A Day in the Life of the Mineral Range Railroad | Pure Michigan Trains
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ต.ค. 2024
- 17 Sep 2016, ISHPEMING, MI -- In the heart of the Marquette Iron Range, a shortline railroad has recently expanded to serve the Humboldt Mill, a site with a lot of mining history. The operation is a unique slice of Michigan railroading, which we're bringing to you as the latest edition of Pure Michigan Trains!
Our coverage of a day in the life of the Mineral Range begins in Ishpeming, where they enter their own rails for the first leg of their turn to Humbdolt.
Historically LS&I rails towards the Republic Mine, the Mineral Range purchased the line from Landing Jct to Humbdolt Jct, and reinstalled the recently abandoned segment of the line from Humbdolt Jct to Humboldt Mill, in order to serve a rebuilt mill site, now owned and operated by the newest mine in the State of Michigan, the Eagle Mine.
As the train arrives at the mill, we get a look from the sky thanks to the drone, where we see the cleanest mining site in the country, where safety and environmental contamination are paramount. There is hardly any noise pollution, and no dust.
Formerly the site of an iron ore mine, the mill was essentially abandoned before the Eagle Mine spent tens of millions rebuilding an repurposing to process their nickel and copper ore.
After an incredibly earth-conscious milling process, the outbound nickel and copper concentrates are loaded into sealed gons for a number of reasons. First, the fine powder is best not exposed to air or water. It also keeps the dust down. The concentrates warrant a catch-all hazmat tag, as they just barely exceed the minimum threshold as a marine pollutant for heavy metals in the United States - but interestingly, not in Canada.
We then chase the train back to Ishpeming, where the cars are handed off to the CN for shipment to smelters in Canada or loading into ocean-going ships for transport worldwide.
As for the railroad itself, the stately GP7 and GP9 add a nice flare of character to the line, a modest affair through the woodlands of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Side note, the Mineral Range existed previously as a couple-mile branch line south of Ishpeming serving a scrap facility and explosives transload for the Empire and Tilden Mines. Thus, this expansion has been an exponential increase in the business for this shortline.
Mineral Range RR Humboldt Turn
WB Consist:
ISLX 1323 [GP9]
ISLX 1345 [GP7]
20 cars [Empty Gons for Humboldt Mill]
EB Consist:
ISLX 1345 [GP7]
ISLX 1323 [GP9]
17 cars [Loaded Gons from Humboldt Mill]
Location/Time:
Mineral Range RR, Ishpeming, MI, Cooper Lake Cutacross Rd xing, on 9-17-16 at 08:32 EDT
Ely Twp, County Rd 585 xing, at 08:41
Humboldt, US41 xing, at 09:32
Humboldt Mill, County Rd 601 xing, at from 09:58 to 10:35
Humboldt, M95 xing, at 10:50
Diorite, Diorite Rd xing, at 11:17
Ely Twp, County Rd CL bridge, at 11:33
Ishpeming, US 41 bridge, at 11:52
Ishpeming, EE Elucid Yard, along US 41, at 12:00
Ishpeming, Washington St xing, at 12:14
For a Map of Railroads in the Upper Peninsula, presented by TRRS, check out this link for a Google Map overlay!
drive.google.c...
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Videography Equipment:
-Primary: Sony PJ790 Camcorder
-Aerial Platform: DJI Phantom 3 Advanced Drone
-Edited with: Cyberlink PowerDirector 13
People:
-Alex C: Owner, producer, and narrator
-Andrew E: Aerial platform owner and operator
Copyright 2016 Thornapple River Rail Series by Alex Christmas, All Rights Reserved
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THanks! Love watching our locals!
Glad to see not only these old locos holding strong but the old cast p5 is as well. They still use them on a lot of the older ones
Thank You! I live in Ishpeming and all the places in video I been to and seen that train many many times👍
awesome video. cool horn on the high hood loco nice.
Phillip Lee andc
aappp
Trying iuuiiuiioppploppppkpoppppppppppppppppoo
I haven't seen one of those high nose locomotives in over 30 years. I didn't know some of them were still in service.
Quite a few of the short line railroads that I've watched recent videos on still have a decent amount of them restored and in active service.
Thanks so much... my grandpa Julius Tryck was born there in Ishpeming !!
Gotta love that Burlington northern paint scheme on that out bound ore train from hundolt
Looked like a soo line snow deflector over the fan.
Nice to see northern Michigan's rail network being revitalized! Cannot wait to see more!
I remember way back in the 1990's when that railroad line 3:45 was there on US 41 and when i went there in 2002 it was gone. Nice to see it back and running.
Indeed, after decades of cutbacks, it was nice to see some comeback in Upper Peninsula railroading. The new copper mine project around Ontonagon is also promising...we shall see!
