The Escanaba & Lake Superior Railroad (reporting markELS) is a Class III shortline railroad that operates 347 miles (558 km) of track in Northeastern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.[1] Its main line runs 208 miles (335 km) from Rockland, Michigan, to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and it also owns various branch lines and out-of-service track.[1] In 1897, the Escanaba River Company built a seven-mile (11 km) railroad from Wells, Michigan, to tap a large hardwood timber stand at LaFave’s Hill.[2] In 1898, the company name was changed to the Escanaba & Lake Superior Railway (E&LS).
History
Founding to 1978
Isaac Stephenson, Jefferson Sinclair, Daniel Wells Jr., Harrison Ludington, and Nelson Ludington were the founders of the N. Ludington Company. It was again renamed to the I. Stephenson company when Isaac Stephenson became majority owner in the same year. The N. Ludington Company became part of this company, and along with being rebranded as the Escanaba River Company, became a subsidiary of this new company[3] in 1888. The Escanaba River Co. constructed 7 miles (11 km) to connect the company to hardwood reserves west of Wells and Escanaba. Work began in 1898 to extend the track 31 miles (50 km) from Wells northwest to Watson[4] and was completed in 1899.[5]
An example of the Hardwood logging on the early components of the E&LS
A branch line referred to Ford River was constructed in 1899 from Watson for a distance of 8.7 miles (14.0 km). This branch was abandoned in 1910. In 1902, the E&LS built three miles (4.8 km) of track southeast out of Wells into the center of Escanaba.
From 1900 to 1903, the railroad extended the mainline track 31.8 miles (51.2 km) to Channing.[6][7] This established a connection with the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (component of the Milwaukee Road) and began their haulage rights agreement to their ore dock in Escanaba. At this time, the CMStP&P operated just north of 100 miles (160 km) in Michigan. As part of the agreement that allowed the CMStP&P access to its line, the E&LS was reincorporated as the Escanaba and Lake Superior Railroad for its agreement, which allowed it to reach Ontonagon on Lake Superior; it has used this name ever since. This agreement ran from February 12, 1900, to March 15, 1937.
At this point in the railroad's history, it had connections to both major Class 1 railroads that existed at the time in the UP (the Chicago and North Western and the Milwaukee Road) and was able to diversify its traffic base. This diversification included the Milwaukee Road ore trains mentioned above, bound for the now gone Milwaukee ore docks in Escanaba. The railroad also chartered a mixed passenger train that ran along the existing route up until the late 1950s. This service included run-through mail and express from the Milwaukee Road, and passengers bound north from the Chicago & North Western.
Starting in 1901 and continuing into 1902, a branch line was constructed from Northland for 10.9 miles (17.5 km) to the Escanaba River. Between 1902 and 1903, the Northland line was extended from the Escanaba River to Kates, a distance of 3.28 miles (5.28 km). The northernmost portion of this branch that extended 6.1 miles (9.8 km) from Gleason was abandoned June 7, 1922. This branch was abandoned in 1939.[8][9]
Other branch lines were built by the E&LS to get out the remote timber stands: Ralph, Turner (1911–1912), Mashek, and Hendricks (1915). These branches totaled more than 100 miles (160 km) of combined branch trackage and sidings. The railroad peaked at 80.9 miles (130.2 km) of mainline and 70.8 miles (113.9 km) of yard and sidings on June 30, 1918.[10]
In 1935, the Milwaukee Road moved its ore trains off the E&LS and entered into an agreement with the Chicago & North Western (C&NW) to jointly operate ore trains into Escanaba. Though the E&LS petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) and later the U.S. Supreme Court to be allowed to join the joint operations, it was blocked from doing so in 1938 by the Supreme Court.
