Escanaba and Lake Superior Railway (ELSR)

[chapmaja]

An agreement has been reached in principal for the GLOR to purchase the E&LS as well as lease the CN Ore Subdivision from Escanaba to Ishpeming. The deal will become effective on January 1st, 2025, or upon approval of the STB.

The deal includes the following stipulations.

1) GLOR will purchase and then "sell" the E&LS, including all trackage rights over CN to the owned subsidiary, Escanaba and Lake Superior Railway (ELSR).

2) ELSR will lease the CN Ore Subdivision from Escanaba to Ishpeming from CN. The lease is for a period of 25 years.

3) ELSR will obtain tracakge rights over CN between SSM, Ont and Escanaba in addition to the trackage rights they currently have between Escanaba and Pembine. These trackage rights will only apply to traffic destined for locations on the ELSR. No overhead traffic from or to CP (via SSAC) will be allowed

4) GLOR's current up trackage (Ishpeming to L'Anse and Trout Lake to Munising) will be transfered to the ELSR. Previous trackage rights agreements will remain in effect between Trout Lake and SSM, Ont.

5) ELSR will purchase the CN SSM, Michigan yard and begin rehabilitation and expansion of the property for future movement of the interchange between SSAC and CN to SSM, Michigan. This will be effective at a later date.

6) The Larkin Family will retain the Escanaba and Wells shop areas, as well as the following locomotives: BW&D 1, WPC 1, ELS 101, 102, 102B, 106, 201, 202, 204, 207, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 300, 600, 901, 950, 1205, and 1216.

7) GLOR's ELSR will purchase the following locomotives: 400, 401, 402, 500, 501, 502, 503, 1200, 1201, 1202, 1220, 1221, 1222, 1223, 1224

ELRS will be building a locomotive maintainance facility at the Channing Yard Property to maintain all power on the line.

9) ELSR will take over switching of the Billerud plant in Escanaba effective on 1-1-2025. ELSR will reconnect the Ore Subdivision with the Billerud plant to allow effective switching of the plant.

10) ELSR will purchase the CN Ore Docks Yard.

11) CN will retain operational rights for ore trains running over the Ore Subdivision, should the need for any arise.

12) The Larkin family will retain excursion operations rights over the railroad, including trackage rights over CN lines (with approval of CN on a trip by trip basis). They will also maintain ownership of all passenger equipment used as part of said service.

13) Ownership of the ELSR will be 70% GLOR, 20% Canadian National, and 10% Larkin Family.

As a result of this transaction, GLOR is also expected to sell multiple locomotives to the ELSR from their railroad locomotive roster. While exact units have not been determined, it is estimated that several end cab switchers and SD40-2 locomotives will be included in the transaction to provide additional power for the GLOR.

All locomotives will be painted into a modified version of the current E&LS paint scheme. The scheme will change from the current orange, yellow and black scheme to a light blue, dark blue and yellow scheme, with the lettering to read, Escanaba and Lake Superior Railway.

The current plan is for all Escanaba based traffic to be interchanged to CN's train L55281, the Gladstone - Quinnesec local, this will include traffic from the Ore Subdivision bound for SSM and the SSAC.

ELSR will also have trackage rights over CN from Howard Wisconsin to interchange with CN in Green Bay's Yard.

A train operational plan will be posted upon approval of the deal by the STB.

[chapmaja]

The railroad, if the agreements are approved by the STB, will be divided into the following Divisions and Subdivisions.

Ishpeming Division - Escanaba to Baraga (only currently active to L'Anse)

L'Anse Subdivision - Euclid Yard to Baraga

Escanaba Subdivision - Escanaba to Euclid Yard

Newberry Division - Trout Lake to Munising

Channing Division - Green Bay to Rockland

Sidnaw Subdivision - Channing to Rockland including branch to Floodwood and Branch to Nestoria

Iron Mountain Subdivision - Green Bay to Channing

Menominee Division - Menominee to Crivitz (only active in Menominee and Marinette).

Trackage Rights over CN will be established / maintained between

Escanaba and Pembine

Escanaba and SSM. ONT (including interchange with Newberry Subdivision)


All traffic contained on trackage rights trains must be destined for or coming from locations on the ELSR or SSAC. No traffic on trackage rights trains may be interchanged with CP in Sudbury. If traffic from the ELSR is destined for CP in Sudbury or Franz, it must be interchanged to CN who will then hand it off to SSAC in SSM. This clause is in place to prevent CN from losing traffic over through the trackage rights deal.

