbia-river-carbonates-close-quarry-wauconda/

I would recommend railfanning both operations in the next week or so, as the traffic will be gone that soon. The Elgin mill has already cut it's last log. When the inventory on hand is gone, that will be it.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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Sorry to hear the bad news.

Larry

Life moves on: it’s our destiny.

Posted from iPhone

reindeerflame Wrote:
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> Life moves on: it’s our destiny.
>

wowwww mannn. thats deep. you come up with that kernal of wisdom all on your own?

thanks for sharing the interesting news, funnelfan. those CSCD trains out of (and to) Wenatchee are gonna get mighty short.

bbcc Wrote:
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> reindeerflame Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Life moves on: it’s our destiny.
> >
>
> wowwww mannn. thats deep. you come up with that
> kernal of wisdom all on your own?
>
> thanks for sharing the interesting news,
> funnelfan. those CSCD trains out of (and to)
> Wenatchee are gonna get mighty short.

This is probably the death nail for the CSCD.  I believe they are already down to only one train a week to/from Wenatchee.

Seems crazy that Boise Cascade is closing down yet another mill.  There are only like a couple mills left in eastern Oregon (if that) and maybe two in central Idaho.  Certainly doesn't seem like a supply of logs is the issue - more like, who is going to buy logs without any mills?

Actually Log supply is a issue with three Boise Cascade mils clustered in the region. Even though there is only one other active mill in the region, the Clinton era Roadless Forest plan virtually shut down logging on the National Forests limiting the supply to just private and state forest lands. Many times more acrerage of national forest burn each year than what is cut. One by one the mills have closed as the log supply has tightened, and only the most cost effective mills survive.

spwolfmtn Wrote:
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> Seems crazy that Boise Cascade is closing down yet
> another mill.  There are only like a couple mills
> left in eastern Oregon (if that) and maybe two in
> central Idaho.  Certainly doesn't seem like a
> supply of logs is the issue - more like, who is
> going to buy logs without any mills?

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR