Western Railroad Discussion > Eagle Mountain Railroad

Anybody know the status of this carrier?

Defunct. No longer in active, revenue service. Ben

It's in cold storage waiting to take out the trash.

fulldynamics Wrote:
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> Anybody know the status of this carrier?

The railroad is on stand-by for trash hauling service that may never come. The land exchange that allowed the owner Kaiser Ventures to own the entire landfill site was successfully challenged in court, voiding the whole thing. The current management of Kaiser Ventures hasn't decided how to proceed yet. With the current political climate, renegotiation of the land exchange is very unlikely. In addition, with recent California recycling laws dramatically reducing the amount of Los Angeles waste generated (by almost half), the need for a mega-landfill is reduced. Finally, the Mesquite Landfill, about fifty miles further away and now directly connected to the Union Pacific's Yuma Sub at Glamis is fully permitted and once a container transfer center in Puente Hills is completed, trash will start to roll there, possibly by the end of this year.

Also, note that the middle third of the 51-mile long Eagle Mountain Railroad has sufferred major flood damage including undermining of the right-of-way in numerous locations and a short where sand and rock have covered the tracks in upto 10 feet. I think the railroad is done, but until they pull up the rails, anything is possible. Shipments of rock/fill for a off and on proposed Salton Sea reduction dam, possible reactivation of iron-ore shipments if iron-ore market really explodes (if Obama, although unlikely, decides to build that Death Star that the petition requested, all the metal has to come from somewhere) or some other mining activity near Eagle Mountain requires rail access.

As stated above, in the past 2 years there was a plan to ship out Iron ore again, but the People/Company wanting to start operations has had many Pie in the Sky idea's invoving Rail and NONE have amounter to anything

Is there that much ore still left out there? Enough to seriously ramp up production, should prices make it feasible??

While at it, what would one see while heading down the 10? I know the tracks bisect the highway at some point or another... how much is visible to the right and left?

Fizzboy7 Wrote:

> While at it, what would one see while heading down
> the 10?

North: http://goo.gl/maps/XZXrO
South: http://goo.gl/maps/zwexc

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> Fizzboy7 Wrote:
>
> > While at it, what would one see while heading
> down
> > the 10?
>
> North: http://goo.gl/maps/XZXrO
> South: http://goo.gl/maps/zwexc


Geeze, that was amazing. Thanks! That's exactly what I was wondering! There is absolutely NOTHIN out there.
Did you have this bookmarked or something?

coach Wrote:
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> Is there that much ore still left out there?
> Enough to seriously ramp up production, should
> prices make it feasible??


I believe there is still alot of ore out there. The mining stopped because the Kaiser Steel mill in Fontana shut down, not because of any shortage of iron ore.

jst3751 Wrote:
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> I believe there is still alot of ore out there.
> The mining stopped because the Kaiser Steel mill
> in Fontana shut down, not because of any shortage
> of iron ore.

There is a huge amount of iron-ore in the surrounding mountains. Kaiser Steel had just started developing a new pit when operatings came to a stop. The biggest problem is that since mining stops, the surrounding area (north, west and south) of the current mining pits are now within the Joshua Tree National Park. Mining even near a national park border is looked at unfavorably, imagine a proposal to start mining INSIDE a national park...it would be political suicide.

Reply concerning the Death Star construction:

White House response earlier this year:

“The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:
The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

Posted from iPhone

coach Wrote:
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> Is there that much ore still left out there?
> Enough to seriously ramp up production, should
> prices make it feasible??

My understanding of the Eagle Mountain iron ore
is that there is more ore still in the ground
than was mined from 1948-1984!!
A friend of mine has been involved with Kaiser Ventures
regarding the feasibility of reopening the mine and RR
but current funding opportunities are still limited by
the market conditions.
Mike

CPRR Wrote:
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> Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a
> Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be
> exploited by a one-man starship?

That's true. It would take tens or hundreds of thousands of workers with all skill levels, and it would employ them productively for at least their entire lifetimes, providing good, productive, and personally fulfilling jobs to thousands, while re-teaching the concepts of manufacturing and personal responsibility, and giving people a sense of their own worth. Clearly we would not want to do that in the US.

HOWEVER, since it was noted that there is a flaw in the design, I suggest we let some consultant contracts for a billion or two each, to develop a patch to the basic design that will cover this one particular flaw. We could hold an initial fast-track incentive design qualification with submittals in say 2020 to winnow down the consultants to say 500, then give each of them a contract for $2B to provide a preliminary proposal by 2040.