Yooper rail may be on the come back

[blackjack1518]

Western U.P of Michigan has several opportunities on the horizon that may bring back rail to that area. Listed below are the possible impacts to each line. White Pine & Ontonagon are 18 miles apart from each other. CN still has the tracks going into WP but would need to invest millions probably in track and bridge upgrades. But with a highland mine life span between the Copperwood & White Pine North projects of 20 plus years, and also now the refinery possibility of coming back online this may be worth the investment. E&LS line heading to Ontonagon is in place up to about 11 or 12 miles from Ontonagon, MI.


E&LS Railroad line that runs to Ontonagon, MI

http://www.yourdailyglobe.com/story/201 ... /8766.html

https://www.prlog.org/12655225-synsel-b ... on-mi.html


CN White Pine Subdivision


http://www.mininggazette.com/news/2017/ ... -cathodes/

http://www.mininggazette.com/news/local ... g-sources/

http://www.uppermichiganssource.com/con ... 84153.html

https://www.highlandcopper.com/copperwood

https://www.highlandcopper.com/white-pine-north

[atrainguy60]

That's great news! Even if it ends up not having an impact on the rail business up there, at least there's some economic growth for the towns there. And hopefully we'll see the E&LS return to Ontonagon and CN to White Pine. Didn't Ontonagon try to get the E&LS to leave their tracks in place at first for possible future economic development? Seems like that would mean they probably wouldn't be against the return of the railroad if they indeed did rebuild.

[SW]

Great news, and great collection of articles - thanks for posting, Blackjack!

[jimnorthwood]

Agreed, good collection of articles. My family left that area a long time ago. But it is still interesting to see what is happening, railroad-and otherwise, in that neck of the woods. Some of my fondest memories involve seeing a Soo line F unit, a car or two, and a caboose running through Houghton, Chassell, etc.

Regarding the below:

"CN still has the tracks going into WP but would need to invest millions probably in track and bridge upgrades."

I do know that when CN initially put an embargo on the WP line, as opposed to the discontinuance of service status where it is today, they did list bridge and track conditions as the cause. Do you know if said bridge and track conditions exist on the line to Bergland, or from Bergland to WP, or both? By railroad standards the Bergland-WP track is new, having been constructed in the early 1950's. Of course the line TO Bergand is much older. Just curious, wondering if anyone knows what condition these two lines are really in (washouts, bridge repairs needed, etc), today.

[blackjack1518]

Agreed, good collection of articles. My family left that area a long time ago. But it is still interesting to see what is happening, railroad-and otherwise, in that neck of the woods. Some of my fondest memories involve seeing a Soo line F unit, a car or two, and a caboose running through Houghton, Chassell, etc.

Regarding the below:

"CN still has the tracks going into WP but would need to invest millions probably in track and bridge upgrades."

I do know that when CN initially put an embargo on the WP line, as opposed to the discontinuance of service status where it is today, they did list bridge and track conditions as the cause. Do you know if said bridge and track conditions exist on the line to Bergland, or from Bergland to WP, or both? By railroad standards the Bergland-WP track is new, having been constructed in the early 1950's. Of course the line TO Bergand is much older. Just curious, wondering if anyone knows what condition these two lines are really in (washouts, bridge repairs needed, etc), today.

It's my understanding that the bridge issues are on the Wisconsin side of the line. Also the line has suffered numerous washouts throughout the 77 mile stretch. In 2008 CN had completed 1.5 million in track upgrades. It's probably been 7 or 8 years since CN ran the track geometry car down that line. So could be much worse now then when inspected years back.

[jimnorthwood]

Thank you for the update, blackjack1518. Much appreciated.

[blackjack1518]

***Update***

- The Bio-fuel plant construction in Ontonagon, MI will begin this spring. The 12 miles of rail that was removed from Rockland to Ontonagon will likely be relayed.

- The Copperwood mine in Wakefield township is waiting on permit amendments, we should see construction begin later this year. As for how they plan to ship concentrate is still a mystery. CN White Pine sub passes right by mine.

- Also was mention of relaying rail for the 50 some miles Between Sidnaw, Mi & Bergland, MI, so a east/west from Marquette, MI to Duluth, MN route is available.

