Nostalgia & History > Eagle Mountain Memories

Playing around with my new scanner. Here's a blast from the past. This is the second-to-last run of the Kaiser Steel Corporation Eagle Mountain Railroad, carrying ore from the Eagle Mountain mine to the blast furnaces at Fontana, October 6, 1983. The view shows the big horseshoe curve as the train leaves Eagle Mountain. This shot was made from a hovering helicopter a few hundred feet over the desert, flying next to a large fill. Chasing and photographing this railroad was one of my top priorities in the early 1980s.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/12 18:49 by Alco251.

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Alco251 Wrote:
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> Playing around with my new scanner. Here's a blast
> from the past. This is the second-to-last run of
> the Kaiser Steel Corporation Eagle Mountain
> Railroad, carrying ore from the Eagle Mountain
> mine to the blast furnaces at Fontana, October 6,
> 1983. The view shows the big horseshoe curve as
> the train leaves Eagle Mountain. This shot was
> made from a hovering helicopter a few hundred feet
> over the desert, flying next to a large fill.
> Chasing and photographing this railroad was one of
> my top priorities in the early 1980s.

First of all, thanks for sharing your great photo. I know the Eagle Mountain RR operated on and off from 1984 to March 1986, when the absolute last ore train operated. Was the ore shipped during these last few years destined for somewhere else, besides the Fontana Mill? If so, I assume it was for overseas export.

How can someone tell if that is domestic ore, or export?

V

SLOCONDR

This photo depicts the second-to-last ore shipmemt destined for Fontana. Sporadic shipments of stockpiled ore (fines, not pellets) after October, 1983, went to domestic buyers, including cement plants. Eagle Mountain was expensive ore to produce and was never competitive in the export market.

Posted from iPhone

Did the trains run through to Fontana with Kaiser power and crews? TIA!
...Lorenzo

567Chant Wrote:
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> Did the trains run through to Fontana with Kaiser
> power and crews? TIA!
> ...Lorenzo

No. SP crews and power.

In the spring of 1982 the SP symbol was WCFEN (West Colton-Ferrum Unit train empties) and FEKAU (Ferrum-Kaiser Unit train loads). Eagle Mountain RR connection with the SP was at Ferrum. Since it's been 30 years ago I don't remember exactly how many loaded trains were running per week then...maybe 2-3. There was a severe recession in 1982 and the demand for steel products at the time was poor.

The trains, on the SP side, were rather difficult to photograph. From what I remember in early 1982 the crew for the WCFEN was usually called at West Colton for 5pm and ran as a turn, often referred to by crews as the "Ferrum Turn". If there were no ore empties ready to return to Ferrum they would run cab hop, as long as there were ore loads ready to be picked up (at Ferrum).


Allen



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/12 21:25 by bradleymckay.

567Chant Wrote:
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> Did the trains run through to Fontana with Kaiser
> power and crews? TIA!
> ...Lorenzo

Crews and power changed at Ferrum.

Trains off the Eagle Mountain RR often ran to the EXPORT facilites at both the Port of Long Beach AND the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro in the late sixties into the seventies. Possibly a factor in SP building a connecting loop from SP's Puente branch to the La Habra branch at Los Nietos was to eliminate the necessity of changing direction of the ore train out of Los Nietos yard in Whittier which required a lot of time and space as the train ran Colton City of Industry yard to UP to Bartolo Puente branch into Los Nietos yard then reversed direction to La Habra branch to Wilmington branch to either the Port of LA or Long Beach.
JB

3rdswitch Wrote:
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> Trains off the Eagle Mountain RR often ran to the
> EXPORT facilities at both the Port of Long Beach
> AND the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro in the
> late sixties into the seventies. Possibly a factor
> in SP building a connecting loop from SP's Puente
> branch to the La Habra branch at Los Nietos was to
> eliminate the necessity of changing direction of
> the ore train out of Los Nietos yard in Whittier
> which required a lot of time and space as the
> train ran Colton City of Industry yard to UP to
> Bartolo Puente branch into Los Nietos yard then
> reversed direction to La Habra branch to
> Wilmington branch to either the Port of LA or Long
> Beach.
> JB


Joe, I believe SP also installed welded rail on the ex-PE from DT Jct. to Dolores just to accommodate the export ore trains.


Allen

Kaiser people told me the growth of the Pilbara export ore operations in the late 1960s killed the market for Kaiser export ore.

PHall Wrote:
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> 567Chant Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Did the trains run through to Fontana with
> Kaiser
> > power and crews? TIA!
> > ...Lorenzo
>
> Crews and power changed at Ferrum.