In the 1940s, two major sources of traffic were developed near Escanaba: The Harnischfeger Corporation, which built large cranes for mining operations, and the Escanaba Paper Company.[11] The railroad's transportation of logs ended in 1943 with the closure of the Stephenson mill in Wells.[12] In the early 1960s, the E&LS was purchased by the Hanna Mining Company.[11]
In 1969, the E&LS stopped serving the Escanaba Paper Company during a strike (July 1, 1969) at the mill;[13] in response, the mill's owners built a new connection to the C&NW and Soo Line and cut car movements on the E&LS more than five-fold in two years, from 2,200 carloads in 1968 to 449 in 1970.[11] The E&LS continued skeleton service during the 1970s.[11] In 1978, Hanna requested permission from the ICC to abandon the railroad.[11]
A map of the original Wells–Channing line of the E&LSRR[14]
1978 to 2009
On October 6, 1978, Hanna Mining Company sold the E&LS Railroad to John C. Larkin and his father Wade Larkin, businessmen from Minneapolis who had organized a National Railway Historical Society passenger excursion on the railroad earlier in the decade.[15] He planned to return the railroad to profitability by reducing labor costs and entering the business of leasing boxcars to other railroads.[15] Shortly thereafter, the boxcar leasing market collapsed.[15] Additionally, with the Milwaukee Road going bankrupt in 1977, it planned to abandon its trackage in Michigan, consisting largely of a route between Ontonagon and Green Bay, Wisconsin.[16] This plan would break the E&LS's connections at Channing, as well as end rail service to the shippers on the Milwaukee Road lines.[16] One of these shippers, Champion Paper, which operated a mill in Ontonagon, approached the E&LS with a proposal for the railroad to buy the Milwaukee Road track to Ontonagon.[16]
E&LS Baldwin at Channing
Purchasing ex-Milwaukee Road, C&NW, and Soo Line trackage
The E&LS was able to reach an agreement with Milwaukee Road's bankruptcy court to take control of the Ontonagon route, as well as additional trackage south. They were backed by many of the line's shippers and the states of Michigan and Wisconsin, but opposed by the C&NW, which wanted to retain iron ore transport from the Groveland Mine in Randville, Michigan, and Hanna Mining, the former owner of the E&LS and owner of the Groveland Mine.[16] The C&NW and Milwaukee Road had previously shared service to the Groveland Mine under a decades-long agreement between the two, called the Menominee Range Iron Ore Pool.[17][18] By 1979, the mine impacted 31,000 of the 50,000 cars moved over the Milwaukee Road's tracks in the area, a level of traffic so high that Larkin publicly stated that the E&LS would not make a profit without it.[17] The ICC, and a US court, ruled in E&LS' favor.[19][20]
On March 10, 1980, the E&LS formally bought the ex-Milwaukee Road between Ontonagon through Channing south to Iron Mountain.[21] It also obtained a lease-to-own agreement of the tracks south from Iron Mountain to Green Bay; this section was purchased in 1982.[22][23] Upon purchase, the E&LS immediately began rebuilding its new trackage, which had been neglected by the Milwaukee Road in the years leading up to its bankruptcy.[21] Major funding came from the state of Michigan, which paid $1.6 million (equivalent to $4.97 million in 2023[24]) to install new ties on the track to Ontonagon.[21]
In April 1983 the E&LS RR and the Northeast Wisconsin Railroad Commission signed an agreement to rehabilitate 50 miles (80 km) of track between Green Bay and Crivitz. This agreement called for $2.27 million in federal and local funds. The Federal Railroad Administration share was $1.25 million with the E&LS contributing $1.02 million. This project's target was to improve this segment of track's conditions to meet FRA Class 2 standards.[25]
In November 1981, the E&LS bought additional trackage, this time a branch line from Channing north to Republic.[21] In 1985, it bought a branch from Crivitz, Wisconsin, on the Green Bay line, east to Marinette, Wisconsin, and Menominee, Michigan.[21] During 1987 and 1988, the line to Ontonagon had its lightweight rails replaced with new, heavier rails.[21]
In 1986, the E&LS connection track to the C&NW RR was built from a switch just south of Lineville Road in Howard, Wisconsin, to the C&NW Railroad's Howard Industrial Park siding line. This ultimately allowed the E&LS to discontinue operations south of Bond Street in Green Bay in 1993.[26] This connection was the result of a construction agreement between the E&LS and the C&NW that was executed on November 27, 1985, which provided joint access to the Howard Industrial Park.[27] Two of the contracts executed then allowed tenants of Howard Industrial Park a choice of competing railroads for shipping service. The E&LS mainline was stubbed off in September 2007, removing the track from Bond Street to the Oakland Avenue Yard in Green Bay.[citation needed]
