Central Okanagan Railway Company

The Summerland Project – Week 7

        For a long time nothing seemed to be happening.  Now it’s starting to take shape and I can see the end picture.

       The water fall is finished and so is the bridge over the canyon and it looks fine.  People notice right away that there is a guy with a wire guided model airplane up on a hill overlooking the canyon and his little plane skims right through the trees.  Close call.

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       The new mountain side is finished where the track diverts from the main line into the new sawmill.  Wiring had already been done do it will be a simple matter to add an LED to light up the tool shed.  Operating signals protect the single track into Penticton.

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       The sawmill itself is finished.  We’ll hook up the building lights tomorrow and install and hook up the area lights so workers can move around at night.  The fires will be burning in the beehive burner but there will only be smoke if I can find a USAT smoke generator with a timer and overheat shutoff.

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       There is a passing/shipping siding off the main line as well as a longer term spur where workers can load and unload over a longer period.

       Okanagan Lumber Ltd.  ships out finished lumber in a number of standard sizes, large apple boxes and some finished specialty work.  They import all the of the tools and supplies that keep an operation like this going 27/7.

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       Seen front to real, left to right:  The office is under the water tower and next to the parking lot.  They can watch shipping in and out from there as well as monitor the raw lumber as it arrives in the back yard.   Next door, under the big Oak, is the machine shop.  The stuff they can do there.  Wow!

       Behind them on the left is the shipping crew quarters and company first aid station On the right is the main saw that can take care of common sizes pretty much automatically.   Behind that building is the specialty shop.  They so special orders using special wood in odd sizes.

        Farther back is waste control.  They feed the burner and pick out any lumber that might have a use in the box shop.  Behind that is te boxshop making apple boxes for stores and orchards.

        This is a busy place.  It was also pointed out to me today that after it was all finished there are people who cannot reach the tracks with their hands.  Too far away.  That was not expected to matter but there are solutions in the works.  As Matlock used to say, “Ain’t nothin easy.”

        Back when things are running again.

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