The “Great Ore Heist” story in Feb. trains left me wondering. Did this traffic hold up through the SP merger, with its circuitous routing and expensive operation of Tennessee Pass? How was the traffic, if it still existed routed after the merger? Does the traffic exist today?
The steel mill in Utah is gone, torn down and scrapped. IIRC the Tennessee Pass routing lasted only briefly after the UP acquisition.
Please, where is this article? I can’t find it in my Feb. Trains.
I think it was 1995.
A downloadable copy is in the Trains Express Feb.
http://trn.trains.com/home/interactive/web%20exclusives.aspx
While the traffic lasted, what was the routing when moved off Tennessee Pass?
Ah, Trains Express, not the magazine. Thank you, Midland.
Tthe article that was captioned on the cover as “The Great Ore Heist” was actually this one:
“Taconite west, coal east - carrying ore to Geneva Steel”
by Hempshill, Mark W., from Trains, March 1995, pgs. 36 - 47
(coal iron SP traffic WC )
There were several later articles that addressed some of the same subjects:
“UP + SP: in whose interest? - impending merger of Union Pacific and Southern Pacific”
by Hemphill, Mark W., from Trains, May 1996 p. 40
(merger SP UP )
“Opportunity lost: Tennessee Pass and the Royal Gorge Route - Will merger mean the end of the line over Tennessee Pass?”
by Hemphill, Mark W., from Trains, March 1997, p. 34
(D&RGW merger pass )
"Map of the month: Traffic over the Divide - traffic density on routes crossing the Continent
After the UP-SP merger the Union Pacific bought out the Wisconsin Central’s portion of the Geneva Steel contract. The reason being the UP had their own access to the Missabe Range by Duluth, unlike SP, who needed the WC to reach the DMIR and the taconite plants. Post-1997 the routing of these trains was shifted off Tennesse Pass- the routings varied depending on where the eastbound coal was loaded, some trains came through Moffatt Tunnel to Denver, then south to Pueblo, then east across Kansas on the ex-Mopac via Herington (I have shots of one east of Pueblo in 1997 with SP AC4400s for power) then on to Chicago via KC and STL.
Others ran via Cheyenne and the main line across Nebraska and Iowa to Chicago- once to Chicago the UP unloaded the coal, then they would run the train up to Itasca (Duluth-Superior) where the train set was cleaned and interchanged to the DMIR for loading on the Range. Once loaded it came back to the UP who ran it south to the Twin Cities, then via Mankato and Sioux City to Council Bluffs- where it headed west to Utah via the transcontinental main through North Platte,NE and Green River, WY. The last trains ran in 2001 when the mill went into bankruptcy protection and the majority of the workforce was laid off. The last one I saw was in 2001 at Missouri Valley, IA with five SP AC4400s headed west- hope that helps.
Thank you, Paul, for the rest of the story on finding “The Great Ore Heist.” Complete info is always appreciated!
And I apologize to one and all for my memory confusing a free pdf download with a printed article, sincerest apologies.