[DetNative]

Where can I read more about this?

Particularly interested in the 50 miles of track being relayed, that sounds awesome. Where did you hear mention?

[David Lang]

I will begin by saying I would love to see 50 miles of track relayed in the U.P. and any new rail traffic would be great!!!! This is from my "railfan" perspective.

Now, from a logical thinking, cost impact, and realist perspective, I have to exercise caution. Some obvious questions / concerns I would have are:

1. The cost to relay track is about $1 Million per mile. Even if you can get away with half that for 25mph track, I would think the cost would still exceed $25 Million and maybe that would not include the cost of railroad crossings and other costs.

2. What would be the return on invested capital? "If" 50 miles of track was really going to be relayed, there must be some serious and profitable rail traffic that would come from that investment.

3. What are the alternatives? What if any new traffic in the U.P. can traverse on lines already in place?

4. What is the benefit of connecting Marquette with Duluth and why would that be important? Would there be new Iron Ore trains in the works that would travel between there and Duluth? If so, would the cost of operating such trains be less than travel by boat? If no Iron Ore trains, what new traffic would traverse between Marquette and Duluth with the new 50 mile relay in place? Why Duluth?

We must remember the cost / benefit situation here. If been in the business world enough to know that if there is no good return on investment, its not going to happen.

David Lang

[Tom Train]

You wouldn't ship iron ore between Marquette and Duluth. Both cities ship iron ore out, mostly by ship.

[Saturnalia]

You wouldn't ship iron ore between Marquette and Duluth. Both cities ship iron ore out, mostly by ship.

Indeed. This is the first time I've heard of this idea to relay tracks like that, and I can see no reason for it.

Certainly much of the talk up here right now is who gets the Copperwood ore. Most figure on these options:

1. CN gets it via White Pine
2. Trucks to Ontonagon (if track is relaid) or Mass City for transload to the ELS
3. Trucks to the Mineral Range
4. Trucks to the CN on their Marquette Range Main, such as Nestoria
5. Trucks to Marquette or Escanaba for rail/ship loading

I personally believe that it will be railed out on the CN to skip the middle-men of the shortlines.

As far as the biofuels plant goes, it pretty much sounds like they'd be footing the bill, as the ELS hasn't made much of a motion in any way to relay the rail for the plant. Most figure that if it were going to happen it would have been announced by now. There's a certain amount of credibility that if anything they'd just set up a transload off the existing railroad somewhere. There's plenty of highway capacity between Mass City and Ontonagon.

[blackjack1518]

You wouldn't ship iron ore between Marquette and Duluth. Both cities ship iron ore out, mostly by ship.

Indeed. This is the first time I've heard of this idea to relay tracks like that, and I can see no reason for it.

Certainly much of the talk up here right now is who gets the Copperwood ore. Most figure on these options:

1. CN gets it via White Pine
2. Trucks to Ontonagon (if track is relaid) or Mass City for transload to the ELS
3. Trucks to the Mineral Range
4. Trucks to the CN on their Marquette Range Main, such as Nestoria
5. Trucks to Marquette or Escanaba for rail/ship loading

I personally believe that it will be railed out on the CN to skip the middle-men of the shortlines.

As far as the biofuels plant goes, it pretty much sounds like they'd be footing the bill, as the ELS hasn't made much of a motion in any way to relay the rail for the plant. Most figure that if it were going to happen it would have been announced by now. There's a certain amount of credibility that if anything they'd just set up a transload off the existing railroad somewhere. There's plenty of highway capacity between Mass City and Ontonagon.

From the Legend drawing for Bio-fuel plant they have a 100' wide x 90' long track run for transport. So it's possible part of the $300,000,000 price tag is for relaying track back.

As for the Copperwood mine with 20 year lifespan, and other the project White Pine north being worked on for future mining, this is probably why the White Pine sub was left in place. Also plans to reopen the White Pine refinery and process the Copper Range mine tailings, I have not heard anything new about that for almost a year now.

The relaying of track from Sidnaw to Bergland mention came from the Ontonagon county planning commission board meeting. We won't see that happen in my opinion, unless this other sister Bio-fuel plant that is going to be Built in Minnesota has something to do with that talk?