RR tie sawing questions.

[Banjo picker]

If you never had a tie culled you are sending good lumber to the tie yard.

 On the other side of the coin, I was taking ties to a yard a few years ago, banded, ready to ship. I got 4 % culls. When I told  them to put the culls back on the truck and I would take them back home I never had another cull.

As was stated by Ron I believe ,the tie market is all there is around here, but it is pretty good.  And as WH said there just put them back on the truck would at least slow that down some.  Tim

[Bibbyman]

Mary delivered a load of ties to the Koppers lot in Sedalia, Mo this morning.  She had a long visit with the guy there.  Koppers had abruptly stopped buying 8’-8” ties at this location and lowered the price (she thought buy ’50 or a dollar on the 9’-4” ties).  The guy also said they wanted him to buy no more than a 1,000 a week.  That far less than they had been taking in.  He talked them into 2,000/ week. 

[WH_Conley]

We are down to 4000 a week, they took off for the 4th, just to slow down the input. Guess what, the first day back they bought 4000. Second day, another 4000. I can't sell any this week because they were bought last week. Our price dropped fifty cents too.

Gonna be a long, lean winter.

[Ron Wenrich]

I find it pretty amazing how different things are from one area to the next, all within the same company.  I talked to the Kopper's tie buyer just last week.  I told him about how you guys were having problems with the tie markets.

He just shook his head saying that they weren't having those problems.  In the spring, they had too many ties to deal with and had to set quotas to get their yard in shape.  Its in good shape, and he sees no market problems for the rest of the year.  Their problem is that most guys aren't cutting at the same rate as they did due to the market for side cuts.  Red oak is hard to move.  And, a lot of mills are low on logs.  Most mills are working only a few days per week.

I think the main buyers in our area is Norfolk Southern.  They took over a lot of rail lines a few years ago, and they have been updating on a regular basis.  They haul out of a lot of different ports on the east coast.  Coal is still moving to the electric companies. 

[Bibbyman]

Mary also noted that the tie yard had a lot of cars waiting to be loaded.  That’s never been the case before.  Usually the tie buyer is grumbling about not getting cars to ship ties.

We have been hand to mouth on logs the first half of the year due to wet weather.  We finally got a second logger to bring us logs and the ground finally dried up enough that we’ve got logs in.  We hadn’t sawn and shipped ties for at least a month due to lack of tie logs.

We were lucky in that we never told the loggers to bring ties to make 8’-8” ties.  Instead they kept bringing 9’-4” logs.  We did this because they don’t own a tape measure or never learned to use one.  Many of the 9’ logs range from 8’-11” to 9’-11”.  They often include way too much fork in the logs or buck them up crooked or step cut.  So we just sawed them and when we had enough to haul,  I’d trim them back to 8’-8”. 

When the call came that they would not buy any more 8’-8”,  we had three ties that would not make the 9’-3” length.  As we rolled other 9’ logs on the mill,  I would measure them to make sure they were long enough.  Those too short, we used to fill an order for 8’ product.

I can imagine that there were a number of mills sawing 8’-8” ties for this buyer that got stuck with a lot of ties and a large inventory of logs that would now not make a tie.

Note;  The ties we deliver to Koppers in Sedalia, Mo. go to the Denver location.  I don’t know what that may have to do with the regional differences other than maybe they have their own markets.    I know early in the year they quit buying 6x8s because (I heard) they lost that market.

[Ron Wenrich]

My understanding of the 6x8 market is that they are used in subway systems and in Canada.  The price isn't good enough for us to cut them.  Right now, I'm working on an order of 102 7x9x22' switch ties. 

[Bibbyman]

My understanding of the 6x8 market is that they are used in subway systems and in Canada.  The price isn't good enough for us to cut them.  Right now, I'm working on an order of 102 7x9x22' switch ties. 

I can't remember what they paid but it wasn't attractive.  Also, they required 200 at a time.  If I remember it was because they picked them up on a truck at the mill and took them to wherever they were treated.  It was no loss to us.

[WH_Conley]

Our local buyer said it was due to the regional markets. Each plant had their own orders.

[Banjo picker]

The 6x 8 market went to pot here almost overnight.....been several months ago....I was getting $ 14.50 plus shipping then it went to $10.00 and no shipping with no warning....I do better selling mine for pallet material.....Just for the heck of it a few days ago I called to see is they were doing any better at the yard where I was selling the small ties....Said they were not buying anything   .....I guess I have put all my apples in one barrel as far as ties are concerned....I sell to Gross & Janes and they will buy all I can cut....But I am not gona flood the market...   I am getting way more pallet logs than I am tie logs right now....And I am pretty much glad to get them....And glad to have a place that will buy them...  Tim