The Escanaba & Lake Superior Railway (E&LS)

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

There is this guy who lives a half block from the E&LS ROW. His name is Jason Asselin.

Every day he wakes up and walks down or drives around following all of the movements of the E&LS on video. He has caught all sorts of mishaps, operational foobars, FRA violations and several derail events.

The E&LS seems to run their motive power very hard, some people think its abusive. Recently he watched them put their single engine consist (only working engine) into a high notch and watched it slip its way at about 3mph up icy rail and unknown amounts of sand to get over a viaduct with the engine roaring in high volume

The rails are in really bad shape, not yet a ND&W level of ribbon rail, but undersized and under maintained.

Once Jason caught an engine derail right in front of him in the snow. As he stood there with his video camera recording, he was physically threatened by a railroad employee. He later got a cease and desist letter from the Michigan State Police. It was very weird.

The E&LS was recently reorganized and has new ownership. The last name was changed from “railroad” to “railway”. Private Equity company GLOR bought a majority share 70%, CN bought 20% and they left 10% for the former family who owned it before.

Watching a poor short line week in and week out you begin to ask yourself questions about how they run themselves. Yes, they don’t have a lot of money, can’t fix their rail (even though the State of Michigan offers generous grants to do so).

They seem to only have 3 customers, a wood products company, a metals recycler and a mystery for the other. They bring alot of traffic in and out for CN in the UP (Upper Peninsula), but watching the videos you find yourself waiting for the next mishap.

What will it be today? Logs falling off a rocking log car? Engine breakdowns? Getting stalled on minor hills due to only 1 engine, and having to back up and try three times, or do a load cut because they can’t make it.

A flagger has to follow them many times because some of their crossing signals don’t work properly.

Every day is a new adventure it seems.

1 Like
2

I have watched some of his YouTube videos. I think you should consider that not everything you watch on YouTube is reality and the person holding the camera and commenting sometimes is the spectacle itself vs the targeted subject matter. The bottom line is to make money with YouTube videos by pulling in people to watch, it’s not always to be accurate with the camera or on camera comments.

2 Likes
3

He does have a bit of a “reputation”.

1 Like
4

Absolutely, completely aware of all that. I mostly look at how the railroad operates. I am aware that in many cases the maker of the video wants it to be about them and not about what they are recording. As for that I don’t think he cares one way or another. For a guy living in the UP an extra 800-1000 dollars a month in ad revenue is a great way to supplement ones income.

1 Like
5

Like catching all of the “gypsies” on their vacation begging on the corners. I never knew people did such a thing until he found them out. They have RV’s and essentially go on vacation driving across the country and then beg on corners to pay their way. One of the families actually attacked him while sitting in his car watching. It’s a strange slice of life.

1 Like
6

Is this an ad?

7

It was asking if anyone has the same view of the E&LS operationally based on the videos seen online. People were sharing about “other” things they have seen in the videos.

Not an ad. Not a click push. No links provided.

8

E&LS looks OK to me. There are strings attached to getting aid to fix your tracks…it’s not free. In the case of WSOR, the state and counties primarily own the tracks I believe not the railroad. So that was the trade-off WSOR made. WSOR just informs the state or applies to the state to get the tracks upgraded or when they want a siding put in and the State Legislature budgets for it. Railroad structures are left to fall apart or are torn down because if the railroad keeps them up or improves them and does not use them…their assessed property taxes increase. Hence you see “safety concerns” cited as an issue when a railroad puts in an application to tear down an old depot or ask it be moved by such and such a date by preservationists. My belief is the railroad is trying to cut the tax bill more then they care about any safety issue.

In regards to crossing signals that are inoperative. That might be a joint City/County/Railroad decision to just rely on crossbucks and flagmen OR it could be a jurisdictional conflict of some kind. Not that many trains up there and not that many cars traversing the tracks up there. So do they want to spend…what is it now? $100k per railroad crossing for flashers and circuits? I am just guessing at the price but it is not cheap. Crossbucks for E&LS should be fine unless they run more trains or the locals want to pay for them.

Also back when E&LS was a family run operation the railfans were pretty horrible towards the railroad. Stealing items that were considered rare and also lurking around the property and on the property like they owned the railroad itself. So in part I can see why the owner back then was considered kind of a recluse. It would have ticked me off if it was me (not that I would ever buy a railroad myself).

9

That creator seems to like drama. I get it - if it was just another railfan channel it would have like 60 followers.

But add drama? Instant clout.

10

Jawbone of an Ass (Jawbone) is like that, too. I can’t stand either one.

11

I have seen him too. I always wondered if Trains would ever do an article on the “Best of Video Railfanning” just like they do with photography.

If anything it would give newcomers an idea of what is considered Good, bad or ugly.

I can start a separate thread on the subject.

12

Personally I would hope not

13

Good point Zug…especially after what I said to you earlier…WOW what timing. Keep up the good work of “monitoring” th Forum. regards mike endmrw1213251407

14

"Also back when E&LS was a family run operation the railfans were pretty horrible towards the railroad. Stealing items that were considered rare and also lurking around the property and on the property like they owned the railroad itself. "

Only a few months ago, the number boards were stolen from a parked locomotive. Fortunately, they were returned/recovered…but that sort of thing isn’t going to make fans more welcome.