The following year (1992), the E&LS mainline from Channing to Wells was taken out of service, with access to Escanaba retained via a new trackage rights agreement with the Wisconsin Central Railroad (now Canadian National Railroad), under which the E&LS was granted access their main line from Pembine, Wisconsin, to North Escanaba.[21]
On April 20, 1995, E&LS bought a short branch line between Stiles Junction, Wisconsin, just north of Green Bay, to Oconto Falls from the C&NW.[28] In 2005, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation provided a $2.01 million (equivalent to $3.01 million in 2023[24]) grant to rebuild E&LS trackage from Crivitz north to the Michigan state line.[21] This was the last section of mainline track that had not seen a complete rebuild since it was bought in 1980.[16]
These recent branch line acquisitions are used by the E&LS to store rolling stock for third parties.[16]
Post-2009 and track closures
After the closure of the Smurfit-Stone Paper Mill in Ontonagon in 2009, the Escanaba and Lake Superior abandoned 15 miles (24 km) of track between Ontonagon and milepost 395 one mile east of Rockland in 2011, [29] severing the railroad's closest trackage to Lake Superior. The remaining track between Rockland and Mass City is used for third-party long term car storage. The sidings between Escanaba & Channing are used for long term car storage. The E&LS and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources consummated a rail banking/interim trail use agreement on or about October 28, 2014, for the abandoned portion of the E&LS rail line between milepost 395 at Rockland and Ontonagon.[30] The abandoned segment is now the Ontonagon to Rockland Trail.[31]
The northernmost customer ships logs from an open air transload in the yard near the junction of East Branch Road and Depot Road in Mass City.[32]
Rolling stock
ELS 402 and 501 pull a long cut of cars into CN's Green Bay yard on September 12, 2021
The E&LS has been running a private passenger excursion yearly for invited guests and online customers since exiting passenger service on December 12, 1956.[11] Themes of trips run have been Shippers Special Train, American Honors Society, NRHS and Great Lakes Western[33] passenger special. E&LS handed off the North Woods Explorer[34] train to the Soo Line at Pembine, who then took it to Sault Ste. Marie and then the Algoma Central trip to the Agawa Canyon on May 24, 1992.[35]
These specials necessitated two special runs between the engine shops at Wells and the E&LS mainline at Pembine over Canadian National Railroad trackage from North Escanaba to Powers to Hermansville and finally to Pembine.[36]
Shippers Special
The Shippers Special Train usually runs late spring-early summer from Pembine south to Howard and then back north to Channing. There the train stops in Channing for a short crew change and then train goes as far as Mass City.[37][38][39][40] The Shippers Special Train did not run in 2020.
American Honors Society Excellence In Education
The American Honors Society train ran on the LS&I with little known of its running from 2010 to 2014.[41] The Honors Train departs Eagle Mills and runs to the ore dock and returns. Several cars were used from E&LS and Lake Superior Railroad Museum with diesels supplied by the LS&I railroad.[42] A coach seen running in the train, marked Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Co. (ELS marks), #1001 and City of Horicon was also seen in several year's trains.[43]
E&LS owned or leased passenger equipment
Below is the E&LS rolling stock, many of which are used for the recent trains run behind E&LS engines S-12 #300 and GP-38 #400.[44]
Escanaba & Lake Superior Railroad owned or leased Passenger Equipment[45][46][47]
Several of the Conrail units leased ended up being leased for several years and then purchased by E&LS.[21]
Active motive power
ELS EMD F7 600 at Channing, Michigan on April 29, 2009
In 1985, the first EMD diesel, a GP-38 (E&LS 400) was purchased, followed shortly by additional GP-38s (ex-Conrail ELS 401 & 402) and 4 SD9s (1220-1224).[62] In 2003, the railroad bought two SD-40-2s (ex-Electro-Motive Diesel Leasing E&LS 500 & 501), and, unusually, an FP7 (ELS 600) two years later. The FP7 was originally a Milwaukee Road FP7, then was bought by the Wisconsin Southern, and sold to the E&LS. The SD9s except for 1223 have been retired as of 2020. 1223 still operates in Wells and Escanaba, but it has been restricted from mainline service ever since an inspection found that the prime mover was failing. The engine can regularly be seen switching out E&LS customers in that area, and at the car maintenance facility in Escanaba, or at the E&LS engine shop at Wells, moving the stored engines and cars.
