Eastern Railroad Discussion > WC/Upper Peninsula questions

I visited the Upper Peninsula this past weekend and came back with the following questions:

1) Do the road freights between Gladstone and Sault Ste. Marie run every day?
2) Do the road freights switch the paper mill in Manistique, or is there a local out of Gladstone to do this work?
3) How often is the line to Munising operated? Are there other customers along this branch besides the mill in Munising?
4) Where, in relation to the M-35 overpass north of Palmer, is "Partridge"? Is there a paper mill there? What public access is there, if any, to this location?
5) Am I correct in believing that there is a wayfreight from Escanaba that connects at Partridge with a West Ishpeming-based wayfreight that forwards forest-products traffic to and from the line to Baraga? If yes, what are the symbols for these trains?
6) Besides bentonite clay for the pellet mills, what non-ore traffic does the LS&I handle, if any?
7) Are the Tilden and Empire mines the only currently active iron ore facilities in this area? If yes, does WC get all its ore traffic from Empire while LS&I handles the Tilden traffic? If not, what other mines are there?

Thanks in advance for any help with this information....

Thanks in advance....

toledopatch wrote:
>
> I visited the Upper Peninsula this past weekend and came back
> with the following questions:
>
> 1) Do the road freights between Gladstone and Sault Ste. Marie
> run every day? **Yes, although actually at night the last time I knew.

> 2) Do the road freights switch the paper mill in Manistique, or
> is there a local out of Gladstone to do this work? **Manistique Papers has their own switcher, a "44-tonner looking thing" with outside connecting rods, radio controlled for one man operation.

> 3) How often is the line to Munising operated? Are there other
> customers along this branch besides the mill in Munising? **A local runs west from Newberry three days per week, returns the same night. Sometimes gathers pulpwood along the Seney stretch, sometimes a car from the lumber mill at Forest Center, , then the Kimberly-Clark mill at Munising.

> 4) Where, in relation to the M-35 overpass north of Palmer, is
> "Partridge"? Is there a paper mill there? What public access is
> there, if any, to this location? **not sure

> 5) Am I correct in believing that there is a wayfreight from
> Escanaba that connects at Partridge with a West Ishpeming-based
> wayfreight that forwards forest-products traffic to and from
> the line to Baraga? If yes, what are the symbols for these
> trains? **I think the local is based out of Ishpeming and runs three days per week north to L'Anse (or Baraga if needed) and three days per week south to Gladstone. Don't know the symbols.

> 6) Besides bentonite clay for the pellet mills, what non-ore
> traffic does the LS&I handle, if any? **They used to haul iron ore "fines" in gondolas, that was used for making paint. This "paint ore" amounted to about a dozen gondolas every other week. Not sure if they are still hauling this.

> 7) Are the Tilden and Empire mines the only currently active
> iron ore facilities in this area? If yes, does WC get all its
> ore traffic from Empire while LS&I handles the Tilden traffic?
> If not, what other mines are there? **Yes, only two iron mines left in Michigan, but still Michigan is the second-largest producer of iron ore after Minnesota.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help with this information....
>
> Thanks in advance....

Thank you much. During my trip, I observed the eastbound freight covering the Gladstone-Trout Lake section during the afternoon. On both Saturday (4/28) and Tuesday (5/1) he met the westbound at Blaney. Oddly, the eastbound on 4/28 then got a warrant to "Soo Junction," which shows in my DeLorme as being on the Newberry/Munising line. Does he make a side trip out there on days when there is traffic to connect for the Munising job?

I did notice the critter at the Manistique mill. I'll assume then that the road jobs pick up/set out there as needed. The wood yard at Gulliver was very active and the westbound picked up there on Saturday, which made for a nice block of log cars on the head end of the train. I'm very anxious to get my film back.

TP - You may want to check Yahoogroup "Orerail"

A fellow named Tom Carello posts often relative to UP operations around the Marquette area. I think he has a website, but I cannot find it.

Another yahoogroup would be the "wcinfo" group.

Both groups have searcheable archives.

BTW - I recall that the WC recently extended operation of the Baraga branch up to a place called New Chassell. The SOO Line HTS had an article relative to this branch a few issues ago. If you want I can look for it. I had always hoped that they would extend operations further north so I could watch trains while going to college.

shawn in Wyandotte

"New Chassell" was indeed the location to which the local was given its warrant on Monday. But it isn't very far out of Baraga. There's a siding where log rack cars were spotted for loading, in an industrial area just past Baraga that was barely visible through the trees from US 41. The main track is very overgrown north of there and by the time you get up toward Houghton it's been ripped out for a long time.

Thanks for the Yahoo!Groups tips.

Although I lived in the U.P. for 28 years, the last time I was back was 2 years ago. For a long time WC ran afternoon trains that met usually at Rudyard, Trout Lake or Gilchrist. On my last visit they had just gone to night trains. Apparently they're back to days again. That's good. I plan to go back this summer.

Yes, Soo Junction is east of Newberry. The Duluth South Shore and Atlantic line split at Soo Junction, heading east to Sault Ste Marie or south to Trout Lake and St. Ignace. Designating a WC train to there is something new to me.

The rails north of Chassell were pulled up during the summer of 1997. The last regular operation in Houghton ended in 1982, although in the late '80's a fiber-optic train came into town.

Exactly where is "New Chassell?" The rails were left in to Chassell, just south of the US-41 crossing. Plans were to build a landing on the old drive-in theater property there, but I think the NIMBYs ended that. I'm assuming "New Chassell" is south of there. Is it north of the Houghton County line?

Shawn in Wyandotte might be interested to know that I rode passenger trains into Houghton when I went to "da Tech."

Ahh da Yoopers, how amusing. Anyway, Does WC still have their radio control ex-Algoma Central Caboose up there? It's been a few years since I've been up to the UP and was just wondering about it. I know it was used for 1 man operations up there on some Isolated branches. If I remember well, it was in the Iron Mountain area. Thanks for any help, Jeff

I've personally seen a radio control ex-AC caboose in White Pine MI, but that was several years ago, probably mid-90's. WC was trying for one-man operations in certain places, but then the Weyawega wreck seemed to end all thoughts of that. No, they weren't related, but "safety" became a big buzzword at the time.

The caboose actually picked up the radio instructions, and sent them to engine by M.U. connections. In that way, any engine could be m.u.'ed and used for one-man operation.

I think such a caboose was also used at the quarry at Port Inland, MI. This is a private railroad using WC engines, so maybe it is still used there. I don't know of any way to get there to see any action, though.

I don't know where New Chassell is exactly; I didn't see any signs identifying it -- but I can tell you that the active track ended at that industrial area on the north side of Baraga. Yes, the rails still continue up to just short of the US 41 crossing, but they're very overgrown now.

I saw two cabeese in Escanaba, one ex-Algoma Central in red and one a WC-remote control vehicle. I also saw a weary-looking switcher at Gladstone that had "remote-control" lettering.