Douglas Fir Logs for milling lumber arrive in como

Over the past couple of years, our Chief Mechanical Officer, Dan Silbaugh has been providing our team milled lumber sourced from a pile of Douglas fir logs he acquired in a “horse trade”.  These logs were located on a 3rd party property in Blue Valley, above Evergreen. In late February, Dan learned that the property was being sold, and that the logs needed to be moved ASAP.  Long story short – approximately 125 logs are now in Como, most of them 30’ to 40’ in length. 

Milled lumber is used by the SPRS for projects such as the water tower and rolling stock repair.  Dan also now has an extension for the mill, which will enable us to mill 30’ timbers.  These will be valuable not only for SPRS use, but will be available for trade with others railroads for needed equipment and supplies.

The first task was to load up the already milled lumber, in this case water tower staves, for transport to Como. The pile of logs to move is right behind us, and it actually goes down the hill a bit!

Kenny the log trucker was awesome! Highly skilled and very cheerful, he loaded logs in Blue Valley and trucked them to Como in 3 loads over 2 days. He even had to chain up in Blue Valley.

We located the pile on the lower deck of the yard, for both mill access and minimal visual impact.

Full pile after 3rd load on second day.  We were particularly pleased with way the pile blended into the property with this location, using Kenny’s expertise in spreading out the pile.  This will also allow us easier access to specific logs depending on the project.