Thread drift time! Why did Hammermill send chips, pulp rolls and logs back and forth between plants like this? I know in east/southeast TX ATSF, SP and MP all sent woodchips to a paper plant in Baytown (that's now a superfund site), but I didn't know that a plant that used chips or logs alsp wpuld need pulp rolls- I thought the pulp was the product of chips/logs?
You had two paper mills for Hammermill; one at Lock Haven, PA and one at Erie, PA. The entire route was featuring significant log and chip reloads, those were all going to Erie - which was a problem since Erie was WAY out of the sourcing area for fiber - nominally 100 miles, so the railroad was always a good idea, just not that efficient until ALY was created. Erie made too much pulp that they couldn't process, that went BACK to Lock Haven plant in the multiple boxcars. So the train was part load, part empty, at any given time.
The entire concept was genius actually, until the paper market retracted and IP bought out Hammermill, sold the railroad, and G&W picked it up. But for 15 years more or less, that was Americas last great unit log, chip and pulp train on a common carrier. And it moved on FRA III track behind four units, right along thank you.
Kane, PA had a combination log and chip operation with a long passing siding just west of town - long gone now. It's used by A&E most of the time for tank car storage for United in Warren.
Ironically, the Erie PA Hammermill plant site now is the home of a biodiesel facility and an under-construction plastics recycling plant - biggest in the US - and both very much rail served.