Cantung and Yukon Zinc Mine

Is that the mine at Faro????

 

I am familiar with the Yukon Zinc haul to Stewart. Very nice scenery. Very high idiot factor. Lots of crashes. Lots of chaining up on the highway in winter. Extremely high snowfall from Watson Lake to Stewart. Very mountainous and very high fuel costs. If you have to get parts it is a very remote area with long delivery times. The highway from Meziadin Lake to Stewart is sometimes closed by avalanches. If you send a driver up there they must learn the road in summer before tackling it in winter.

 

I ran Faro Mines in winter of 1969/70 with W900's 335HP and 13 Speed. I was one of the few that pulled A trains with the rear box always empty. Used to chain up for King Hill just south of Carmacks other than that no problem. We unloaded the Containers just out of Whitehorse at McRae rail siding. Later, the truck used to run right into Skagway with the ore. The road from Carmacks to Faro has improved a million times since then.

 

Prairie Boy-Were you ever on the asbestos haul from Cassiar to Stewart in the mid 70's?

 

No. I had left there in 1970. Drove for Whitepass only.

 

I mentioned the high fuel costs because of the high cost of delivering fuel to Stewart and Watson Lake (from Edmonton). Mpg in the summer are similar to what you would get on any hard-surfaced road in a mountainous area. Winter is another story. You can drive chained-up for 200 kilometers a day when the weather is really snowy. The area south and west of Watson Lake towards the coast has the highest snowfall in the world. It's not uncommon to literally plow snow with your bumper. It's necessary to have a second set of driving lights due to obliteration by snow. Driving in deep snow or potholed ice can reduce your mileage down to near-nothing. It has to be seen to believed. North of Watson Lake it is much colder and much drier. By much colder I mean really, really cold as you head up the Campbell Highway. I've never tried it with a DPF system but I can visualize serious filter problems and high DEF consumption in the cold. Breaking down due to DPF system failure would pose an immediate threat to life and limb on the Campbell Highway and the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. Arrow is running some new tractors (with B-trains) up there. I don't at the moment know what they are using for motors or DPF systems. The BC government was issuing permits to operate concentrate hauls without pollution controls in that area.

I've done it with various contraptions, including B-trains. A B-train is the safest 8-axle (or 9-axle - they use 9 axles up there for hauling concentrate on the highway) type of combination. Wagons and drawbars are ridiculously dangerous on those narrow and slippery roads.

I can't give you accurate figures for fuel consumption because I have not kept records for that area (too scary!). I have tried to avoid that whole area since Maple Leaf (Yukon Zinc concentrate haul) arrived on the scene and commenced anarchy on the highway. I would bid very high for any job up there. Everything is expensive. Shopping at the grocery stores in Watson Lake and Stewart can give you a heart attack. It's a beautiful area to look at though.