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Cubed Cars
FTLComm - Valparaiso - Monday, January 10, 2011
The auto wrecking and recycling yard in Valparaiso took the opportunity Friday to clean up those vehicles from which the marketable parts have been harvested. A compacting company from Brandon was in the area just having cleaned up a yard at Cudworth and the Valparaiso operator was able to get them to drop by.

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Most of the car compacting we have seen in Saskatchewan uses a crushing mechanism that simple reduces the vehicle down to something less than two feet then sixteen at a time can be loaded on a semi to be transported to a steel mill. This company uses a more complex press that compacts the car or truck into a tight cube of about six feet long and knee high.

Thirty-two vehicles per "B" train make up a standard load. Though more could easily be carried the weight limit restricts the number to around thirty-two. Two "B" trains were loaded Friday and left for the steel mill in Selkirk, Manitoba while two more are sitting in the cleaned up yard awaiting shipment.

The Selkirk steel mill is owned by Gerdau Ameristeel a huge multi-national conglomerate that originated in Brazil and now has plants all around the world being the fourth largest producer of milled steel.

The pictures on this page were taken after the work day on Friday, January 7 at a few minutes after 5:00.

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