Canadian Railroads > Status of Englewood Railway at Woss, BC? Is last log line dead?

Did the Englewood Railway ever return to operation after the three deaths at Woss, BC? It was the last logging railway in North America, and shut down for investigation of the accident were a cable broke which moved cars at a loading site. Is this the end of the last NA logging by rail? Google does not even have a current notice of its status.

I guess no one cares!

Mike Root
Madras, OR

Similar question was posted a couple of weeks ago. Would think we have to wait for something to be published in newspapers or trade magazines.

It's a pretty distant operation, maybe somebody can let us know as the summer adventures play out.

In another thread, it's mentioned that the new BC government is led by two Islanders.

Wonder if that will make a difference?

Posted from Android

When I visited in the 1980's, there were logging roads in addition to the railway, in fact one railway branch had been converted to truck use, including substantial wooden trestles.

The whole reason for the survival of the railway is the huge size of the logs harvested. Special "Mastadon" over dimension logging trucks, themselves getting elderly and unique share portions of the right of way with the trains, and trucks and trains are dispatched from a common control centre.

The skeleton flats used in the 1980's by the railway were ancient, but I understand they have been replaced with newer cars since then. Although rebuilt and upgraded, much of the logging equipment, both rail and highway is elderly.

I have to wonder how many old growth giants remain. When the big trees are gone, will the railway or indeed the whole operation survive?

I'm not a tree hugger, but I do support responsible resource management. I've lived in BC long enough to remember the massive clear cuts and minimal reforestation of the 1960's and 70's, often carried out by the same corporations that chopped down all the old growth in Washington State and Oregon.

The Englewood operation has been hauling massive trees out of remote valleys for decades.

One criticism of the timber process has been that much of the export "value added" is done in places like Japan. Specialized equipment cuts dried wood to the millimeter for use. Not like the US (and Canadian?) technology that treats a 13/16 inch as equal to a 16/16 inch.

Keeping that value added business close to home means the higher skilled / higher salaried jobs stay in the US and Canada.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One criticism of the timber process has been that
> much of the export "value added" is done in places
> like Japan. Specialized equipment cuts dried wood
> to the millimeter for use. Not like the US (and
> Canadian?) technology that treats a 13/16 inch as
> equal to a 16/16 inch.
>
> Keeping that value added business close to home
> means the higher skilled / higher salaried jobs
> stay in the US and Canada.

A big issue in the recent BC Provincial election was the practice of shipping raw logs oversees, rather than doing primary processing in Canada.

The whole issue of US/Canada softwood tariffs is back in the spotlight with the Trump administration.