Packers#1: I've seen a few on NS loaded with pipes, steel structural shapes, and "unknown wrapped stuff", so you don't need a lumber-related industry to have one.
That said, I don't need one, for 1974, unless someone makes the original NP version. Yes, they had some before the BN merger. I never saw one, in Pasco, before or after the merger, so don't know where they ran.