Magnetation Iron Ore Tailings Reprocessing

I saw a westbound unit train in Downers Grove that consisted of low rotary gondolas. That means that they carry something that is heavier than coal because coal is shipped in high rotary gondolas. Fortunately, Michael Matalis caught the same train and not only took better pictures, he identified it as a Magnetation ore train. In his Facebook posting in the "BNSF Racetrack" I wrote a comment asking why it had Norfolk Southern power given that the destination, Reynolds, IN, is on CSX/Monon tracks. The answers were:

• Michael Matalis For the same reason that the NS Virginian heritage unit came into town trailing on a CSX oil train yesterday; nowadays power is assigned to trains not on the basis of the originating railroad, but on the basis of what's available. A good example is the Virginian heritage unit that went west on an NS oil train a week or so ago, got assigned out of the power pool to a train heading back to the CSX, and is now back on the BNSF heading west for the oil fields. The railroads do keep track of how much their units spend off line, and if there is an imbalance they will either demand payment or the use of offending railroads's locomotives to make up the deficit.

  
  
• Andrew Shafer A big reason some of the oil trains come back as CSX or NS trains is because the shippers can change the destination of the train, whether enroute or while its loading.

In a posting asking about iron ore trains, Michael answered:

Those are the Magnetation ore trains that originate in Grand Rapids MN up on the Iron Range. Magnetation specializes in reprocessing mine tailings, which are then shipped to their pellet plant in Reynolds IN on CSX. The train are interchanged in Chicago.

Magnetation has plants in Minnesota that mine the tailings of open-pit iron ore mines using a patented Rev3 Separator technology. The separator concentrates the 25% iron tailings into 65% concentrated ore. That ore is shipped in the trains we see going through Downers Grove to their palatalization plant in Reynolds. They save costs compared to original mines because most of the size reduction (grinding) has already been done and they don't have to strip any ground. But they have the cost disadvantage of smaller haul trucks. About five of their conventional 40-ton trucks would fit in the bed of a mining truck. But they don't explain why they use small trucks. Below is "Slide 5" from one of the videos I got the above information from.

Magnetation Presentation at Duluth SME -2013 in videos

Their fourth concentration plant is designed to use output of an open pit mine after they are done processing all of the existing tailings.

The palatalization plant was built at the site of a defunct ethanol plant that already had much of the needed infrastructure including a 6-layer loop track. The plant combines the iron ore with limestone, coke breeze, and all of the other materials needed to feed a blast furnace, and it started producing pellets in September, 2014. One of their main customers is AK Steel's blast furnace operations in Middletown, OH, and Ashland, KY. (Update: the blast furnace in Ashland was shut down in 2015.)

Update:

Michael Matalis posted
Dust free! Westbound Magnetation empties.
[The reason for Mike's "dust free" comment is that some of his pictures have shown a cloud of iron ore dust coming from the empty cars. He has sent t hem into the company to let them see the pollution they were generating. We are happy to see that the company has evidently done something to reduce the dust pollution.]

Michael Matalis posted

I understand that China has been dumping steel in America because its own economy has weekend so much that their demand for steel is less than their production capacity. This reduces the price of steel in America because the China government is helping to pay for the steel production. This is good news for the American consumer, but bad news for the American steel industry.  Magnetation appears to be another victim of plunging steel prices.        More on their bankruptcy.

From another article about the shutdown

Magnetation Finds Buyer for Assets

At Rochelle's Railfan park, I was able to get a glimpse of the product in the gondolas. The reporting mark, MGPX +MAG PELLET LLC, indicates they own their own cars. Probably because a low-height gondola car does not have a rotary-dump coupler.

20150913,16 4703

A Republic Steel blast furnace is being restarted to use at least some of the pellets produced by the Reynolds plant.


Dennis DeBruler shared the article "Reynolds iron ore plant may move to Mexico in pieces" with the comment: "There used to be daily BNSF unit trains through Downers Grove in each direction to serve this plant. I understand they were mining the tailing piles in the northern iron ore region and concentrating it before shipping it to this plant."
Lukas Irons There goes ore shipments to Lorain lol
David Jordan TP&W delivered bentonite to a transloader at the Co-Alliance elevator on Reynolds' west side. Route was BNSF-Peoria-TPW. 

