Or, I should say “nearly” completed as they still need the guiderail boards added along the bottom sides (attached to the tops of the floor risers and holding the bottom row of bundles in place laterally in the real load). But I’m currently out of 2×6 strip.
Weyerhaeuser:
Normick-Perron:
Lecours Lumber:
I was forwarded some photos and material to try to do this neat Weyerhaeuser wrap from the mid 1980s, with a red-orange section of bark and tree rings. Sadly I can’t currently find any good photos on-line in a place I can actually link to for this post, but I did get a couple of good ones to work from. It’s a pretty attractive scheme:
These two simpler Weyerhauser wraps from the 1970s-80s period were also done and added to the archive a little while back, but not highlighted in any blog post:
Weyerhauser “Shed-Pak” – ~1972
PDF | XLSX – Prototype
Weyerhaeuser Building Products – ~1976-1985
PDF | XLSX – Prototype
I already have one load in progress using the latter 1980s wrap.
They also join this modern (currently in use) Weyerhauser wrap that’s also been in the archive for a while, making a nice selection of period Weyerhaeuser graphics:
Weyerhaeuser – ~2004-Present
PDF | XLSX – Prototype
In addition to the additional Weyerhauser material, here’s a few more new ones:
ARBEC – 2015+
PDF | XLSX – Prototype
Canadian Wood Products – ~2015
PDF | XLSX – Prototype
Clermond Hamel (Saint-Ephrem-de-Beauce, QC) – ~20xx?
PDF | XLSX – Prototype
Clermond Hamel – ~2014
PDF | XLSX – Prototype
Clermond Hamel (125th Anniversary) – 2015
PDF | XLSX – Prototype
Nakina Forest Products (Nakina, ON) – ~2004
PDF | XLSX – Prototype
Olav Haavaldsrud (Hornepayne, ON) – ~2015
PDF | XLSX – Prototype
I’ve also added a bit of detail to the modern Dubreuil Forest Products graphic and re-posted that one:
Dubreuil Forest Products (Dubreuilville, ON) – ~1999-2007
PDF | XLSX – Prototype
As always, dates preceded with a “~” are approximated based off a small set of photographic sightings and may be applicable for a wider range than stated.
Lumber traffic (excluding stuff like plywood, veneer, etc. – we’ll get to that next time) on the ACR consists primarily of four main sources:
This mill, located approximately mile 4 in Sault Ste. Marie, produced hardwood lumber and veneers. Established in 1948 as Roddis Lumber & Veneer, in the early 1980s it was owned and operated by Weyerhaeuser Canada. In the mid 1980s Weyerhaeuser sold the mill to G.W. Martin (which also purchased the former Weldwood of Canada veneer mill at Searchmont near the same time). Later ownership changes saw the mill owned by Lajambe Forest Products and later E.B. Eddy and Domtar, with the mill being last sold by Domtar in 2003 to Boniferro Mill Works, which appears to still operate the facility today.
This mill received logs and shipped out finished product by rail. Although I don’t have photos or records to confirm this, I would presume most of their output to be shipped south for export.
The Dubreuil Brothers Lumber Co. established a sawmill just west of Hawk Junction in 1951, and in 1961 moved their operations up to what is now Dubreuilville and established a company town there. During the late 1960s, Dubreuil Bros. began shipping more of their product by truck to Michigan rather than by rail, and sources indicate that from about 1975 through 1986 Dubreuilville was pretty dead as far as rail shipments were concerned, except for a few carloads a year of fresh railroad ties, as they had the contract to supply the ACR.
In about 1986-87 Dubreuil Forest Products switched back to shipping lumber by rail in a big way; tracks were rebuilt and an additional spur for woodchips installed. A second connection was added to the ACR main turning the spur into a wye that could be switched from either direction and yard limits established around the location to facilitate switching. The lumber loading track was able to hold nearly two dozen 60′ cars.
Former woodchip car ACIS 1415 modified as a special lumber car for Dubreuil Forest Products service. Photographed in June 2000 behind the Steelton car shops.
A unique service that the ACR provided at Dubreuilville was using a small fleet of about half a dozen survivors from their former fleet of woodchip gondolas which were modified for lumber service. When switching the mill tracks at Dubreuilville, the ACR would always ensure that one of these was spotted at the end of the track where it would be loaded using a ramp. The loaded cars were delivered to Sault Ste. Marie where Dubreuil used to have a lumber yard adjacent to Steelton yard and unloaded there for transloading onto trucks. Between standard flatcars and these modified chip cars, Dubreuil could load up to a dozen cars per day here.
The Dubreuilville mill closed in 2007, a victim of the general downturn in the Canadian softwood lumber industry at the time.
Newaygo Forest Products built their mill at Mead in 1974 to ship out export lumber and woodchips to the US. A couple of sources suggest that a destination for a lot of the lumber produced by Newaygo (and possibly from Dubreuilville as well after Newaygo shut down) was a large modular home builder in Mancelona, Michigan.
The Newaygo mill only lasted in operation until 1984 or 1985.
Additional lumber traffic on the ACR comes from the Ontario Northland (formerly CN) interchange at Hearst. (Today this is the only lumber traffic still operating over the former ACR.)
NOKL 734517 with a Tembec lumber load at Sault Ste. Marie, August 2004.
Significant nearby mills include Lecours Lumber in Calstock (approximately 20 miles west of Hearst), Tembec (former Malette Lumber, former United Sawmills, former Fontaine Lumber) in Hearst and Tembec (former ?) in Kapuskasing. Other lumber comes from a bit farther afield on the ONR and beyond as I’ve also seen lumber from Scierie Landrienne, EACOM (former Domtar mills) and Resolute Forest Products (formerly Abitibi-Bowater) mills in northern Quebec heading towards Hearst via CN and Ontario Northland.
CBRY 1527 with a load of lumber from Scierie Landrienne of Landrienne, QC at Cochrane, ON in a train departing for Kapuskasing and Hearst. July 2013.
Note: I have printable graphics to make your own wrapped lumber loads for most of the companies mentioned above on my Lumber Loads page.
