Western Railroad Discussion > Eagle Mountain Railroad - Final Chapter

A few weeks ago there was an inquiry on this board regarding the Kaiser Steel Eagle Mountain Railroad (EMRR) which ran between Eagle Mountain, California and Ferrum at that time the connection with the Southern Pacific along the Sultan Sea (about 51 miles in length).  There is what seems to be a very good, very detailed history and description of the EMRR on Wikipedia.  Last Tuesday I visited Eagle Mountain and EMRR and found several white pickup trucks on or near the track which has laid dormant for about 31 years.  In a discussion with one of the workers he indicated his company A & K Railroad Materials had a contract to remove all 51 miles of track and the removal would be starting about March 13.  All material will have to be removed by trauck as the track is washed out in several locations and the interchange with now UP Yuma Sub has been gone for years.  Getting truck loads of material out will be interesting south of the Interstate 10 as the "road" is currently a 4 wheel drive wash.

Awfully sad it has come to this. Too bad the landfill plan didn't work out. Hauling the trash by train works good here in Washington State and elsewhere.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

funnelfan Wrote:
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> Awfully sad it has come to this. Too bad the
> landfill plan didn't work out. Hauling the trash
> by train works good here in Washington State and
> elsewhere.

There is actually a different landfill site near Glamis (an old copper mine, I believe) that is in place and ready to go.  It's not being currently used because the landfills in LA are filling up more slowly than projected.

They could use helicopters to lift the rails to a loading station. That would cost though. I agree to bad this line is being torn up. More and more are disappearing...

Posted from iPhone

jmonier Wrote:
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> funnelfan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Awfully sad it has come to this. Too bad the
> > landfill plan didn't work out. Hauling the
> trash
> > by train works good here in Washington State
> and
> > elsewhere.
>
> There is actually a different landfill site near
> Glamis (an old copper mine, I believe) that is in
> place and ready to go.  It's not being currently
> used because the landfills in LA are filling up
> more slowly than projected.

Orange County did a good job recycling so they weren't filling in their landfills as fast.  Then they got into bankruptcy and to make money sold space at their landfills to L.A. County.

mapboy

mapboy Wrote:
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> Orange County did a good job recycling so they
> weren't filling in their landfills as fast.  Then
> they got into bankruptcy and to make money sold
> space at their landfills to L.A. County.
>
> mapboy

The Olinda Landfil is solely owned by the County of Orange.

Los Angeles county has also greatly reduced the total tonnage going to landfills in th last 10-15 years.

Does this material removal include the bridges? There is at least one long bridge that is very impressive crossing a wash.

Are the GE locomotives and/or the hoppers still up at the mine, or did they get them all out before the line became impassible?
 

I wonder who's paying to have it done?  Kaiser?  Other than the scrap value of the rail, what is the motivation? 

Twenty Two Years ago today, I took this photo of Kaiser Steel's U Boats being Cut up on the their property

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Very sad news indeed. I started a new Yahoo Groups to gather information and photos, perhaps just in time to gather those last shots of the line.
Thank you for the updated information.

Michael Mickens
Rialto, CA

Here is the link to that group if you are a Yahoo.com member: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/EMRR/info

Here is the link for the company doing the work: http://www.akrailroad.com/

 

My understanding of this is that Kaiser Ventures, what remains of the Kaiser Corporation, is in 
bankruptcy and they sold the railroad to A&K as they are still responsible to fund the current
pension plan for the remaining Kaiser retirees!

This includes, an EMD SW1200, in the enginehouse at Eagle Mountain and the few remaining
MOW flatcars(2-3), 1 side dump and a damaged Mark One Tamper. All these are to be scrapped!

Mike

2720 Wrote:
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> My understanding of this is that Kaiser Ventures,
> what remains of the Kaiser Corporation, is in 
> bankruptcy and they sold the railroad to A&K as
> they are still responsible to fund the current
> pension plan for the remaining Kaiser retirees!

This isn't accurate information.  When Kaiser Steel when bankrupt back in 1986, they actually owned more assets than they owed money, the problem is you can't easily sell part of a steel mill to pay off creditors and still operate.  The bulk of the company's assets were sold off to satisfy the demands of the pension plan.  They remaining assets (land around the steel mill, the Eagle Mountain Mine property, the railroad and some other property) where spin off as Kaiser Resources, Inc.  Kaiser Resources then became Kaiser Ventures.  They were going to be a surviving company until the landfill project was terminated.  They then decided to sell all the remaining assets and make a cash out to the shareholders (I don't know if the shareholders were surviving Kaiser Steel shareholders or were shares now owned by creditors).  The Eagle Mountain Mine property and the railroad were recently sold to Eagle Crest Energy, which is constructing a pumped-storage power project at the old minesite.  They got ownership of the railroad and had the option to either return it to service or scrap the line...I guess we all know what decision they made.

It is very sad that it has come to this, but to be honest, I am surprised that it has lasted this long.  The line suffered significant washouts in August of 2003 and additional flooding over the last few years have made the line a total mess.  This is a mercy killing for the poor railroad.

Kirk Douglas survived the Eagle Mountain...who would've thought...see movie " Tough Guys" if you don't know what I'm talking about...SHM

Thanks for sharing the information about Eagle Crest Energy. They have a virtual tour of what will become of the site at http://www.eaglecrestenergy.com/ece-virtual-tour.html

Gary, Mike, Geoff.
Too Bad.

I thought they had a plan to reopen the line!

Best laid plans, I guess.

iliketrains Wrote:
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> I thought they had a plan to reopen the line!
>
> Best laid plans, I guess.

That plan died 4 years ago.