In early January 2020, the railroad bought the ILSX SD40-2 #1344 and later in the year re-numbered it 502. The trucks from the since decommissioned SD-40-2, E&LS 500, were replaced with the original worn-out trucks on E&LS 502. They were the original silver trucks from when the engine was a Union Pacific SD40-2. In May 2020, E&LS bought a former GTW/BNSF Railway EMD SD40-2 and numbered it 503.[63]
As of August 06, 2024, the following locomotives are currently owned or leased by the Escanaba & Lake Superior Railroad.[63][64][65][66]
Built April 1953 as #31795. Ex White Pine Copper mine WPCR #1.
112
Russel Snow Plow
Active
Built in 1967 from a 40-foot boxcar by the E&LS shop men at Wells to replace a wooden Russell plow, entered service in 1968, is painted in company colors, stored at Channing, Mi.[67]
Built January 1953 as # BLW 75767. Ex SAL 1474, ex SCL 215. Sold as Michigan Northern 215 in 1976. It was sold as E&LS 215 in 1980 and rebuilt in 1982 as ELS 300. Painted in ELS scheme.
Built January 1951 as # EMD 10361. Ex Wisconsin & Southern 71A, ex Wisconsin & Calumet 96A, ex Milwaukee Road 96A. Acquired June 2005. Returned to service in 2020.[68]
Built June 1955 as #19990. Ex Reserve Mining 1221. It was sold as EL&S 1221 in 1992.
1223
SD9
Limited service
Built September 1956 as #21066. Ex Reserve Mining 1223. It was sold as E&LS 1223 in 1992. Assigned to Wells as backup switching power, restricted from interchange.
When it began operations, the E&LS used steam locomotives purchased second hand from other railroads in the Midwest.[28] It bought a new Shay locomotive for logging service in 1904, followed by various locomotives from Baldwin.[70] The E&LS first diesel locomotive, a Baldwin VO-1000, was purchased in 1946.[70] The E&LS continued buying new and used Baldwins for the next several decades. Some notable mentions are the E&LS 300, the engine that can often be seen running the Shippers Special train.
Other locomotives include the Baldwin RS-12s 207-217 series. 10 RS-12s have either been sold off or put in a deadline at the E&LS Wells Facility. Other engines are the E&LS Shark Nose Baldwin's, originally from the Delaware & Hudson RR (D&H), numbered 1205 & 1216. Other notable mentions are engines 100 & 101, a pair of DS44-660s. The 101 can still be seen in Wells with its GN inspired paint scheme. The railroad also owns two Ex-Wisconsin & Calumet (WICT)F7As and a F7B. There were several other engines, the 201, 202, & 204. These were the DS44-1000s.
All #'s below are out of service (OOS) as of July 14, 2021.[70][71][72][73]
Built May 1952 as #75477. Ex Seaboard Air Line RR 1468, ex Seaboard Coast Line 209, ex Oregon California & Eastern 7909. Acquired in May 1984.
210
RS-12
OOS
Built May 1952 as #75478. Ex Seaboard Air Line 1469, Ex Seaboard Coast Line 210, ex Oregon California & Eastern 7910. Sold to E&LS as #210 in May 1984.
211
RS-12
OOS
Built May 1952 as #75479. Ex Seaboard Air Line 1470, ex Seaboard Coast Line 211, ex Oregon California & Eastern 7911. Sold to E&LS as #211 in December 1985.
212
RS-12
OOS
Built May 1952 as # BLW 75480. Ex Michigan Northern 212, ex Seaboard Coast Line 212, nee Seaboard Air Line 1471. To E&LS 1980.
213
RS-12
OOS
Built January 1953 as # BLW 75765. Ex Michigan Northern 213, ex Seaboard Coast Line 213, nee Seaboard Air Line 1472. To E&LS 1980.
214
RS-12
OOS
Built January 1953 as #75766. Ex Seaboard Air Line 1473, ex Seaboard Coast Line 214, sold to Birmingham Rail & Locomotive Co. It was sold as Neosha Construction Co. 6494 and sold as E&LS #210 in 1983. It was renumbered 214 in 1984. While in transit to E&LS it was numbered E&LS 711.[79]
Used as a parts source at Escanaba shop. Built October 1969 as # EMD 35438, later Penn Central 7809 then Conrail 7809. Sold as E&LS 400 in 1985. It was renumbered to 401 in 1986 and retired by 1992.[80]
Built July 1949 as # EMD 8358. Ex Wisconsin & Calumet 109, ex Chicago Chemung Railroad[81] CMN 562, ex ACLZ 64, ex Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad 5644, nee Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad 564D.