The fact that they were able to bring back trackage that was abandon, is almost unheard of in most cases. That is so great, and the old geeps are awesome in my book! Nice video!
Absolutely awesome power! Love those classic geeps.
First time I've seen documented the UP railways. Thanks!
Excellent video! Your narration fills in the activity very well. Keep up the good work!
We just found your videos & we love trains & your videos are great. Thank you
what a beautiful videos
thank you!
I wish you lots of success
Regards from the Netherlands (Rotterdam)
Rob.
Another great video, thank you for your time and effort. Learning a lot.
A well described video, Thank you for sharing a superb video.
Very impressive work!!!! Keep it up!
Very good! Congratulations from Brazil!
Any locomotive old enough to have pole pockets still serving in active duty in 2016 is ok in my book!
Pole pockets are not a term I am familiar with. Anthony
yes, what are pole pockets?
The guy pulling the switch should tie a rope to the back of the train and then pull it as the train is backing up so it will create an illusion he is really strong and he is pulling the train by himself as people fail to realize the locomotive is pushing it. That's a nice wooded area. People were supposed to go to Etsy and buy up my "Dance of Death" a James Grider novel for $2.99 so I could save enough money to move out of the desert to a wooded area like in the video. But I bet it's freezing like hell there in the winter.
Awesome video!
Great video!
Nice catch...
Great documentary!
i like video like this. the train load the wagon from start to end delivery.
I wait your next video like that.
You'll probably like some of my other new postings then, including "Empire's Last Stand" and "CN Serves the North, the Quinnesec Turn"
Thornapple River Rail Series . yes you're right. ✌
wow u captured the MR RR well it nice to see them with with my eye's & Nt thru my camera
Awesome!
Looks like you have similar troubles to mine with CyberLink PDR 13, in which the transitions get flipped!
Yeah, unfortunately I didn't catch it until after the upload. It is totally random and not a common occurrence...infuriating when it slips by, though!
Very nice video by the way.
Love the x BN motor.
I like train videos videos on TH-cam 👍
Very interesting.
The audio sounded fine on my computer. The commentary is so good. Watching rail fan vids (without commentary) is like watching a math professor write a formula and a solution on the blackboard without saying a word, then giving a hand flown "Ta Da". WTF? Also, just to let you know, to support your channel, I liked, I commented and I watched a Japanese stewardess fold napkins, twice!!
Merry Christmas/Hanuka,
Rich
Great video!! I love the commentary it adds so much to the video because it gives you the story of what and where the train is headed. .just wondering if there is video of the gondolas being loaded and how they put the lids on?
No I don't have a video of it but I have seen how they do it. They just have an overhead crane that picks up the lids and then they load with a front-end loader. It's all indoors.
Any idea why CN owns the rail from Humboldt to Baraga? Seems odd to have an isolated segment. Does the line carry any traffic?
It's because they used to have their own track from Humboldt Jct to Ishpeming but abandoned it to run over the LS&I segment as a rationalization move. It was all done around the 1960s and 70s. Yes there is still traffic at L'Anse and so CN runs two turns a week out that way.
Thanks!
Saw some cn power idling in brimley last year.
Well with the deregulation of the E.P.A. in 2017 and the 14% cut in the corporate tax this mill should be making money hand over fist,kudos to them.
LOL They where before the EPA roll back and tax cuts! At the eagle mine Copper and Nickle are extracted underground.
Oh it's the ONLY operating Nickle mine in the US.
CN takes the ore to Canada for smelting and further processing.
Very good cinematography and subject matter, but I have to ask. What kind of microphone setup do you use to record your narration? I may have to recommend that you invest in something that puts out a little better audio quality. The mic was giving some scratchy-sounding feedback that really is a bit hard on the ears.
I've just been using my camera's microphone. Yeah, I know, not the best per se. But that is what the budget to this point has allowed for. Hoping to change that sometime soon.
If I could make a recommendation for a good starter microphone, I'd say to try looking into the Blue Snowball. You can pick one up for around $40-50 new, and they work pretty nicely for stuff like this. Also, another thing I'd recommend is paying attention to where you do your recording. Small rooms with a lot of soft stuff to absorb echoes are great. I'm lucky to have some practice rooms available that are designed to have good acoustics, but a walk-in closet full of clothes would also work wonders. Hope that helps!
Awsome
1345 ex BN?how many trains a day/ week
When the lights are flashing at a crossing it means stop! Not slow down and check if the way is clear, a "give way" sign would cover that.
Hi from NZ,
Anthony
"STOP" stands for "slightly tap on pedal"...
Thornapple River Rail Series lol
Some people will never understand...
...that is, until a freight train mows them over.
