Sawmills, etc....

[ljudice]

Happy New Year Railwire-ites!  May the bacon be with you...

Sanity check needed...

I am looking into industries that would be located close to the source of large timber production areas, ie. like in the Cascades.  I am guessing that paper, paperboard, etc... is mostly produced closer to ports or major waterways and not up in the mountains.  But 1-2 large sawmills would very likely be located there.

Input - logs would probably be trucked in.  Output would be in trucks, boxcars - and I am guessing chips would also be a product of these mills.

Thanks,
Lou

[C855B]

It depends on your period. IIRC you model modern, so the output would be mostly centerbeam flats with wrapped loads, and wood chip cars. Truly large mills are typically on a river, where logs would mostly be floated in, trucked out of the hills to the nearest offload point upstream.

[ljudice]

Forgot about centerbeam flats....   

Yes looking at modern era operations.   Are the chips a byproduct or specifically made - ie.  specific types of logs
or logs with knots or imperfections?

thanks again!

- Lou

[Bremner]

Lou, you could use wood chip gons in and paper box cars out for a paper mill, or center beams and wood chip gons out for a mill....

[Philip H]

Depends on your wood supply. Much of the Timber in the western cascades is plantation style, so there's a lumber section, a pulp section, and even a restoration section. Take a look at the mill in Gray's Harbor/ Hoquiem, Washington  for how all that comes together

[ljudice]

Thanks guys for the links and info...

I'm thinking a paper or pulp mill is way to big - and second they all seem to be on Puget Sound or Tacoma.  I am thinking a mid size saw mill is a better bet -  shipping lumber and woodchips out...

- Lou

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Here's the Cascade Hardwood mill in Chahalis, WA.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=chehalis,+wa&hl=en&ll=46.637165,-122.934136&spn=0.008015,0.021136&sll=46.674966,-122.724682&sspn=2.050349,5.410767&t=h&hnear=Chehalis,+Lewis,+Washington&z=16

Looks very model-able, though not sure you'd want to include all the trackage for the yard 
There's also a warehouse facility on the north side of town.

Personally, I really like the lumber facilities at Shelton, WA:

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=47.209249,-123.094876&spn=0.00793,0.021136&t=h&z=16

With the old turntable, nifty wye/double crossing interchange next to the channel, and the water-side lumber transfer ops.
I like water 
But you said you'd prefer inland, so hope Chahalis helps.

[sdodge]

The Hull-Oaks Lumber Company in Dawson, OR has always interested me. One of the last sawmills that is partially steam powered. If I were to build a sawmill on my layout this would be the model. It was served by the SP via the Baily Branch. Still in operation.

http://www.hulloakes.com/history.html

Steve

[ljudice]

Mill site....  Plan is for the mill on upper level and loading area for woodchips on the slightly lower level (ramp leading to it)




Mill lead to left - mainline crosses river and enters tunnel to right...

[ljudice]

Very cool links!   

[sdodge]

Just for grins here is another website with a ton of pictures on the Hull-Oaks sawmill operation...very interesting IMO.

http://www.thisiscarpentry.com/2011/02/25/hull-oakes-sawmill/

[nkalanaga]

Pulp mills require a lot of water, but they're not all on the coast.  There's a large pulp/paper mill at Wallula, WA, on the Columbia River.  Until the late 80s(?) when they planted fast-growing hybrid poplars in the area, all of the chips came in by rail, from much or eastern WA, northeast OR, and possibly further away.

If you want to be realistic, and model a period up through the 80s, you should place a rotten egg under the mill during operating sessions.  We live 16 miles from the Wallula mill, and when the wind was right, could easily smell it.