The only thing that changed was the direction of the train. The EM crews brought the train to Ferrum and left it in the little 3-track (I think it was 3) yard and took the empties back, if any. The SP crews came from W Colton, or Indio back in the real old days, delivered the empties, if any, coupled up to the loads and went west.

JDE

I hope this RR will get used someday for either resumed ore production, or the proposed landfill "shuttle train", should the powers that be ever reconsider their decision.

Alco251 Wrote:
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> Kaiser people told me the growth of the Pilbara
> export ore operations in the late 1960s killed the
> market for Kaiser export ore.

Interesting as I think Kaiser had some interest in Hamersly back then. Vic Fisher, the Eagle Mountain railroad supt, went over there and was the boss on Hamersly in the early days, when they were powered by Alco C628s and the like.

masterphots Wrote:
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> Alco251 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> Vic Fisher, the Eagle
> Mountain railroad supt, went over there and was
> the boss on Hamersly in the early days, when they
> were powered by Alco C628s and the like.


Most people mis-spell Hamersley with two "m's" but you dropped the second "e". Impressive because even the Eastern Aussie's mis-spell it.

I railfanned the Kaiser in 1982 before they put that hideous white on the battery boxes.

Rick

567Chant Wrote:
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> Did the trains run through to Fontana with Kaiser
> power and crews? TIA!
> ...Lorenzo


This railroad did not have common carrier status so even when the U30C's went out for maintenance, the units were shut down and hauled dead in tow.

Rick

Steamjocky Wrote:
> The only thing that changed was the direction of
> the train. The EM crews brought the train to
> Ferrum and left it in the little 3-track (I think
> it was 3) yard and took the empties back, if any.
> The SP crews came from W Colton, or Indio back in
> the real old days, delivered the empties, if any,
> coupled up to the loads and went west.

The "yard" at Ferrum consisted of five interchange tracks plus a wye. This year, when Union Pacific begin work on double tracking the Sunset Route along side the Salton Sea, the railroad removed all five yard tracks, disconnected the wye and the Eagle Mountain RR from the mainline. They then regraded the area and replaced the bridges and culverts. So it would appear the UP doesn't believe they will connect with the EMRR in the future.

Additionally, the station of FERRUM will disappear when double track work is completed. The current CTC siding there will be removed and double crossovers will only exist to the west at a new location called SALTON (about 3 miles west of Ferrum) and at Bertram (about 3 miles east of Ferrum)...Bertram siding will remain as a siding within the two main track territory. Work on the double tracking project now extends east to at least Iris, the first siding east of Niland.

Can anyone recommend any books or links on the eagle mountain operation. And to the op thanks for posting this thread.

Posted from Android

Steamjocky Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PHall Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > 567Chant Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Did the trains run through to Fontana with
> > Kaiser
> > > power and crews? TIA!
> > > ...Lorenzo
> >
> > Crews and power changed at Ferrum.
>
>
> The only thing that changed was the direction of
> the train. The EM crews brought the train to
> Ferrum and left it in the little 3-track (I think
> it was 3) yard and took the empties back, if any.
> The SP crews came from W Colton, or Indio back in
> the real old days, delivered the empties, if any,
> coupled up to the loads and went west.
>
> JDE


In the days prior to West Colton, Indio terminaled crews would bring the loads from Ferrum to Indio, and then the Los Angeles-Indio pool crews would take the train from Indio to Kaiser(if it was domestic) and spot it. If the train was an export train, the LA-INDIO crew would take it to Los Nietos and a local crew, normally out of Long Beach, woulds take it to Long Beach or San Pedro and spot it.

V

SLOCONDR

Note that this train is cabooseless. As Rick mentioned, before the white battery boxes were done in the 1982 period, EM trains ran with three units on the point, a caboose and a helper on the rear. I need to scan some of those shots.

The white battery boxes were done as an attempt to keep the batteries from overheating.

There were many ties at Eagle Mountain to other ore-carrying railroads, including the previously mentioned connections to Hamersley. The last RR superintendent at Eagle Mountain was Darrell Munson, and he had a relative who was in charge of Kennecott's Nevada Mines railroad operations at Ely. Munson and mine manager John Englund were the ones who explained to me the economics of the EM operation and why, in the 1980s, they couldn't compete in the export world.

I will scan and post more of my Eagle Mountain stuff. Still learning how to do this, so bear with me.

coach Wrote:
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> I hope this RR will get used someday for either
> resumed ore production, or the proposed landfill
> "shuttle train", should the powers that be ever
> reconsider their decision.

Keep in mind that the appeal of "trash train" operations on Eagle Mountain would be loaded trains moving uphill!