Green Bay Northern (GBN)

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AARR
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Green Bay Northern (GBN)

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Green Bay Northern (GBN - part of the Escanaba & Lake Superior family) started service 2014 in WI/MI's UP on the following lines ex-E&LS / nee MILW lines:
- Green Bay (Howard) to Channing (112 miles)
- Channing to Republic (22 miles)
- Channing to Rockland (80 miles)
- Stiles Jct. - Oconto Falls (13 miles)
- Groveland Branch (3 miles)

Engines include:
500, 501 SD40-2 Ex-GATX / EMDX / SOO / Nee-MILW
502 SD40-2 Ex-1344, ILSX 1344, SLRG 202, ILSX 202, Nee-UP 3693
503 SD40-2 Ex-1338, ILSX 1338, BN 7303, BN 6964, Nee-GTW 5915, (rebuilt to -2 by BN)
As the 500's come up for mechanical issues they will be rebuilt to SD38-2 standards.
GP38's are used as needed from the E&LS roster pool

Engine houses at Channing and Howard

Primary customers are:
- Michigan Wood Pellet (60-80 outbound cars per week) in Republic destined for the former coal dock in Escanaba
- Louisiana Pacific in Sagola (inbound pulp wood logs (25-40 per week from on-line locations mostly in WI and about 5 per week from Mass City) and resin (2-3 cars per week) and outbound particle board (3-6 cars per weekday)
- Numerous wood pulp loading locations averaging a combined 45-65 cars per week (25-40 are loaded online in WI and are delivered to L-P in Sagola)
- Expera Paper operates a wood chipping plant at McConnel Landing (south of Pembine) and loads 35-50 cars per week destined for their plants west of Green Bay on the CN
Other commodities handled: canned vegetables (Oconto Falls), cement (north of Channing at Floodwood), fertilizer (Coleman & Oconto Falls), grain (Oconto Falls), lumber (Howard), paint ore (Sidnaw), plastic pellets (Howard), propane (Crivitz), scrap metal (East Kingsford) and tailings (Groveland).

Operations will consist of:
- Day crews work out of Green Bay (Howard) and Channing. Typically, they work until they meet usually between Crivitz and Pembine
- A night crew dog catches the day crews train if they die on hours (ex. on the weekly trip to Oconto Falls or the weekly trip between Channing and Rockland which takes two days). They also operate the first trick of the wood pellet train (see below).
- A weekly job goes on duty late Saturday and runs from Channing to Republic (setting out 3-15 cement loads at Floodwood) to pick up 60-80 loads of wood pellets, takes it to Pembine, runs around its train and uses its once-a-week Sunday morning trackage rights on CN to deliver the cars to the now-unused CN Escanaba ore yard. It exchanges loads for empties and hustles back to Pembine, runs around its train and delivers the empties to Republic for loading, then runs light engine back to Channing (picking up cement empties at Floodwood). It takes two crews 20-22 hours to complete the round trip. The wood pellet cars are spotted at the old coal dock at the south end of the yard by an E&LS crew and unloaded. The wood pellets are trucked to a power plant in Wells that converted from coal to wood pellets. After they are empty, they are staged in the ore yard for next Sunday's wood pellet train.
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AARR
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Re: Green Bay Northern (GBN)

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Here are some details about our pulpwood business. Whereas CN has lost most of their northern MI pulpwood business, it remains a strong commodity with GBN.

The first group are the WI stations of Abrams, Crivitz and Pembine. 100% of their product goes to the L-P particle board plant in Sagola. Between the three they average 25-40 carloads per week with Crivitz getting most of them, Pembine a few less and Abrams the least. The reason this traffic remains solid is because of the truck load discrepancies between MI and WI. MI allows 75-80 tons, but WI is half that. So even though it is a short trip it makes economic sense to move it by rail.

The logistics are a little different for the MI stations of Randville, Channing, Amasa and Mass City. Randville, Channing and Amasa ship to paper plants in WI so there is the truck weight factor that makes sense for them to ship by rail. Randville (about 400 cars annually) and Channing (about 250 cars annually) usually travel all the way to Green Bay where CN delivers them to local paper plants to the west. Amasa's cars (about 400 annually) are interchanged with CN at Pembine for paper plants to the west.

