Anyone here from Michigan’s UP? What is going on up there in the railroading world? What is left of the railroad lines after all the retrenchments of the last 25 years. Is there still substantial traffic? Shortlines? Is the traffic growing or declining? What happened to the WisDOT initiative to buy log hauling cars to preserve the pulpwood traffic to the Fox River Valley paper mills?
Fox River Valley is in WI, not the UP (MI).
AI:
- Many older, outdated paper mills have closed due to declining demand for printing papers and the high cost of modernizing facilities.
- While the paper industry remains a part of Wisconsin’s economy, many historical mills in the Fox River Valley no longer operate.
I think the implication is that the trees to be used in the Fox River Valley mills come from the Upper Peninsula, and the WisDOT subsidy was for captive cars to facilitate that.
Suppose so and CMStP could have simply said so. Why do you feel the need to be the interpretor for other people?
In any case if many to most of the mills are closed, seems unnecessary for the state to supply rail cars.
Because I see this turning into another argument, which could be nipped in the bud by recognizing the semantics.
Fine. I was merely supplying relevant factual information.
There’s not much left. Watco took over the old Soo/WC/CN northwest of Trout Lake and runs it with 2? locomotives out of Newberry. The LS&I is down to less than 10 locomotives (some of which are leased) and just services the Tilden Mine since Empire closed several years ago. Some of the ore was going to Cliffs Dearborn but they just closed the blast furnace there and I’m not sure if it’s being shipped to Toledo or Cleveland. I think CN still runs 1-2 freights a day between Gladstone and the Soo. I think that’s about it.
What about the E&LS are they the only ones still carrying pulpwood to the paper mills? I thought they took the pulpwood to Green Bay, then CN onto Kimberly-Clark or wherever?
E&LS is getting scrap steel from somewhere (I think that is in the UP but not sure) I see on YouTube.
At this point according to Google AI only Appleton Coated, BPM Inc. and MillTown Paper remain in operation in Wisconsin.
Likely the E&LS carries some scrap steel.
I forgot about them. I think they’re about ready to sink into the mud. They aren’t doing well, at all.
Oh-oh
The thing I never understood about E&LS is they never went for the state money to upgrade their railroad line to my knowledge. No idea why. Both Michigan and Wisconsin I thought offer money to railroads to upgrade their lines. Must be strings attached that E&LS does not like.
CN line looks in good shape still, I am guessing this is the line to Soo.
Looks like E&LS is still hauling pulpwood. Not sure where to though.
Video is dated, from 2018.
Here is the Michigan DOT rail map:
To add to what has already been said:
The Grand Elk/Watco line out of Trout Lake goes to a paper mill in Munising. The GDLK line to White Pine has been OS for a while.
The CN line north of Escanaba may still haul all-rail iron ore movements, but the ore dock at Escanaba has been shut down. I believe there are still paper mills at L’Anse and the Iron Mountain area.
The LS&I ore dock north of Marquette is the only active ore dock left in Mich.
MRI hauls Nickel concentrate in the Ishpeming area and turns it over to CN for haulage to Sudbury.
ELS between Nestoria and Sidnaw has been used for car storage. The ELS out of Escanaba just runs a few miles to a paper mill, and the rest of the line to Channing has been OS for decades. I believe they have trackage rights on CN to connect to the rest of their system.
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ELS line South into Wisconsin is still active to Green Bay, correct? WisDOT is still showing it active and I think they are still running loads of pulpwood South to Green Bay or has that been abandoned?
I see where the CN parallels now it is farther to the East (former C&NW from Green Bay to Menominee is my guess). Thanks for the map that helps a lot. I think there are active Kimberly-Clark mills in Green Bay and Neenah / Appleton but no idea if ELS has that traffic. They passed a law in Wisconsin that the logging trucks can use the Interstate in sections now, I think that was 2023 but I am going off memory. That might have eaten into the pulp traffic but I have no idea…didn’t read up on the law.
Wisconsin map:
There’s still a lot of paper made in the Fox Valley. Much of it uses recycled as source material. There’s a pulp mill in Kaukauna. Daily local from Neenah with pulpwood and woodchip cars. Green Bay Packaging built the first brand new mill in Wisconsin in 30 years last year in GB. Wisconsin Tissue, Georgia Pacific, P&G, KC, Appvion, Neenah Paper all have one or more major mills and there are many specialized converters. Along with paper there’s all kinds of plastic based packaging and films manufacturers here also. Lots of pellet hauling covered hopper cars.
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I believe the ELS trackage rights are on CN’s line from Escanaba to Iron Mountain, which parallels to the south of the original Escanaba-Channing ELS line.
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I’m in the UP right now. Spent last night in St Ignace and we’re in Calumet for the next three days. All I’ve seen is a leased unit on the Grand Elk Newberry line in the Seney area and three LS&I GEs, two on the ore dock and one switching at Eagle Mills. The Joseph L Block was at the ore dock but loading wasn’t happening.
I’ll be by Gladstone on Friday.
The old Calumet & Hecla roundhouse still shows on satellite view, but is much altered. I took a photo of it 50 years ago when it was still in its original shape, but somehow my automatic camera double exposed it. You might need to click on the satellite view icon in the lower left of the image.
I haven’t seen it, but apparently the Quincy & Torch Lake roundhouse is closer to its original shape.
Ahh, St. Ignace.
My wife and I spent our honeymoon on Mackinac Island, and stayed at a cottage in Pte. La Barbe.
Rich
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