Canadian Railroads > Mill Closure at Exeter (100 Mile House)

Norbord announced the permanent closure of their sawmill at Exeter BC, operations have been suspended since 2019. Reasons for the closure were stated to be unavailability of wood following the pine beetle infestation and continuing uncertainty in the lumber industry.This will represent a loss of 160 full time jobs to the community .

Exeter is south of Williams Lake on the former BCR portion of CN.  Freight train service has been suspended between Williams Lake and Squamish BC for some time.

Exeter has been an important shipping point on this line in the past, with its own BCR switcher at some times, and a dedicated freight from Williams Lake at other times. 

eminence_grise Wrote:
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> ...Exeter is south of Williams Lake on the former BCR portion of CN...

Only a couple miles to the west of 100 Mile House, Exeter is about 50 miles from Williams Lake...

Keith Robertson
Langley, BC

Exeter was once a very busy little terminal for BC Rail and lots of revenue loads generated there everyday.  There were several productive sawmills and a large plywood plant as well as a bulk oil plant, salt track and TOFC ramps. Ainsworth stud mill is gone as well as the Weldwood plywood plant. West Fraser still has a large sawmill dimensional lumber plant. Ainsworth opened  a oriented strand board plant many years ago and it has since changed ownership. tThe OSB plant gave regular long haul car loads to the railway and quite often required a double switch which would generate 12 loads a day.  The lumber market crash and lack of timber has taken it's toll in BC.

The "5th Marquess of Exeter" had an estate in the area, hence the railway name "Exeter".  Using the name 100 Mile House would be confusing in the railway employee time tables etc.  "100 Mile House" was a stop on the old Cariboo Wagon road and was 100 miles north of Lillooet which was Mile "0" on the wagon road.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Mile_House

Doug
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/20 14:25 by hoggerdoug.