Canadian Railroads > Just around the corner

Train is just around the corner, winter got there first..  November 3, 2007 on the former BC Rail, we stopped at the large sawmill at Dunkley, BC to do some switching. Pick up lumber loads and spot empties. Prior to arriving, we travelled through a nasty, long lasting snow squall event. Wet heavy snow.
The Conductor was none too pleased to be on the ground doing the work. I left the comfort of the warm dry cab and braved the elements for a few pictures.
Dunkley Lumber was a "super mill" and produced 14 or more center beam loads of lumber everyday. Also lot of trucks pulling lumber from there. Woodchips used to loaded for rail transport, now hauled by truck to a nearby pellet plant. The mill yard was double track, paved, well maintained and kept clean of debris and tripping hazards.
pictures:
46?? waiting for the Conductor walking our pickup
view inside the mill yard.
snow on the knuckle.
Thanks for looking.
Doug

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As always, interesting to see the workings of the railroad in the north country. the forest products indistry was much larger than I had thought.

'snow on the knuckle' sounds like a country western song but I can't imagine the next line.

t4p.

TCnR Wrote:
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> As always, interesting to see the workings of the
> railroad in the north country. the forest products
> indistry was much larger than I had thought.
>
> 'snow on the knuckle' sounds like a country
> western song but I can't imagine the next line.
>
> t4p.

"ice in your heart".

Or maybe ice in your boots.

Canadian lumber industry.  "Things are bigger in Texas.. we do it better in Canada".
Doug

TCnR Wrote:
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> As always, interesting to see the workings of the
> railroad in the north country. the forest products
> indistry was much larger than I had thought.
>
> 'snow on the knuckle' sounds like a country
> western song but I can't imagine the next line.
>
> t4p.

The huge cuts of wood chips cars were a surprise. Checking the CN line west of Prince George they also had large amounts of wood chip cars. The Paper Mills in Kitamat and outside of Prince Rupert have since closed, also one in Prince George but it was impressive. Not sure what the big wood chip operation at North Van is doing these days.

Great that there is Video and stills of the operations.

TCnR Wrote:
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> The huge cuts of wood chips cars were a surprise.
> Checking the CN line west of Prince George they
> also had large amounts of wood chip cars. The
> Paper Mills in Kitamat and outside of Prince
> Rupert have since closed, also one in Prince
> George but it was impressive. Not sure what the
> big wood chip operation at North Van is doing
> these days.
>
> Great that there is Video and stills of the
> operations.

Don't they use chips to make chip board?

Yes but I'm not sure where the long haul chips would be going. My understanding was there are OSB Mills in the Williams Lake or similar areas, no doubt others but I don't have that info,

In the 80's there would be large cuts of chip gons south to the North Van docks, large piles visible between the yard and the shoreline. Apparently SeaSpan would fill up their high side barges and send them off somewhere. Don't know if that's still going on, or how it would since the freights are very rare on the old BCR, perhaps there's something from the Fraser River Canyon making it's way to North Van but that doesn't sound viable. North Van had sulpher and wood chip reloads along the shoreline.

Watching some 1990's Videos on YT there were numerous industries between Prince George and Prince Rupert loading up 100 ton wood chip gins. Some would go to the two paper mills that have since been dismantled, don't know where else they would go. There are quite a few industries that take whole logs and grind them to wood chips for either on-site use or large quantity rail loading. There is mention of wood chips going to pellet operations, pellets for home heating is popular in some rural areas.

Here's archived BCR Historial & Technical society issues on the chip gons and the North Van port:

https://www.cwrailway.ca/sites/default/files/Cariboo/Cariboo%20-%20Issue%2032.pdf

https://www.cwrailway.ca/sites/default/files/Cariboo/Cariboo%20-%20Issue%2021.pdf

TCnR Wrote:
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> Yes but I'm not sure where the long haul chips
> would be going. My understanding was there are OSB
> Mills in the Williams Lake or similar areas, no
> doubt others but I don't have that info,

OSB is a different product than chip/particle board. Uses machined flakes of wood, not chips. The big OSB mill in B.C. is at Dawson Creek. The government's official list doesn't show any others.

Below is a list of chip mills in B.C. as of 2020 (these are mills whose primary product is chips). Four at ex-BCR locations: two in Quesnel, one each in Prince George and Mackenzie.

And while I'm at it with the stats, the Dunkley mill in Doug's photos was far and away the largest in B.C. as of 2020, with an annual capacity of 542 million board feet. In second place was Canfor's mill at Houston (on CN's North Line), at 469 million. The Houston mill has since closed permanently on account of scarce fibre supply at economically feasible cost.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/24 03:36 by railsmith.

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Good info. interestng list of Mills, duly copied.
Chuckled at Chips Ahoy.
Thanks.

+ There's a favorite YT Video of a cab ride from PG to PR with a side route to Kitamat, tried to find the mills shown in the Video by tracing the route on Google Maps. Found many vacant concrete pads with closed gates.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/24 16:30 by TCnR.