The last station, Mass City, is unique. This segment (west of Sidnaw) was targeted to be removed originally after the cardboard plant in Ontonagon closed. However, the logger who uses this spur (and previously several others) is good friends with the plant manager at L-P in Sagola. The plant manager offered us an opportunity to pick up more traffic (inbound pulpwood from WI and outbound particle board) in exchange for keeping the line open at least to Mass where the logger would consolidate his loadings. To his credit he has increased loadings from about 225 per year to 250ish. So now you know the rest of the story for Mass City.
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AARR
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Re: Green Bay Northern (GBN)

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An update on my customer, Alter Metal in East Kingsford. They, along with their predecessor, Schneider Iron & Metal, typically would ship 1-4 cars per week of scrap metal. About 3-4 months ago, Alter began shipping up to 7-11 cars some weeks. The crazy part is they can ship a 10-car block. I didn't even now they could fit more than 4 cars on their spur. I don't think they knew it either. When they learned they would be shipping more cars out by rail they began digging up the spur and found out they have nearly 600' of spur on their property. When we got them back to shipping by rail about 5 years ago we dug up about 200' of their spur (and were surprised there was that much there). The remaining 400' or so has been covered by dirt for over 30 years! The rehab was half-ass but since there are no curves and we spot them very slowly so far there have not been any derailments. However, if they are going to maintain this traffic level the poor spur condition will have to be addressed eventually. Another note, their cars have to be dragged north (usually to Channing) before taken south again to Green Bay.
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AARR
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Re: Green Bay Northern (GBN)

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Here is a little information about GBN's customer Expera Paper at McConnell Landing (aka Beecher). For many years it was a pulp log loading spot for Thilmany shipping 300-450 cars most years. Expera acquired Thilmany in 2014 and they were looking for a location to chip wood for a few of their plants west of Green Bay. They looked at several spots and decided on McConnell because they already owned the land, liked GBN's service and there are plenty of trees that meet their specifications. A typical week sees 33-50 cars loaded and shipped south to Green Bay where the cars are handed over to CN. They can load up to 10 cars at a time which is fine with all parties concerned. However, there is also room to double that if it should ever be needed. The cars are switched going north, usually four to five times per week, so they have to be set out, usually in Pembine. and picked up by the southbound train.
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Re: Green Bay Northern (GBN)

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Owner: Green Bay Northern 500
Model: EMD SD40-2 Built As: MILW 182 (SD40-2)
Serial Number: 73687-1 Order No: 73687
Frame Number: 73687-1 Built: 6/1974
Notes: Acquired with railroad at start up
Other locos with this serial: ELS 500(SD40-2) GATX 7349(SD40-2) GSCX 7349(SD40-2) MILW 182(SD40-2)
Image

Owner: Green Bay Northern 501
Model: EMD SD40-2 Built As: MILW 22 (SD40-2)
Serial Number: 72641-2 Order No: 72641
Frame Number: 72641-2 Built: 7/1973
Notes: Acquired with railroad at start up
Other locos with this serial: ELS 501(SD40-2) EMDX 6306(SD40-2) SOO 6306(SD40-2) MILW 22(SD40-2)
Image

Owner: Green Bay Northern 502
Model: EMD SD40-2 Built As: UP 3693 (SD40-2)
Serial Number: 796297-35 Order No: 796297
Frame Number: 796297-35 Built: 1/1980
Notes: Acquired with railroad at start up
Other locos with this serial: ELS 502(SD40-2) ILSX 1344(SD40-2) ILSX 202(SD40-2) SLRG 202(SD40-2) UP 3693(SD40-2)
Image

Owner: Green Bay Northern 503
Model: EMD SD40 Built As: GTW 5915 (SD40)
Serial Number: 35834 Order No: 7221
Frame Number: 7221-4 Built: 1/1970
Notes: Acquired with railroad at start up
Other locos with this serial: ELS 503(SD40) ILSX 1338(SD40-2) BNSF 7303(SD40-2) BNSF 6964(SD40-2) GTW 5915(SD40)
Image

Owner: Green Bay Northern 402
Model: EMD GP38 Built As: PC 7772 (GP38)
Serial Number: 35401 Order No: 7191
Frame Number: 7191-98 Built: 9/1969
Notes: Acquired with railroad at start up
Other locos with this serial: ELS 402(GP38) CR 7772(GP38) PC 7772(GP38)
Image
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Re: Green Bay Northern (GBN)

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Louisiana Pacific in Sagola (approximately 17 miles north of Iron Mountain) is the second largest shipper for GBN (the largest is the wood pellet plant in Republic). L-P ships (both in and outbound) between 2,600-3,900 cars annually.

