South leg of the wye for the Crofton Spur. Taken from a northbound passenger train. Rumor has it that the E&N Railway has structural engineers inspecting the current overgrown state of the Crofton Spur to asses the cost of rebuilding the spur to acess the pulp mill in Crofton, BC. The Crofton mill produces the Kaolin Clay Slurry used by the pulp mill in Port Alberni that until late 2001 was produced at Powell River on the Sunshine Coast. Norske Canada, owner of the two mills, approached RailAmerica to rebuild this spur, at a cost of 2.5 million dollars. No one knows for sure why RailAmerica didn't rebuild the spur, some say CP wouldn't let them and others say the costs were too prohibitive. Needless to say, Norske Canada switched to trucks to serve the mill in Port Alberni, taking 85% of the railway's freight traffic with them.

Photographed by Tyler Welsford, August 15, 2002.
Added to the photo archive by Tyler Welsford, February 27, 2004.
Railroad: Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway (E&N).

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