At least I caught a loaded ore pellet train from there once. CSX symbol K502 to Middletown, Ohio had just left the plant around midday, Sunday, June 26, 2016. It was literally crawling through Reynolds, but took off like a rocket south of town, where I shot video (camera was new, and I had to adjust to its 40x zoom!). CSX 5226-243-7877 have 125 cars. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwXXf-ENsnM

REYNOLDS — The Mexican firm that bought the closed iron ore plant outside Reynolds is apparently preparing to dismantle it and move it to Mexico.
White County Commissioner Dave Diener confirmed that Altos Hornos de Mexico, a Mexico-based steel manufacturer, received permission from the District of Minnesota United State Bankruptcy Court to buy the plant.
“Everything other than the ground” goes to Altos Hornos for the $15 million it paid for the plant, he said.
There’s been no official word to county representatives whether the plant will go, but Altos Hornos didn’t buy the ground, said County Commissioner John Heimlich.
“That was our fear. We haven’t heard anything,” Heimlich said.
He added that nothing has been taken out yet, although the county is watching the site and vehicles have been on it.
Those may be security, he said.
Altos Hornos first attempted to buy the building last fall.
However, the Oct. 24 finalization was delayed into November because of objections made by entities to which ERP Iron Ore owed money.
Diener said White County was one of the entities that contested the plant’s sale on the basis of the definitions of real versus personal property.
White County has financial interests in back taxes owed by the plant.
In April, ERP’s owner Tom Clarke missed a mandatory tax payment on the Reynolds plant, the Herald Journal reported.
He owed White County $517,646 for real property taxes and $5.6 million for personal property taxes.
The Minnesota-based ERP purchased the plant in January 2017 from the original builder, Magnetation, and was working with White County to assume the economic agreements the county had with Magnetation.
[Herald Journal]

Dennis DeBruler commented on his share
I found my photo that I took of the gondola cars at Rochelle's Rail Park. This allowed me to be high enough to see how full they were. They did a better job of dust control for full loads than they did for empties. Note that the height of the gondolas is between regular gondola cars and coal cars.https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../magnetation...

May 2022: safe_image for Idled Iron Range iron unit plant to re-start

IC's PD&E: Peoria, Decatur & Evansville Railway Overview

pre-1967 plus paint

In 1857 two charters were granted for railroad lines. They were between Grayville and Mattoon in Illinois and between Grayville and Mount Vernon in Indiana. Both of these charters were met by the Peoria, Decatur & Evansville Railway (PD&E) [AbandonedRails]. The tracks reached Grayville in 1881. [thepde-Grayville] The PD&E became part of the Illinois Central in 1900. In 1969 the Louisville & Nashville RR (L&N) bought the Chicago & Eastern Illinois RR segment from Evansville to Chicago. This removed the L&N traffic on the PD&E from Evansville to Mattoon and was the beginning of the end for this route. A map that has links for each station.

Roger Kujawa shared two images with the comment: "Peoria Decatur and Evansville then the Illinois Central and now What is left, the Canadian National."
Bill Edrington The optimistically-named "Chicago Division" was the former narrow-gauge Danville, Olney & Ohio River Railroad. It was briefly under PD&E ownership; then became part of the Indiana, Decatur & Western, a forerunner of what eventually became the B&O's line between Indianapolis, Decatur and Springfield. Eventually it was broken up into three shortlines: the Kansas & Sidell; the Westfield Railroad; and the Yale Short Line. All were subsequently abandoned. It was surely one of Illinois' most obscure little hard-luck railroads.

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Roger Kujawa posted
This is interesting as it shows the future Yale Shortline, the Westfield, and the Kansas and Sidell railroads. I did not know it was originally part of the PD&E.
[A work by Thomas French.]

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[The map is a work by Thomas French.]

Provided by Thomas French

Provided by Thomas French

The PD&E branch connected with the branch in Kentucky by using a ferry and then the L&N bridge.

From a PD&E history, we learn the disposition of the route:

In 1976, the New Harmony branch was taken up. Six years later, another part just a few miles southeast of Mattoon was scrapped. The remaining portion of the line from Mattoon to Evansville would be sold off in chunks by 1990, with most of it being abandoned by 1999.

