CMStPnP There is a link on one of the above links that shows all the online lumber gathering points as well as the paper mills. CN has almost an absolute monopoly on all of them. I think there is only one on E&LS.
There is a link on one of the above links that shows all the online lumber gathering points as well as the paper mills. CN has almost an absolute monopoly on all of them. I think there is only one on E&LS.
The map specified that the paper mills shown were pulp using mills. Some paper mills use recycled paper or are finishing mills. I think the way to tell pulp mills from non pulp mills is smell. The pulp mill sulfur smell will knock your socks off. I noticed the L'anse and Munising mills were not shown, and maybe others. There used to be a paper mill at the Ontonagin end of the E&LS, but that was closed 2010 or 11, and was leveled by Feb 2012. The Escanaba mill is on E&LS, but I think CN also has access.
Another thing to consider is changing technology. A paper mill near me used to have a mountain of pulpwood at their entrance. Over the years it has been replaced by a mountain of wood chips. As forest automation continues, new equipment nips trees at ground level, then continues gathering more trees in a vertical bundle, and then bringing them to a chipper, which blows thm into an enclosed truck. No further log handling. Will those new log rack cars become obsolete, in favor of wood chip cars?
The pulp mill in Kaukauna (Wi) regularly receives both logs and woodchips by rail. Don't know where the shipments originate.
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