Woodchip Gondolas

[Junctionfan]

Does anybody know if industries still take woodchips in Canada and/ or the U.S? I haven't seen thease cars for some time now. I used to see a dozen or so green QOPX woodchip gondolas go to Abitibi Consolidated paper mill in Thorold but not anymore. If anybody could tell me if you have seen the QOPX cars lately or know what happened to them, that would be great too.

[Anonymous]

Woodchips are generated by lumber mills and separate purpose built woodchip mills in many areas of the U.S. and Canada. Most are used in paper or cardboard manufacture. There are many cars used in woodchip movements, most are bottom dump hopper cars although I'm sure there afre also high sided gons with rotary dump or other unloading capabilities. A typical woodchip hopper is 100 ton capacity 7,000 cu.ft. capacity car.

LC

[Anonymous]

Come on up my way, Woodchips are moved on just about every train that runs on the old BC Rail right of way - now owned by CN.

Very low-value commodity, all the woodchip cars that are used (up here anyway) date back a good few decades at least.

[Junctionfan]

Do the particle board manufacturers use them? What about Sauder and Mylex and others which makes furniture out of particle board; do they use thease cars or bring particle board in?

[Junctionfan]

Thankyou Mark for the info. Have you ever seen unit woodchip trains?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

Thankyou Mark for the info. Have you ever seen unit woodchip trains?

I've never seen a unit chip train, but they often travel in groups of 20 or 30 on the old BC Rail right of way.

[Dough]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

Thankyou Mark for the info. Have you ever seen unit woodchip trains?

I have. It was on the Southern line just south of Gainesville, GA headed toward Atlanta. It was a long one (Probably at least 70 cars). It was a few years back though. I used to see a lot of woodchips on the line, but they were usually in big blocks.

However, I do remember at least one solid train soaring by. The smell of pine was extremely strong!

[ericsp]

Every once in as while I will see several Georgia Pacific woodchip gondolas. They have GPMX reporting marks. They are olive drab.

Also, there is a company north of Bakersfield (Sierra Organics if I remember correctly) that receives, I am guessing, woodchips to be used as landscape coverings. If you want to model woodchip gondolas but do not have room for a paper mill, this would make a good industry.

[andrewjonathon]

I have to admit that I have a special affinity for woodchip trains because I grew up in the 1970's and 1980's living beside the CN branchline from Kamloops to Kelowna/Lumby in British Columbia and woodchip loads accounted for at least 75% of the traffic on the three daily trains that went by. I agree with the comment about the strong smell, I still pleasant odor of fresh wood as those trains rolled by. It is true that woodchips still move by rail in significant volumes but I suspect it is also true that in many cases the volumes are significantly reduced. For example, on the former CN line that I grew up beside they used haul probably 70 to 90 woodchips loads out per day. The shortline that has taken over the line is lucky if it gets 40-45 woodchip loads per day. It isn't that the business has disappeared but that much more of it moves via truck. For example, the main mill in Kelowna used to have two tracks for loading railcars and one for trucks. A number of years ago it converted one the rail tracks to second truck loading zone. I can think of numerous other mills in the interior of BC that used to ship woodchips by rail but no longer have an active rail loader. When I was growing up, the nearby CP line use to also have significant chip business. But CP left the business long before it was sold to the shortline. CP used to also have significant woodchips loads coming out of the Kootneys to Vancouver and yet very little of that business remains. I think northern BC where BC rail operates may be different because the truck hauls to Vancouver are much longer.

In regards to unit trains, years ago I recall one of the rail magazines (I believe it was trains) had a story on how Union Pacific was trying a weekly unit train in Oregon as a way to provide better sevice to the woodchip companies. The purpose was to try to recapture woodchip business lost to trucks as well as retain their remaining business. I pretty sure the chip train didn't last too long as I never heard about of it again. I seem to remember the article talking about how railroads had not paid much attention to the woodchip business precisely because it was a 'low value' product and as a result had not been particularly competive with trucks until much of the business had been poached.

[Anonymous]

Lots of big woodchip trains in the south. Most aren't usually unit trains, but the chips do move in large blocks. Often the closer you get to the mills the larger the blocks in many of the thru freights.

Reb

[ericsp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Limitedclear

Woodchips are generated by lumber mills and separate purpose built woodchip mills in many areas of the U.S. and Canada.

Model Railroader had an article about those purpose built woodchip mills in the October 2002 issue.
http://index.mrmag.com/tm.exe?opt=I&MAG=MR&MO=10&YR=2002