putikko1.html

1. Winter visit: exterior

	Nice to see the railway station of Putikko in such a good condition. User must be a private person. The passenger halt hasn't been used for ages, and wood transportation has obviously also been ceased.
	Despite the blue name plate still standing next to the track, Putikko doesn't practically exist for the railways. There is only one track and no signals.
	Just before the sawmill there's a vintage railroad level crossing with nice light units. From the control booth you can hear a constant click of relays synchronized to the light signal, already a rather unusual thing to find and it suits very well to such an environment where time seems to stand still.
	Here it is. From this view it's hard to see how large the area is, since it continues quite far towards the East.
	It's great that modernisation winds of 1960's haven't blown the smoke stack down. Perhaps the fact that owner of the sawmill was the same company who originally built it has helped. They must have appreciated it's masoned A's and the year marking. It's been said the stack is 60 meters tall, but to me it looks shorter. Anyway, nice thing to find.
	There's a true story about this smoke stack: WWII incidents had damaged the stack. After war, two masons repaired it. After finishing, they told some men who were outside on a cigarette break that they had left a bottle of brandy to the top. Of course they expected no-one would be crazy enough to climb up there, but one worker, well distinguished in war by destroying several Russian tanks did climb. There was no brandy bottle, but he stayed a while, smoked cigarettes and enjoyed the view. The next day, masons brought him a bottle of brandy. [2]
	Sawmill from 1951 represents rather traditional constructioning. Logo of the firm which last sawed here is still on it's place.
	Sawdust in heaps is foolingly fresh looking. So fooling, that we had to go inside to get confirmation that the samwill wasn't operational.
	There's a narrow-gauge yard for timber cars under the snow unsheltered in the middle.
	Here seems to be something more active.
	What kind of an abandoned place is this with all window screens in one piece?
	Logway stands proud and good looking.
	Here we have the power station in the rear, and in front something active, a planing mill. A corner to be kept out of, since it really is used.
	Timber storages further East. Anders Auvinen's company logo is nostalgic and cool, but the year marking is misleading. It tells the establishment year of his whole business, not this sawmill. Castle figure reflects Savonlinna, the city where the company was started.
	It was confusing to find fresh timber packets from the place that was supposedly abandoned. Again, there is planing activity here. They just don't saw timber any more.
	Stacking house is big. It seemed to have original machines by Plan-Sell installed.
	Sign telling it's an industrial area, for all literate amoebae who couldn't figure it out by looking around.
	That's lake Pihlajavesi, a former rafting route.
	There used to be more tracks here, now just a snow-ploughing mark as a reminder.
	More aged details.
	End is here.