[chapmaja]

There has been an interesting development in the previously mentioned (on the GLOR page) decision to lease the L'Anse, and now subsequently the entire line from Escanaba to L'Anse from CN.

The reason GLOR was interested in this line had to do with the large volume of stamp sands which were present in the area north of L'Anse and Baraga. There was a plant being developed in Sudbury which would reprocess the old stamp sands and make industrial use of them. Environmentalists had been calling for the dredging and removal of the stamps sands in the region damaging the environment for years.

The news is a new potential customer for the stamp sands has been found. A company located in Colorado has found a way to make use of the used stamp sand in the making of shingles. They are opening an facility in Baraga which will dry the dredged sands and transload them into covered hoppers for transport. The facility is expected to be up and running by the Spring of 2025, when land based removal of the stamps sands will commence. Dredging of the sands from the Keewenaw Bay will not begin until all required environmental permits are pulled, which is estimated to be 2026 at the earliest.


The company anticipates shipping approximately 20 carloads of stamp sands per week, but the plans for the facility only call for a 5 car loading area.

GLOR / ELSR is unsure about how they will handle operations on the extension to Baraga. On possibility is to station a pair of locomotives in Baraga and operate a Baraga to L'Anse turn. The second option is to simply extend the train which runs to L'Anse to the end of the line in Baraga.

Also, there is a rumor that a new business may desire to move into the region near Ontonagon. While the location has not been released, this location will be located near the railbanked ROW but will not be at the location of the now removed Mill in town. Exact details of the business have not been announced, but it appears that this business will be in the forest products industry and may use both inbound and outbound rail service if it does in fact become a reality. The location would require the rebuilding of a majority of the ROW which was removed, which may be an obstacle to actually happening.

[chapmaja]

These is also another possible customer on the line west of Rockland, or a possible tranload in Rockland.

Highland Copper has continued their permitting process on the White Pine North Project, located near the now shuttered White Pine Copper Refinery. There are continued talks of reactivating the White Pine Refinery.

The first choice would be to ractivate the line, which GLOR does have an operational purchase right to, from its connection with the FOXY in Wisconsin. The estimated cost for this project would be roughly 80 million dollars due to significant damage to the line which occurred in 2016. Additionally, there are concerns that the rail line would travel through areas that are highly opposed to the project and have a history or blockading the railroad.

The second choice would be to develop a tranload operation either at Ontongan or Rockland along the existing right of way. The transload would be located approximately 30 miles from the mine location and would be on an existing rail line. While this is the 2nd option, it is likely the best option in terms of financial feasibility.

While the mine is still in the permitting process the decision on how to proceed is still years away.

The determination as to opening the transload in Ontongan or Rockland may depend on if any other customers open on the line.

[AARR]

Good one!

These is also another possible customer on the line west of Rockland, or a possible tranload in Rockland.

Highland Copper has continued their permitting process on the White Pine North Project, located near the now shuttered White Pine Copper Refinery. There are continued talks of reactivating the White Pine Refinery.

[chapmaja]

One more quick update on this operation.

The plans have been approved for the energy generation plant outside Newberry (Dollarville). This small plant, which will be operated by a local energy co-op will burn wood pellets being produced by Searchmont Pellets, who is building a pellet production plant alongside the SSAC.

Plans call for the plant to burn approximately 5-8 carloads per day of wood pellets when operating at peak capacity. The current plant is for a single unit train from Searchmont to Newberry to operate using trackage rights over CN from Trout Lake to SSM, Ont.

The plant will be location adjacent to the DNR dam access road.

To service the plant, a new passing siding off the main will be constructed west of Newberry and east of the plant. The unit train of pellets, expected to be brought once per week from Searchmont, will be dropped in this siding and the empties taken back to Searchmont. The plant will be serviced either daily or every other day by the Newberry local.

[chapmaja]

There may be further expansion of this operation as well.

GLOR / ELSR representitives are in talks with CN about how much it would cost to purchase all of the trackage CN currently operates north of Green Bay. While it seems like the price would be out of the question at this point, GLOR representivies are pushing CN for a cost for the lines. It seems like this would be a far distant possibility, but management would like a starting point to move from.

One point of any potential deal would be that CN would retain trackage rights over the entire railroad combination between Hearst and Green Bay.

Overall I feel this is a very long long shot possibility, but not completely impossible either.