CN has launched a rail welding operation at the Squamish rail yard on Track Seven.
“Crews are welding sections of rail together to make longer, stronger rail which will be used in BC Capex projects. Instead of rail being shipped to facilities in Winnipeg for welding together, that work is being done in B.C closer to the projects where the rail will be installed,” Patrick Waldron, of CN public affairs.
The operation, which began this spring, takes, for example, 24 metre (80 foot) lengths of rail that arrive by ship at Squamish Terminals and welds them into quarter-mile lengths that are shipped out by rail.
About 12 workers are employed by the operation, Waldron said.