I
always knew that the Q ran unit ore trains down from Mpls-StP to Granite City,
IL and Chicago, especially during the winter when the Great Lakes were frozen
over (although frequent photos appear of even summer ore trains), but the wheel
reports that Bill Hirt posted back in July (original source by Russ Strodtz in
the Rail Freight Group) were very interesting and I did some major slicing and
dicing of those reports that I will post more info on shortly.
My find
from the wheel reports that I will address in this e-mail and put out there for
some feedback (I hope) has to do with Train 97 from Galesburg to Savanna on
June 4, 1966. This train contained a solid string of 15 empty NP ore cars. It
of course is not surprising that they are empty, but what did surprise me was
that these were in a mixed freight instead of a dedicated ore train, and it was
June, not winter. This would indicate that smaller shipments of ore may have
been sent by rail to the steel mills in the summer months.
Does
anyone have any additional insight on these smaller ore shipments that might
come through on a regularly scheduled freight train and not a dedicated ore
extra? I know that many of the ore train photos I have seen are GN cars heading
to the Chicago area, and if I recall correctly, DM&IR ore trains went down
to Granite City. This was the first I heard of NP cars, so I am wondering if
anyone can also shed any light on NP ore care shipments and who they might have
gone to or come from? My assumption would be that these might be going down to
Granite City as I would think that a short string of ore cars in a regular
mixed freight might just travel direct to Chicago over the C&I vs. ”around
the horn” to Galesburg and then Chicago, which I believe was the route taken by
unit ore trains so as to keep them off the C&I passenger main. This can
make for some interesting cars in a mixed freight, especially if they also
showed up going to or coming from Chicago on one of the normally scheduled
Savanna to Chicago freights such as 82, 83, 102, or 181.
Tom Mack
Cincinnati, OH