Northern Ontario & Lumber

You know you’re in northern Ontario when the smell of lumber permeates the air.  Whether it is driving by the Grant (now Weyerhauser) mill at Englehart or the various paper mills present in the region, lumber has been king and a chief commodity transported via rail.  One of my favorite aspects of the Ontario Northland Railway is the numerous lumber and associated operations such as paper mills which have been present in various locations.  So I guess it should come as no surprise that I have tried to include several lumber operations on the KLR. These include the Bailey pulpwood loading operation at Pembroke, the Muskoka Timber lumber mill and of course my Spruce Falls Pulp and Paper Mill.  

Bailey Enterprises loads logs on a short siding near my Cargill building. Lumber loading was sort of an after thought when I discovered I had some room on the layout to spot two cars and have several lumber trucks adjacent to them.  It moved into its final spot when I opted to add a switch just above the Cargill track.  This was about 6+ inches of the layout that I had intended to surround with trees but realized would make a great timber loading area and would easily serve the sawmill on another part of the layout. 

The Muskoka saw mill operation was modeled loosely on the mill with the same name in Bracebridge, ON.  This is a modern lumber mill, and one that is not on a waterway nor does it have access to rail.  While CN's Newmarket Subdivision runs directly behind the prototype operation, it is apparent that rails have never connected with the operation.  My modeling alters that, allowing for rail access on this spur.  

As I have written in another entry, my Quay sawmill was added after I was gifted a friend's BTC sawmill after his passing. I'm still working on how that module will look although I have been able to develop a workable trackplan for it.