The majority of those cars are inbound wood logs which account for 1,600-2,400 cars per year. Most are loaded on GBN lines in WI from Sobieski (L-P operated), Crivitz and Pembine. Due to truck weight limit differentials between WI and MI it is more economical to load a 100 tons of wood logs on rail cars and ship them the short distance (30-90 miles depending on logging site) to L-P from WI. As many as 25-38 cars per week are shipped from loading sites in WI on the GBN line. The primary MI wood logs come from Mass (L-P operated) at the end of the O&B Branch. A few of L-P's wood logs come from points on CN that are interchanged with GBN either at Green Bay or Pembine. L-P uses a fleet of orange 40' gondolas with extended ends (but not sides). The logs loaded on GBN stations use a variety of cars including bulkhead flat cars (with no side stakes), a few gondolas with extended ends (both not extended sides) and the more traditional bulkhead flat cars with side stakes.

L-P ships out 15-30 cars per week of Oriented Strand Board. Most of these go out in 50' (GBN rebuilt box cars) and 60' (CN) hi-cube box cars. A few cars also go out on center beams but box cars, for now, dominate the outbound traffic. All outbound cars go to CN in Green Bay.

L-P also receives 2-4 cars per week of wood adhesives.

L-P has a run-through track inside its plant that can hold six 60' cars (seven 50' cars). There is no run around track nearby or separate track for the inbound wood logs so it can take several hours some days to spot and pull all the cars for the day. The inbound wood logs are unloaded on the longer segment of the run-through track on the south side of the plant that can unload about 12 cars at a time.

L-P is the reason why the Channing South Turn has to run every day, sometimes six days a week. GBN and L-P have a very good partnership but as L-P says, GBN is only as good as yesterdays service.
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Re: Green Bay Northern (GBN)

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At the end of the Oconto Falls Branch is United Cooperative who has been a customer from the beginning and has even expanded capacity since GBN began service. Typically, they ship 340-460 cars of corn, soybeans and wheat annually in blocks 5-25 cars. They also receive 12-15 cars annually of pot ash. Usually, the train will back its consist in from Stiles Jct. (4.5 miles) to the elevator. Anything over 15 cars takes several moves to load all the cars. They utilize a short passing siding to the east and a fertilizer track next to the elevator for the extra movements. After the loading is complete, they usually go engine first back to Stiles Jct. where they split the engines and spot the grain loads on the stub-end siding where they will be picked up later when the train is heading back south from Crivitz or Pembine. UC is often switched by the day crew while the night crew will dog catch the train later, take it to Crivitz or Pembine to exchange cars with the Channing South Turn(CHST) who left their cars earlier in the day and most likely returned to Channing with pulp wood log loads from either Pembine, Crivitz or both.
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Re: Green Bay Northern (GBN)

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GBN is now part of the following family of railroads: E&WM, TL&W, ISHW, M&MI and GBN.

Operations will not change.

SD40-2’s 502 and 503 were leased units and retuned to ILSX. In their place GBN acquired:
Owner: Green Bay Northern
Model: EMD GP38-2 Built As: PC 7771 (GP38)
Serial Number: 35400
Order No: 7191
Frame Number: 7191-97 Built: 9/1969
Notes: Acquired 2022
Other locos with this serial: GBN 403 (GP38-2) LTEX 3811(GP38-2) AA 7771(GP38) CR 7771(GP38) PC 7771 (GP38)
Image

Owner: Green Bay Northern
Model: EMD GP38-2 Built As: PC 7791 (GP38)
Serial Number: 35420
Order No: 7191
Frame Number: 7191-117 Built: 10/1969
Notes: Acquired 2022
Other locos with this serial: GBN 404 (GP38-2) LTEX 3812(GP38-2) AA 7791(GP38) CR 7791(GP38) PC 7791 (GP38)
Image

SD40-2’s 500 and 501 will run until failure then be replaced with GP38-2’s.

