Wisconsin Central in UP

In the U.P., main lines are:

Manistique sub: Gladstone-Sault Ste. Marie

Newberry sub: Trout Lake-Munising

Ore sub: Escanaba-Partridge (Palmer)

Marinette sub: Gladstone-Green Bay

L'anse sub: Humboldt-Chassell

Iron Mountain sub: Powers-Iron Mountain

Bradley sub: Hermansville-Ladysmith

White Pine sub: Marengo Junction-White Pine

short segments run from:

Hogan line: Eagle Mills Jct.-West Wye Jct. & East Wye. Jct., near Negaunee

Republic sub: Diamond Jct. near Negaunee-Landing Jct. in Ishpeming

Ishpeming sub: Landing Jct.-Winthrop Jct. in Ishpeming

Morgan sub: Eagle Mills-Morgan near Neagunee

old Ore sub: Antoine Yard to a point 1 mile N. of Iron Mountain

Cascade line: Cascade Jct. south of Goose Lake-Palmer

Niagara spur: Quinnesac-Niagara

The LS & I and WC have joint-trackage on the Republic sub from LS & I Jct. in Negaunee to Landing Jct. in Ishpeming.

The LS & I has trackage rights on the WC Republic sub from Diamond Jct.-LS & I Jct. in Negaunee, the entire Hogan line, and the connection tracks at PPE Y (Partridge-Palmer Line Jct. and Partridge-Empire Jct.)

In return, the CN/WC has trackage rights over the LS & I Tilden line from Eagle Mills-Empire Mine, and the Republic sub from Ishpeming-Humboldt.

The CN/WC's: Partridge yard, PPE Y tracks, Hogan line, and the entire Republic sub are under control of the LS & I operator. Both companies share maitenance on the joint-track section of the Republic sub.

E & LS has trackage rights on the:

Marinette sub: N. Green Bay yard-Howard, Marinette-Menominee, Powers-N. Escanaba

Iron Mountain sub: Powers-Hermansville

Bradley sub: Hermansville-Pembine

The WC has trackage rights over the E & LS from the end of the Iron Mountain sub on the east side of Iron Mountain 1.5 miles to the Antoine yard lead on the west side of town. Antoine yard, and the trackage rights, are unused.

The Menominee spur in Menominee is jointly owned and operated by the E & LS and WC. The E & LS has switching rights on the WC Marinette spur in Marinette, WI. too.

Yards are located in Escanaba, Gladstone, Marinette, N. Green Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, ONT., Trout Lake, Manistique, Munising, Newberry, Partridge, Ishpeming, L'anse, Nestoria, White Pine, Quinnesac, Iron Mountain, Powers, Rhinelander, Bradley, Prentice, and Ladysmith.

Car shops for the U.P. are located in Gladstone. There is a small enginehouse at Ishpeming, but I don't think it's used. All major locomotive repairs are handled at the IC's Woodcrest shops by Chicago now. There are shops in Sault, ONT. and Green Bay, but I don't know to what extent they are used.

Saturday night/Sunday morning 8/20-21:

Last night, SORE 2 got their warrant from Escanaba-Partridge at 10:45PM. I walked down to the tracks to watch them go by. WC SD45’s #7519 & 7523 led 50 loaded orecars of limestone (WC), and 4 empty orecars (WC) north.

Around the Gladstone/Escanaba area last night, things were interesting as usual. L-543 ran from Gladstone-Trout Lake & back, but the crew died on their westbound run at Isabella around 10:30PM.

L-544, after getting back to Escanaba from Powers, ran to Gladstone with the loaded Tilden-Algoma all-rail hoppers. With IC #6060 leading, they took the Ore sub Escanaba-Larch, then the Marinette sub Larch-Gladstone at 2AM. L-544 would terminate at Gladstone yard.

L-543 came back on duty at Isabella with a new crew at 2:30AM, with WC SD45 #6596 leading. On the scanner, it sounded like on arrival at Gladstone they would set-out at engine they had picked-up from L-541 at Trout Lake, then pick-up L-544’s power, then take 70 cars to the 6-Yard in Escanaba (including 29 Green Bay-destined cars from Gladstone yard).

#411 & 412 were reported right on time as of 1AM. #411, with GCFX SD40-2 #6901 leading, got a warrant from Powers-Escanaba at 2:30AM.

Sunday 8/21:

Today, L-549 got a warrant from Escanaba-Partridge at 11:30AM. I walked down to the tracks for a backlit picture of this Sunday-only train, with the WC’s only SD40, #6001, and GTW GP38-2 #5825. This power will probably run the Ishpeming job, L-540, all week.

It looked like most of their cars were for a set-out at Louisiana-Pacific in Sawyer, with only 3 continuing on to Ishpeming. They had 1 covered hopper of flour (CEFX?), 27 empty woodchip hoppers (12 HPAX, 6 ex-Northern Pacific MWCX, 4 MWCX, 4 NFPX, 1 BN), 17 loaded flatcars of sawlogs (12 WC, 6 AC, 1 CN), 2 empty pulpwood flats (Besse), and 6 empty c-beam flats (3 CN, 1 GTW, 1 IC, 1 AOK).

SORE 1 north got a warrant from Escanaba-Partridge right after them at noon, following with radio-blocking. L-549 was already past Brampton by this time, though.

SORE 1 north was real interesting today, with 2 of the E & LS excursion fleet cars on the tail-end (except an empty GCCX hopper right behind them, maybe an idler for switching?). These were their Northern Pacific baggage/power-car, and the LSRM’s CNW lounge-car #6700.

The other traffic on SORE 1 was 54 empty orecars (WC), 45 empty all-rail hoppers (31 GCCX, 9 GIEX, 5 LSI [including the one bugger on the tail-end]), 1 tankcar of caustic (DOWX), 9 covered hoppers of bentonite (6 DME, 3 BNSF), 3 covered hoppers of other chemicals (1 ex-Milwaukee Road, 2 other), 6 empty pulpwood gondolas (IPCX), and 1 empty pulpwood flat (Besse).

So, that passenger equipment must be headed to some excursion duty on the Marquette Range. I wonder what that could be for, as the usual annual LS & I high school excursion is in April. Maybe an executive special?

Also, I don't quite get why all the Ishpeming freight was on SORE 1, while L-549 was right in front of the them and headed to Ishpeming, while SORE 1 was only headed to Partridge probably.

Escanaba today had WC SD45 #7526 tied-up on the NFG tie-up track about 2PM. WC SD45 #7585 was working the Escanaba dumper-job.

At Gladstone, the highway crossing on the Skelly spur is being rebuilt this week. There wasn't any power parked around; but there were 5 CN gondolas loading ballast on the house track, and 2 CN hoppers loading ballast on the ballast spur in the yard.