Built December 1951. Ex Michigan Northern 1205, ex Delaware & Hudson RR 1205, ex Monongahela Railway 1205, nee NYC 3805. Baldwin "Shark Nose". Stored in warehouse. To E&LS in 1979.
1216
Baldwin RF16A
OOS
Built 1952. Ex Michigan Northern 1216, ex Delaware & Hudson RR 1216, ex Monongahela Railway 1216, ex NYC 1216, nee NYC 3816. Baldwin "Shark Nose". Stored in warehouse. To E&LS in 1979.
In late 2014, the E&LS and Canadian National Railway entered into a switching agreement to switch customers of CN in Marinette and Menominee. All traffic is given to the E&LS at Marinette; E&LS delivers loads or empties from both railroad's customers in those communities.[84] This created a big costs and time savings for both railroads as it greatly simplified operations in these twin cities.
The E&LS RR has trackage rights on several parts of the Canadian National Railroad.
Howard, to North Green Bay Yard in Green Bay, Wisconsin (These once extended to the Milwaukee's Oakland Avenue Yard, in downtown Green Bay via the WC, past the C&NW Green Bay station)
^ abGlischinski, Steve (2007). Regional Railroads of the Midwest. St. Paul, Minnesota: MBI Publishing. p. 35. ISBN978-0-7603-2351-9.
^Dunathan, Clint (March 1, 1963). The Century Book(PDF). The Escanaba Centennial Corporation. p. 30. Archived(PDF) from the original on July 11, 2021. Retrieved July 11, 2021.
^"Watson". Remnanants:Ghost towns of the UP. Northern Michigan University Beaumier UP Heritage Center. Archived from the original on July 11, 2021. Retrieved July 11, 2021.
^Decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States, May 1981–October 1982. Interstate Commerce Commission Reports. Vol. 365. 1981. pp. 144–173.
^"State Buys U.P. Railroad". The Herald-Palladium. Benton Harbor, Michigan. Associated Press. July 30, 1982. p. 8. Retrieved April 28, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
^"State to Buy Track". Petoskey News-Review. United Press International. March 24, 1983. p. 12. Retrieved April 28, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Railroads To Repair Track". The Herald-Palladium. Benton Harbor, Michigan. Associated Press. April 2, 1983. p. 15. Retrieved April 28, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Fox River Valley Railroad Corp., Trackage Rights Exemption - Finance Docket No. 32247". Federal Register. Vol. 58, no. 37. February 26, 1993. p. 11625.
^"Trail Use Agreement Reached"(PDF). Filings Results. Surface Transportation Board. Archived(PDF) from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
^Forrest, Dick (June–July 1990). "Explorers IV Rail Trip - 1990 - North Woods Explorer"(video). Archived from the original on December 25, 2022. Retrieved December 25, 2022 – via YouTube. Come along on the 1990's High Iron "North Woods Explorer" trip that traversed the WC, NBNR, LSI, ACR, and ELS railroads with six private passenger cars. How they talked the LS&I into taking the occupied train on top of their active ore dock at Presque Isle (Marquette) I'll never know - but they did. Also memorable was the WC with the train pacing an LS&I ore train. Some of the track traversed is no longer in service today.
^Vermande, Tim (July 1, 1980). "SOO 212B". Railroad Picture Archives. Archived from the original on August 9, 2021. Retrieved August 9, 2021.[self-published source]
^Mitchell IV, Alexander D. (June 18, 2019). "Wisconsin depot burns". Trains. Archived from the original on January 25, 2022. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
Lautala, Pasi; Graman, Gregory; Pentti, Frank; Nelson, David; Rasul, Irfan; Tafesse, Akalu; Pengelly, Sean; Kalluri, Sumanth (2014). Rural Freight Rail and Multimodal Transportation Improvements: The Upper Peninsula of Michigan(PDF) (Final report). Houghton: Michigan Technological University Rail Transportation Program. Archived(PDF) from the original on February 3, 2017 – via Michigan Department of Transportation Office of Research and Best Practices.
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