Crown Forest Industries Log Car - Lake Cowichan, British Columbia, Canada - Static Train Cars on Waymarking.com

This log car is part of a short static display train headed by Comox Logging & Railway Co. No. 12 (WM389E) in front of the Kaatza Station Museum & Archives. The train is on the edge of the parking lot and can be accessed at any time of day for free.
A sign on the log car gives the following description:

This logging flat car, known as a bull car and designed to carry heavier than normal loads, worked on the Nanaimo Lakes railway during the Comox Logging/Crown Forest era. While most logging companies and the Canadian Pacific Railway preferred skeleton flat cars, the Comox Logging & Railway Co. used conventional flat cars. Skeleton flats weighed less, allowing a locomotive to handle more cars per trip, but allowed more bark to litter the railway. Early flat cars were constructed of wood, but by the end of railway logging at Nanaimo Lakes, in 1984, steel cars were used.

The log bunks of this car are unusually high above the car deck, due to the unusual unloading method employed at Ladysmith. Prior to the use of dry land sorts, Nanaimo Lakes saw logs were sorted and stored in First Lake and pulp logs were sorted and stored in Second Lake. This allowed each log car to be loaded with a single grade of logs, which were bundled by wire ropes, after loading. Upon arrival in Ladysmith, the stakes on the booming ground side of the cars were released and the bundles pushed off by a homemade log unloader known as a Humdergin. This self-propelled device could unload a car in 15 seconds. The extra height of the bunks accommodated the bell crank shaped boom, which pushed off the bundles.

The car was donated to the Kaatza Historical Society in 1988. The logs comprising the load represent the major commercial softwood species of the region. They are Douglas-fir, balsam, hemlock, western red cedar, yellow cedar (cypress) and Sitka spruce.

Type of train car: Freight Location: Kaatza Station Museum Price (In local currency): 0 Interaction allowed: no Visiting hours: Not listed

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