The Ashcroft treating plant once operated by Riverside Forest Products Limited (now owned by Koppers Incorporated) produces over 600,000 treated wooden railway ties (sleepers) and 1.4 million board feet of bridge timbers per year for a number of different railroads. Their main customer is the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) but other railways and rail construction companies also use their products.

The treating plant is located approximately 3 miles east of Ashcroft, British Columbia, sandwiched between CP's mainline and the Thompson River. Canadian National Railway's (CN) mainline is clearly visible on the opposite north side of the river.

The tour began with a video followed by questions from the group which then proceeded to the mill. Timber used for ties is aged, or seasoned, by stack-drying outside in Ashcroft's dry atmosphere for up to a year. Fed into the north side of the mill a conveyor carries the ties to the saw, spike boring, and stamping machines. A laser is utilized to produce precision cutting. Each tie must be incised. This involves punching tiny holes into each side approximately every inch to permit absorption of the preservatives. The tie passes between two counter rotating drums which punch the holes. Finally the conveyor delivers them to a loading area where nine at a time are picked up and stacked on a trolley. When full, each trolley which rides on standard gauge railway track, is pulled out the mill door by a large bicycle type chain mechanism. As the trolleys accumulate outside the mill they are pushed east down the track by a fork lift to the treating plant.

The treatment of wood with oil and creosote prolongs the life of the wood. Oil, which arrives by railway tank car, is so thick it must be heated within the tank car prior to being pumped to the treatment plant storage tanks.

The metal trolleys carrying their load of ties are pushed into one of two metal cylinders (retorts) where treatment takes place once the rail ramp is raised and the door sealed. Compressed air is forced into the cylinder subsequently penetrating the wood. Once treatment is complete this residual air remaining within a tie will force excess oil from the tie when it is removed from the cylinder. The type of wood determines the amount of air pressure required. Softwood, like pine, needs less pressure.

Following this, hot oil is pumped into the cylinder until the ties are immersed. Pressure and heat are maintained in the cylinder anywhere from 5 to 24 hours depending on the type of wood being treated. The treatment plant operates 24 hours per day and is manned in 3 shifts.

Finished ties, or special cut timbers, may be delivered by road or rail. On this particular Friday a truck was loading ties destined for a company in Portland, Oregon, USA.

Everyone who visited the tie plant walked away with a nice little surprise, a souvenir pen from Riverside Forest Products.

After completing the treatment plant tour there was still sufficient light to photograph trains so our little group headed for Basque (pronounced Bask). Basque is physically located about 5 miles south of Ashcroft. (The railways call it west of Ashcroft because their mainlines cross Canada in an east-west direction.) Both CN and CP railways lie on the geographic east bank of the Thompson River at Basque. A public gravel road, Kirkland Ranch Road, leads downhill from Highway 97C to reach Basque. We photographed several trains from both railways in the two hours spent there. Stomach growlies forced the group back to the hotel in Ashcroft in time for dinner. By 19:00 two large tables of railfans were chowing down in the dining room. During table talk Roger Burrows proposed an impromptu slide show so everyone adjourned to the hotel meeting room for the show which completed a very entertaining day.

During the second day in Ashcroft, Saturday, a trip to Black Canyon was organized to begin at 08:30. A few ambitious persons were up and out beside the tracks by 05:00, but not this author !!!

Black Canyon is not accessible by public road. Organizers had pre-approved access through two local ranches. Due to the steep gravel road only 4x4 vehicles could reach the bottom of the canyon. Railfans arriving in automobiles had a long walk down, and climb back up, in the heat of the day. Both railways are clearly visible from the descending road which offered a clear panorama photograph

Black Canyon is interesting because each railway requires a tunnel to avoid the steep sides of the canyon. CN's line exits through their tunnel directly onto a steel through-truss bridge over the Thompson River. The spectacular curving canyon serves as a dramatic backdrop.

Our particular small group spent the morning by the CN bridge waiting for CN westbound trains. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your persuasion, CP trains were more abundant. Approaching trains can be so quiet there is often insufficient notice to prepare to shoot before they pop out of tunnels or around curves. There is also a safety concern so one should stand well clear of all tracks when filming or photographing.

Shortly before noon the heat of the day was already intense so we retreated to the air-conditioned restaurant back at the hotel in Ashcroft for lunch.

Between lunch and the evening barbecue several people were kept busy in the canyon near the treatment plant photographing mainly CP trains. My overall impression was CP trains outnumbered CN two or three to one. Sorry, CN fans, but that's the way it goes sometimes. After an informal self-catered barbecue on the lawn behind the hotel, several presenters displayed a wide range of slides. Ray Matthews' shots of CN wrecks stand out most vividly but there were even slides of Tasmanian narrow gauge equipment shown.

To make it home at the required time our small group had to depart Ashcroft by noon on Sunday so it was decided we would try our last chance photographing at Nepa in the morning. Nepa is the name for the CP junction with CN at mileage 54.8 on CP's Thompson Subdivision. CN calls this location Coho on their Ashcroft Subdivision. Arriving around 09:30 we spent two hours there that made up for everything lacking the previous day. Streetcars... it was streetcars, one train after another, in both directions, crossing over, and not crossing over to each others railways!

We left reluctantly with just enough time for a quick stop to see Rod Cragg's Tomahawk & Western HO model railroad with complete scenery and on-board sound system before hitting the Trans-Canada Highway home. A big thank you goes out to Dave Emmington, Al Lill, and all the organizers and presenters for a fine three days spent at the tie plant and photographing trains in the Ashcroft area.