If police would sit by these non gated crossings when a train was approaching it would literally be equivalent to a drug bust
Why no crossing lights on the Landing Jct Loco?
UPPER pinn??.... Did they have to deliver everything for the railroad by barges?? I've been there, and we had to take a ferry!!!.. I just wonder, I can just see locos riding over and all of that rail..
It's a peninsula. As in, it is connect by land, with water on 3 sides. Plus the far end has bridges into Canada. Plenty of railroad tracks past and present reaching the UP by terra firma.
Great video! Atlas released a recent run of Thrall 2743 gondolas. Some of the models came with covers and some did not. The gondolas I purchased did not have covers and I need four of them (preferably black but I can airbrush them if someone has the yellow or undecorated covers). I contacted Atlas and they do not have any in stock. I'd be grateful if someone out there has some of the covers and is willing to sell them to me.
The tracks laid in the 1880s were probably replaced with new ballast, ties, and rails because they will go through deterioration over time, especially over 50 years or so.
nepeanunofficial
An old Santa Fe beach line near my house that was ripped up in 1994 was still using 90 lb rail from 1913. I have one of the 39 foot rails at my house. It probably replaced the original 1886 rails that were first laid down and was in service until the line closed.
What type of engine is the red one?
See the video description. The consist details are listed there, in order.
So they shut down the CTC on the LS&I through Ishpeming? And here I always hear that railroading is on its way back in the US. Seems like quite a step backwards.
It was shut down at least 20 years ago, IIRC. The reason is that most of the local mines have closed, so the number of ore trains plummeted. That's how it is in the mineral ranges today...hard to open up new mines when most of the main seams have been played out and environmental rules are so tough.
Thornapple River Rail Series
And yet the need for mining never goes away, so we import from places where they don't have so many regulations. As for the CTC on that line, I rarely get by there and the last few times I just looked over and saw the signal heads and assumed they were functional. I didn't notice they were turned to the side. Anyway, I thought having CTC would be beneficial even on a lower traffic line, rather than going back to dark line.
Why are the greatest days of America's mines behind us?
Natural gas, oil and renewables...
Why would that affect iron ore mines?
Fred Stiening Ah, I was thinking of coal.
I'd suggest imports being one possibility and the rising popularity of aluminium as another? It's food for thought.
Yes, steel imports, particularly from China, have hurt the domestic steel industry hard.
Man I think the U.P railroads are confusing to me just cannot find a schedule lol
Scanner is a good option for that.
Are those logos alcos?
No, EMDs. Take a peek at the description.
Great video, but you got a lot of the transitions backwards
Yup, it was the fault of PowerDirector. I edited the video, and watched it once to spot errors. I believe I corrected a couple of spellings or something small so re-rendered it, but didn’t need to watch it again. But it messed up the transitions the second time, which I guess is an error PD would do once and awhile back then before a patch came out.
Long story short I typically do not re-upload things once they’ve been published, and it was weeks before somebody pointed out the problem. Now I watch the final cut always before publication.
@@ThornappleRiverRailSeries You're good, m8.
what is this train carrying? not iron ore for sure.
I thought the 'Mineral range' was a copper country railroad that was ended before ww1
Indeed, the owner chose to resurrect the name for his railroad. He found it fitting to his operation.
nice that old names are returned to their former 'glory' thanks
Great upload, but the audio is really screwed up.
How so?
All of your vocals sound super distorted, which I've never heard before on your vids. Just wanted to let you know in case you didn't realize this.
He needs to upgrade his audio. Cheap, under a hundred!
The Audio sounded fine to me.
I thoroughly enjoyed this. I am very interested in Eagle Mine and Humboldt Mill. Only nickel mine in the US. They seem to have hit the mother load. For those interested, here's a Google Map I put together, drive.google.com/open?id=1c4Fr9KaOoS-NjkUXYg2vDhGQj04&usp=sharing
It'll be interesting to see if they actually go after the "Eagle East" deposit. Doesn't sound like they've made that call yet, but they are starting the process of blasting their way down there. The company is still doing a lot of exploratory work, so hopefully they'll be able to keep the Mill operating beyond the projected end of the mine around 2020.
Have you seen the Pentrex video Michigan Ore Lines? I don't think it has been released on DVD but there are some old VHS copies around. I have one myself. It was filmed in the late 1980s. Very cool video-especially with LS&I's former fleet of Alco and General Electric diesels.
Two roll byes are more than enough.
I could add some more comments to my first comment but then it may spoil the purity of your apolitical you-tube site.
They should get some new engines, these old ones look stupid
I love them. They look & sound great! EMD!
Rob Cmor They fit just fine in the U.P. Not really an upper class suburb area that cares about a little rust.
Great video!