Drove over the E&LS crossings in Howard (north of Green Bay), WI today. Some snow over the rails and I don’t think we’ve had snow since the weekend. A heavy dusting, not deep snow.
I thought E&LS ran 6x per week north on a turn that met its counterpart at Crivitz, though I believe that I saw a photo and new item showing that they were losing volume at the Ontonogan mill.
Anyone know what current status is?
Thx
Still operating but infrequently. There is often snow at the crossings for a few days before something comes through. Last train I saw was maybe 40-ish cars.
FWIW
The mill up at Ontonagon is shut down, and it sounds like it’ll be permanent. Right now they are supposedly only operating regularly as far as Mass City on the line to Ontonagon, though “regularly” isn’t really the word to describe it.
Reports put the E&LS into Green Bay only one or two times a week, and it sounds like most of the rest of the railroad is running with about the same frequency.
Noah
Thanks much guys. I had cause to be in the area of the CN Green Bay Yard today and didn’t see the E&LS power laying over as would have been the norm in the past. I wonder what this will mean for this already-marginal line.
I think that trains mag should do a story on the E&LS. Whats going on with this shortline, I sure would like to know more info on these local railroads and how they are doing.
Agreed. I’d like to see a story too. The E&LS and operator Mr John Larkin have always been a little bit of an enigma to me with his eclectic collection of old equipment (some running, some stored.)
It’s my understanding that an over-enthusiastic railfan perhaps a decade or so ago permently wore out the welcome for fans at his storage yard.
It would be interesting to know what his plans are now. If I recall correctly, the State of WI owns the line from GB to the MI border and rehabbed it with ELS as the operator (similar to the WSOR lines under State ownership.) Given the significant budget shortruns for the State, it will be interesting to see where the viability line is drawn.
I remember in a past issue of Trains that the ELS was trying intermodel from upper MI to wisconsin? Didnt hear anymore of how it went. I went up north to crivitz dunbar this last summer and the track on the ELS looks pretty rough. Hope that it stays in service for many years to come.
The “railfans not welcome” policy stemmed from the era in the late 1970s when the RR was operating the former D&H Baldwin “Sharks” (originally Monongahela RR). In the course of only a few months, the railroad replaced no fewer than SEVEN sets of replica builder’s plates stolen off the Sharks. A further break-in at the Wells roundhouse reportedly lost the RR lots of Baldwin shop manuals, prints, and memorabilia, and that was the final straw for railfans.
The railroad’s owner reportedly has an incredible collection of rolling stock stashed away, including at least two steam locomotives, a gas-electric car, a chapel car, and supposedly a “complete” Soo Line passenger train. In addition, the railroad is sitting on a large collection of Baldwin RS-12 diesels, including a stash of former Oregon, California & Eastern and ex-Seaboard Air Line examples. Unfortunately, the Sharks are basically the only locos left in North America with a 608A eight-cylinder diesel engine aside from other preserved Baldwins (an ex-Oregon & Northwestern AS-616 at the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum in Campo, Ca., and NS AS-416 1616 at the NCTM in Spencer, NC) and all the other surviving locos are 606A or 606SC with six-cylinder engines–and the two on the E&LS supposedly need crankshafts…
Well, the intermodal was supposed to be an alternative to truck freight for the Smurfit-Stone mill at Ontonagon, which is now closed. Thus, I think it’s fairly safe to say, not so good.
I visited Onotonagon in ’07 while railfanning with a friend. It’s a really cool town. Beautiful scenery, big lake, but without the tourist resorts and gift shops you’ll find in a lot of towns its size on Superior. The plant closing is sad for the town, sad for the railroad, sad for the people up there.
Thanks andy for the update!
Just kind of wondering why the wisconsin central operated the line greenbay south. I would have thought ELS would like to expand to milwaukee. This was milwaukee Road track not soo line. How did WC get this line not ELS?
SOO picked up the remaining operating lines of MILW in toto in around 1985-1986. Most of the former original SOO routes east of Minneapolis-St Paul and certain other routes were sold to WC when that carrier was formed about 1989 or so.
This seems to be a rehash of the same question you asked about a week ago on this same forum as to why the ELS didn’t get the Milwaukee Road from Green Bay to Milwaukee. To reiterate- the Green Bay-Milwaukee segment was kept by the Milwaukee Road trustees as part of the “Milwaukee II” restructuring. After the Soo Line was awarded the Milwaukee properties in 1985 they operated it (from 1986-87 as the short lived “Lake States Transportation” division of the Soo). After October of 1987, Lake States Transportation was sold in it’s entirety to the Wisconsin Central, where from 1987 to 1993 the ex-MILW was used as the WC’s primary route into Green Bay. Upon the WC’s pruchase of the ex-CNW Itel owned Green Bay and Western and Fox Valley and Western lines, the WC acquired a superior routing (and facilities) into Green Bay, leaving the ex-MILW line south of Green Bay to Hilbert redundant. The line was abandoned inbetween by the WC- at which the state of Wisconsin purchased the ROW between those two points and now has it converted to a “railbanked” corridor. At the time of it’s expansion into Green Bay the ELS had three connections (GBW, CNW, MILW) to interchange to, it is unlikely though that their forsight would have told them that within 15 years all three of those connections would become one Wisconsin Central and later CN…
Good summary - I’d offer a couple more thoughts. The Milw Rd line from GB north was in sad shape bythe mid 80’s with marginal traffic. I don’t think Lake States wanted it, so the State bought it and brought on ELS as the operator since. I believe that the State (at least in part) funded rehab of the line north of GB.
The GB - Milw segment was a little different - provided a connection between metro areas - however WC really used it quite little. They used Neenah- Black Creek - GB routing w/ the Black Creek - GB portion over GBW. I lived along the GBW at that time and would see inbound / outbound WC trains running WB usually after GBW #1 and coming EB mid-morning. As noted above, once WC controlled GBW and the relatively short lived Fox River Valley RR, they had a more direct routing Neenah to GB.
I only saw WC road trains on the GB-Hilbert segment a few times. Caught what I believe would have been on of the last I think in April 1991 that ran that routing due to a derailment on the GB-Black Creek-Neenah route. Lots of weeds on the line by then. … and its a bike trail from GB to just North of Hilbert now.
I have it in my mind (correct if wrong) that Soo/Lake States actually acquired trackage rights over GB&W from Black Creek into Green Bay circa 1986, and WC inherited them. As noted, after WC acquired FRVR/GB&W, it fixed up the ex-C&NW Neenah-Green Bay segment, and once repairs were done, it rerouted Green Bay traffic over that line.
Thanks to everyone for their comments![8D]