The Mattoon to Peoria segment would remain with the Illinois Central, until the Illinois Central itself was merged into the Canadian National Railway in 1999. In 2004, Canadian National sold its interest in the Peoria and Pekin Union. However, the rest of the old PD&E line is still operated by them. Occasionally still being referred to by crews as "the old PD&E".

In 2000, Indiana Southwestern Railway company assumed control of the segment from Poseyville, IN, to Evansville. On December 27, 2011, they abandoned all but 3.8 miles in Evansville, IN.

In 2005, Ed Bailey planned to build an ethanol plant in Grayville, IL, and rebuild the route as the Browns, Grayville, and Poseyville RR including rebuilding the Wabash river span. The railroad would give his ethanol plant access to the Norfolk Southern in Browns, IL, and the CSX in Evansville, IN. But he evidently under estimated the cost of fixing the bridge because this plan never came to fruition.

Update: two other interesting references are: IC oriented, Evansville oriented.

Roger Kujawa posted
PD&E - IC - CN
Notice steel rail note verses iron rail or wood rail with iron straps on top.

And the PD&E must have bought the Decatur, Sullivan & Mattoon.

Kent Frantz posted
It’s the former IC and now CN but I’ve not heard it called Decatur, Sullivan & Mattoon railroad before ?
Located in Bethany .IL. circa 1875
Don Wagoner I knew the whole thing as Peoria district. Don't know if it was built in pieces like many were.
Kevin A Erb https://www.newspapers.com/.../decatur_weekly_republican/
Bob Bundren may have been during a short lived reincorporation that occured at the same time the map was made.

Jim pearson posted

Talk about a lot of history.December 26, 2017 - Pioneer Lines PREX 912 (GP9) and 806 (GP8) sit idle in the yard at the Indiana Southwestern Railway at their Harwood Yard in Evansville, Indiana the day after Christmas. I hadn't been to this location before fellow railfan William Crupper took me by there today. I'm sure someone's mentioned it before though, perhaps Ryan Scott? 

I'd love to catch them out working in the Evansville area sometime. Can anyone tell me when they run their trains and any sort of a schedule when I might catch them leaving? Also, any info on industries they pick-up at would be nice to know as well! 

According to Wikipeda: Indiana Southwestern Railway (reporting mark ISW) is a subsidiary of Pioneer Railcorp, operator of several short-line railroad companies. The ISW is a Class III railroad, and operated on 17 miles of track from Evansville, Indiana, northward to Cynthiana, Indiana. That track is currently out of service but switching still occurs in ISW's yard and surrounding industries.

The line was originally operated as part of an Illinois Central Railroad line that ran all the way to Newton, Illinois. Illinois Central sold off the line south of Browns, Illinois, to Indiana Hi-Rail Corporation; the line went through a succession of operators, all of which had to contend with the line's ancient bridge over the Wabash River near Grayville, Illinois. The bridge suffered damage from floods on more than one occasion, and one span finally collapsed completely around 1999.

Pioneer bought the line and its Evansville shops in 2000 from the Evansville Terminal Railway. However, when Pioneer stopped shipping grain, the track had to be dismantled and salvaged at the close of 2011. Only the small stretch from the interchange northwest of Evansville to just north of their yard is still used, a distance of about 4 miles.

The dates back to 1881 as part of the Evansville and Peoria Railroad, which then became part of the Peoria, Decatur & Evansville Railway through a series of purchases. The PD&E became part of Illinois Central in 1900. The ISW is currently the only remaining in-service segment of the PD&E south of Mattoon, Illinois.

Jim Pearson shared

Its bridge across the Wabash River has not only lost some spans, there is now a sandbar under the swing span. In fact, I learned about this railroad when I researched that bridge.

MoW: Herzog "Multi-Purpose Machine" (MPM) Train

Update: these articulated gondolas plus self-contained excavators now seem to be called "slot machines." I came across a video of a Herzog in action. In this case it had a magnet attachment. Georgetown makes a competing slot train.

