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RE: (erielack) ore trains
Some figures to back this up:
For the 6 day period beginning July 13th to the 18th, 1964, the EL moved
96,518 tons of ore from the docks in Cleveland. Assuming an equal 70 tons
per car loading, that comes out to about 1,380 carloads in those 6 days. As
Steve mentioned, they moved in 55 car loaded cuts up the hill to North
Randall, or about 26 55-car cuts up the hill for those 6 days, and 13
110-car trains of ore to consignees in Youngstown, Warren, Sharon or via the
PLE. An equal amount of empties had to move down the hill for loading as
well. That's almost 2,800 movements through Cleveland in one week in
addition to the regular freight movements to and from Meadville, Youngstown
and Marion. And the commuter train. Think how busy this got when the 1st
sub was single tracked east of North Randall a couple years later!!
From a document I have, "Erie Lackawanna Traffic Highlights", Volume I
Number 10, November 30, 1964:
"The ore moving via Cleveland originates in teh Michigan and Minnesota
ranges, and is shipped down to Cleveland, thence via rail to the steel
producers. [...] in the first ten months of 1964 we handled 32,259 carloads
of iron ore via Cleveland." Further on it states that ore is also shipped
down the St. Lawrence Seaway to lake ports including Ashtabula, OH. "Some
of this ore was included in the 11,253 carloads received by EL at Shenango,
PA during the first ten months of this year [1964]."
Also of note is another source of ore, online in New Jersey. The document
indicates there are mines at Oxford Furnace and Washington, NJ. Seems these
mines produced metal for the cannonball manufacturers during the Revolution
and the Civil War. Through August of 1964, the EL shipped 318 carloads of
ore out of these mines.
Regarding the economics of ore shipping, the ore portion of this document
concludes with the following statement: "Ore and other products of mines
are considered high-bulk, low-rated commodities, but it is interesting to
note that among railroads in the Northeast, as the percentage of these
products in relation to total tonnage increases, the dollar earnings per
freight train mile goes up."
SMT (southern fried variety)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Smtimko_@_aol.com [mailto:Smtimko@aol.com]
> Sent: Sunday, April 19, 2009 9:06 AM
> To: erielack_@_lists.railfan.net
> Subject: Re: (erielack) ore trains
>
>
>
> In a message dated 4/19/2009 12:07:56 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> llyengalyn_@_hotmail.com writes:
>
> I've read that hauling ore from the docks at Cleveland was big $$$ for
> Erie & EL, but that is a pretty short haul to take a share of
> the money from
> isn't it? What was it that made this profitable?
>
>
>
>
> .................
> Paul has pretty much covered the situation of why this product was
> profitable.
>
> One thing that I would like to add is that today--forty years
> later--it's
> hard to imagine that the EL would have 300--400 cars of ore on hand at
> Cleveland and North Randall for movement to various mills:
> Warren Republic,
> Youngstown Republic, Youngstown--USS Ohio Works and YS&T Brier
> Hill Works;
> all directly served by EL. In addition, ore was moved from
> Cleveland for
> YS&T Campbell Works in Youngstown (P&LE Delivery through
> switching contracts),
> J&L Aliquippa, Pa (EL-Youngstown-P&LE), and Pittsburgh Steel at
> Monessen,
> PA (EL-Youngstown-P&LE). Another destination that consumed a
> huge amount
> of ore on EL was Sharon Steel's Roemer Works at Farrell, Pa. This
> destination required a crew change at Brier Hill due to work
> rules, but I'm
> certain the move was priced accordingly. Also,this required
> 400--600 empties to
> be on hand for movement to Cleveland when required, which was the reason
> for Mosier Yard at Avon (between Girard and Niles), to hold
> empties until
> required.
>
> There were other reasons that made this business profitable. The
> ore was
> hauled from the River Bed to North Randall by Drag-Up crews, using three
> 1800's and hauling 55 cars of ore. Each of these crews (usually
> two crews
> per boat) would make three loaded trips to North Randall. A Drag
> Down crew
> also worked the boat, hauling 100 empties down from North Randall to the
> River Bed, usually making two trips.
>
> The ore moved from North Randall to the Mahoning Valley mainly on
> Randall
> Turns from Brier Hill, which hauled a train of empties (900 to 110)
> westbound, had lunch, turned back with two tracks of ore from
> North Randall (110
> cars) and made it back to Brier Hill or into the P&LE Yard in
> the 16, 14, or
> 12 hours allowed by law at the specific time. The crews, both the drag
> crews and the road crews, knew that this was their bread and
> butter, and if
> they failed, the EL could loose the business the following year
> to other lake
> docks. Ore also moved from N&W at Creston to the Mahoning Valley.
>
> Finally, it is nearly impossible for an outsider to realize the immense
> volume of traffic that was handled between the River Bed and the
> east end of
> North Randall during the 8 to 10 hours a boat was unloading. You
> had two
> drag ups, each making three round trips, one drag down making two round
> trips, the River Bed yard crew positioning empties for loading
> and pulling ore
> for departure, the usually Cleveland yard crew moves, the usual North
> Randall Hump (yard) jobs and the passenger train.
>
> East of North Randall and at Youngstown----a completely
> additional maze of
> mainline, yard, local and other moves.
>
> The steel industry was the lifeline of the EL and the Mahoning Division
> produced more income than all of the other divisions on EL and
> the employees
> knew it and they protected the business. To sum it up, a huge amount of
> tonnage was handled by a minimum number of crews.
>
> SMT
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>
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