YUMA Sand Closing

[Bob1]

I herd the tracks will be torn up between yuma and cadillac.

[Mike H]

Little late for an April fools joke. That kind of thing wouldn't just happen overnight even if that was true..

Mike H

[astrovanman1989]

i heard it to they might be closing from a relaible source

[SD80MAC]

I have also heard the owners of the mine will be shutting it down soon. That being said, I haven't heard anything about the tracks being abandoned. GLC will lose about 20-30 cars a week once the mine is closed.

[cfriedri]

Edit: Question no longer relevant

[Jochs]

There is really nothing between Yuma and Cadillac, except a siding at Boon, which usually has cars stored in it.
This is from 5/10/15, in Boon.

[AARR]

Back when they were using 70 ton covered hoppers Yuma would ship 20-30 car blocks of sand, 4-5x per week. Most of that went to the Ford casting plants in Cleveland.

In the early 90's 100 ton cars became the norm and number of carloads dropped but not overall tonnage. Mr. TSB tells a story of the first time they delivered the bigger cars for loading with a message to the pit managers they could only fill them part ways up otherwise they would overload them. The first 17 cars were filled to the top and the cars broke in half.

It's decline started around 2007 when the Ford casting plants in Cleveland started closing or reducing sand usage. By around 2010 almost all sand to Cleveland stopped.

Yuma still has a couple good years (2012, 2013) shipping frac sand but with the opening of better grades of frac sand pits in IL and WI Yuma's importance quickly fell again.

[GP-35]

Sand plant my be closing, but the new feed mixing place in the old Delta Truss building when up & running will recieve 25 car cut of feed twice a week. That will pick up where the sand left off, Also the new track for the power plant is under con. right now in Mcbain, grade is done & the ties are being spread out on the new grade. Also Lafarge & Holcim Cement have merged, the deal was final July 20. The Federal Trade Commission made Lafarge & Holcim sell off some cement plant & termanals to there competeters to break up the monopeley. you can Goggle the sale & read more about it. The Elmira terminal was included, the new onwner is Buzzi Cement, Elmira will switch to rail in the spring of 2016, 20 to 40 cars a week, the cement will be coming from one of there seven plants the owne. GLC will have plenty of work!!

[AARR]

GLC has a relatively new sales man (couple years now?) who has developed five or six new customers north of Clare in the last few years. The old railroad ties is particularly good business with up to 2000 cars a year anticipated (that's 40 a week so we'll see if it's that many or not). Merritt Energy is reportedly shipping 40-60 cars a month (10-15 a week) from the gas plant south of Kalkaska. The other new customers do not ship as many carloads but are still nice to have.

GP35 has connections and is a reliable source but until I see the business I'm a little skeptical that those projections at this time are optimistic sales outlooks I won't be disappointed if I'm wrong, though

[Raildudes dad]

Given the drop on the price of oil it wouldn't surprise me that frac sand traffic drops to virtually nothing. IIRC, Yuma traffic got really slow in 2007/8 when the automotive was in the toilet. There also appears to be a drop in sand traffic from the new transload at Fuller in GR.

[Jochs]

Given the drop on the price of oil it wouldn't surprise me that frac sand traffic drops to virtually nothing. IIRC, Yuma traffic got really slow in 2007/8 when the automotive was in the toilet. There also appears to be a drop in sand traffic from the new transload at Fuller in GR.

Also a side-note...last time I was down by Bridgman at Livingston Rd. a few weeks ago, (Livingston on CSX) it appeared Technisand was abandoned.

[AARR]

I think Fairmount Minerals, the company that owned Yuma Sand, also owned Technisand.

Also a side-note...last time I was down by Bridgman at Livingston Rd. a few weeks ago, (Livingston on CSX) it appeared Technisand was abandoned.

[TC Man]

Drove by there just a bit ago. It's certainly already closed up. Stopped at the little gas station near Harrietta, and clerk said last week they let everyone go except a few to finish getting equipment ready to become dormant and ship out the tractors.

And I highly doubt the tracks will suddenly be ripped out (and Bob1, you HEARD, not HERD). Look at the Grawn branch- 6 years plus since the last train and it's still in place. Yuma line is perfect for car storage (very few NIMBY's), and you never know what could go in the sand mine in the future.

[Notch 8]

Any reason given why the sand facility closed in Yuma ? I guess my question if it has not been mined out completely is there a possibility of someone else taking this facility and shipping in the future ?

[CAT345C]

The price of Crude is below the threshold for fracking to be cost effective. The entire industry is down right now. Good thing so many shortlines those gut Frac sand was their saving grace.

[AARR]

Yuma was also shipping casting sand which the volume has dropped significantly since 2006-07 when Ford changed their molding processes. They used to ship up to 65 cars a week (it was more than that in the days when they used 70 ton cars) of casting sand to Ford in Cleveland alone. Just before shutting down I think they were shipping maybe 20-30 or so cars a week of casting sand...just a guess.

The price of Crude is below the threshold for fracking to be cost effective. The entire industry is down right now. Good thing so many shortlines those gut Frac sand was their saving grace.

[Saturnalia]

Could be seeing a ton of drillers and sand producers dying in the next year...plenty are barely holding on. Crude will probably stay low, too, since they're about to lift sanctions on Iran so more oil will flow from there.

[Notch 8]

So really, cheap oil is not good for the economy... Crap I believe is getting ready to hit the Fan !

[GLC 392]

Also Fairmount Materials owns plants in Wi and MN that are much more efficient and are also newer with higher output capabilities. I don't see this being the end of the line. Here a few years ago the railroad invested a lot of Money into the siding and main at Yuma. I see someone trying to buy that place, may not be right away but i see someone taking it over.

[J T]

So really, cheap oil is not good for the economy... Crap I believe is getting ready to hit the Fan !

Cheap oil = cheap gas = more spending money in the pockets of consumers = good for the economy.