In September when I was checking out a parked mixed freight, I noticed a MoW train parked in the Downers Grove yard. When I was checking out a parked stacks and pigs train I noticed that the same type of train was again parked in the yard. But this time it was parked in a different place so that I could get pictures of the head end, and I learned that the train is a Herzog MPM. It can reach up to 27 feet from the track center and the "Roto-Tilt articulating head" can use a variety of quick-connect attachments to perform many types of maintenance activities.

20141119 0058

Steven J. Brown posted
Herzog 193 is apparently some sort of GP38-2. I was digging around trying to come up with an origin story but didn't get far. It is eastbound on the BNSF at LaVergne in Berwyn, Illinois - September 23, 2020.

Update:

Glenn Davis posted
Herzog maintenance train rolling through DG
Joseph Robert LeMay It appears they're using it to pick up all the trees they've been mowing down along the right of way. No more signals blocked by foliage this summer.
John Poshepny He was pulling into the Downers Grove yard around 1230. Not sure if he is still there.

Duane Ramanan posted, cropped
Might just start taking all these ties home and make my own railway
Doucette Aj Joseph Not even strapped down
Duane Ramanan Never see em strapped down on the scrap trains
Joe Dockrill Never tied down on Herzog drop and pick up the old ones after

It appears that Relco now makes a comparable train. Although this is the first time I've seen two excavators on top.

Midwest Railroad Photography posted
The sun decided to shine for a while this morning, so I gave chase to the UP MoW train. Here we see the crew easing down grade in Oskaloosa, IA after navigating downtown. This train will continue to work south towards Eddyville picking up ties that were left behind by the tie gang several weeks back.

Andre Tardif shared
Mo Tyner: Loved being in charge of the Herzog mpm.

Justin Spencer posted
Michael J Hermance Sr.: The ultimate work train. You can do many different tasks with it. Love it.

Justin Spencer posted two photos with the comment: "Here's a couple action shots of the new UP MoW train as it creeps around the bend just south of Beacon, IA. Was really nice to document this machine in action in my own area. Not sure what the employees think of it, but it gives them a little job security instead of calling Herzog."

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I presume that these machines were invented after safety rules outlawed the use of the CarTopper.

Sean William posted
Where's all the old backhoe CarTopper cowboys. How sketchy was the first time you did this?

Bob Harbison

 Never did it, not that good an operator. Pretty damn sure it was scary first time and every time. You're at the limits of the machine.

Chuck Horner 

Was Rick Corman the first one to do it back in 1974 or so. That’s how he impressed CSX and got started with a lot of their business.

Jim Morris

Chuck Horner

 while working as a Forman on Penn Central .

Chuck Horner

Jim Morris

 Rick Corman started RJ Corman back in 74. Instead of the guys throwing ties out of tie cars by hand he rode his backhoe up on top and impressed them all. CSX said we need this guy. That’s what I was told. We have pics of it. Started with a dump truck and a backhoe and grew the business. Now in 24 states.

He passed in 2013

Vance Nelson

Chuck Horner

 Clay Corman’s operators were doing this in the Early 70’s! I think he was Ricks Uncle.

Chuck Horner

Vance Nelson

 yes Clay is the uncle.

Chuck Kulesa

We had 2 guys on ATKs Philly subdivision Pat Oneil and Frank Harry that could top a hopper without ramps ...

Abraham Urquhart

Chuck Kulesa

 two of the best in the business.

Bill Hadden

Crystal sugar in North Dakota did this in the 70's to unload coal

David Mazzo

I still remember the first time I saw this... Chicago Division Penn Central 1975... First try he slipped off the gon, scared the hell out of me.[The new facebook formatting I hit on May 19, 2020, kinda sucks.]

According to the comments, Herzog pioneered doing this with backhoes. But now they use MPMs. Some companies still do this with trackhoes (excavators).
Well, may not all have giving up being a cowboy: Scott Fox My friend does that for herzog.

Sean William commented on his post
No idea Sam but here they [Herzog] are in action. They quit doing this and brought in the MPM though.

These trains are such a good idea that UP made several of them. I wonder if they paid royalties for some patents or if they figured out how to work around them because I don't think this design has existed for more than 17 years.

safe_image for Union Pacific's New Maintenance of Way Machine Completes Maiden Voyage