CHOICELAND, Sask. — Torch River Rail chair Ron Shymanski says producer car movement is nearly back to normal after the backlog of 2013-14.
The short line, which runs 45 kilometres in northeastern Saskatchewan between Choiceland and Nipawin to connect to Canadian Pacific Railway, moved 800 cars in fiscal 2014, he said.
“I kind of think we’re back to good service now,” Shymanski said in early June.
Another 50 to 75 cars were to be loaded before the new crop year at the company’s year-old loading facility.
He said last year’s car shortages affected the company’s credibility.
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“We could have moved hundreds more cars than we did,” he said.
“They never even bought grain from February till September. We’re quite confident we can do that 1,000 to 1,200 cars a year. The grain is here.”
Torch River Rail bought the line in 2008 and wore out its first auger system and storage within two years.
It opened its $1.2 million facility in June 2014, which includes four 14,000-bushel bins, a 100-foot scale and a key lock system that allows deliveries even if no one is in the office.
Truckers pull on to the scale, use the key designated for their bin, punch a button to weigh the truck and turn on the equipment, unload the grain, push the button again to weigh the empty truck and shut down the equipment. It takes 10 to 12 minutes to unload a Super B.
“All of this system was built by Stockdale’s in Regina, and it works slick,” Shymanski said.
Three employees co-ordinate who uses which bins, maintain the track and load the cars.
“What we have is a camera at the car and a screen in the locomotive so when they’re loading cars, one guy just sits in the locomotive and just keeps moving along and the other guy runs the equipment in here,” Shymanski said in the office.
The crew built a lot of the set-up themselves. For example, one of Shymanski’s sons designed a conveyor system on the storage bins and the employees did some of the welding.
Torch River charges $400 per car and is seeing positive financial results.
“It’s not a gold mine, but we’ve paid income tax every year since we started,” he said.
“For a company that didn’t have a screwdriver in 2007, to be taxable the first year is, I think, pretty good news.”
Shymanski said if his short line can charge $400 and earn good money, it means the large terminals, which charge $1,200 to $1,400 a car, are making a fortune.
He wonders why more farmers wouldn’t load their own cars.
Fifty farmers use the line, and most of the product is oats destined for Quaker in the United States. The region has become an origin of choice for the company, particularly for top quality oats used in its granola bars.
Oat yields in the area are commonly around 140 bushels per acre.
Shymanski said the rail line is available for other products. A local fertilizer dealer brought in about a dozen cars this year, the nearby forestry sector could use it and there is the possibility of hauling frack sand from a mine.
He also said other short lines are looking at what Torch River Rail has done and how they could emulate the model.
karen.briere@producer.com