Two dedicated day crews work from Green Bay (Howard) and Channing respectively and a night crew dog catches the day crew as necessary, works the Rockland Branch and the first trick of the wood pellet unit train from Channing to Escanaba.

In other news the cement transload in Floodwood has switched to another location in Ishpeming but Rio Tinto is transloading around 4-6 carloads a week of copper and nickel concentrate.

GBN handled 12,943 carloads in 2022 and is expecting to be in the 9,730-13,625 range for 2023.

GBN falls far short of the 100 carloads per year per mile standard of profitability. Their Operating Ratio is over 90%. They maintain the track with local and Federal government subsidies and customer surcharges. They need 23,000 carloads a year to break even. An option is to abandon the Rockland Branch (80 miles) which only generates about 1,000 carloads per year, well short of the 8,000 per year it takes to break that branch even. However, all those cars would have to transload between Channing to Republic to make it work and that is unlikely.

It remains to be seen what happens to this line.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

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Re: Green Bay Northern (GBN)

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There was a major derailment recently. The United Cooperative in Oconto Falls was loading a 105-car unit train with corn in three 35 car blocks. It required GBN to do a 4.5 mile back up move from their mainline at Stiles Jct. to the elevator in Oconto Falls. To access the branch, GBN pulls north onto a derelict stub end siding. It was while backing loaded cars south from the siding onto the mainline that the rails spread tipping over seven loaded cars. Fortunately, the damage was not worse because the crew was operating at slow speeds. Even though GBN performs some ROW improvements and maintenance yearly they still have a lot of bad spots because their overall traffic is very low for the miles of track they operate. It took all five engines and three days to clear up the mess and get back to the normal schedule.

However, it lasted over the weekend which means the wood pellet train missed its early Sunday morning access on CN between Pembine and Escanaba. That is the only time of the week GBN can operate on this CN track. Michigan Wood Pellets had to truck the 7,350 tons of wood pellets to the utility plant in Wells and charge GBN the additional cost.

Also, Louisiana Pacific missed two days of switching (they load every weekday to keep the production lines fluid and the warehouse space free). So, they also had to use trucks and charge a fine to GBN.

Expera Paper south of Pembine also missed two days of switching. GBN and CN operate Just-in-Time wood chips to their paper plants west of Green Bay. They also had to ship by truck and fine GBN.

This was a very expensive accident for GBN.

In other news, the Louisiana-Pacific plant in Sagola is up and running again after a six-month closure while they converted the plant to produce SmartSide siding. When fully operational they will produce 330 million square feet that 100% will be shipped by rail but on centerbeam flat cars instead of boxcars. They will still receive pulp wood logs mostly from online stations in WI and from Rockland, MI.

A movement of tailings from the old Groveland Mine site will begin this year. They have been sitting there since the mine closed over 30 years ago. A road construction company in Green Bay has a use for these tailings. GBN will back down the old branch, which is currently being used to store cars, and pick up a 20-car block every two to three weeks during the road construction season and deliver them to a lot next to CN’s Green Bay Yard. It is anticipated that they will get 16-24 trips per season from this schedule.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

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Re: Green Bay Northern (GBN)

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WATCO has agreed to purchase the following railroads: GBN, ISHW, M&MI and TL&W. ISHW and M&MI meet the 100 car per mile per year profitability standard. The other two lines are well below the standard. WATCO has the financial resources to operate the lines and make the investments to keep the track reliable and safe as well as aggressively pursue new customers (as they have on their other MI and WI lines). They are preparing to begin operations on 11/1/23.

WATCO will replace the Geeps and F-Units on ISHW and TL&W will be replaced by 38’s and 39’s. WATCO will also return M&MI’s SW8 and replace it with their own SW engine.

For now, the Geeps and F-Units will be stored in Wells. The two Geeps will eventually be returned to ILSX. The four F-Units are in good operating condition and several museums/tourist railroads have expressed interest in them.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

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