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ACR Freight OperationsLoading Spurs
Special Operating Instructions
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For a good idea of the volume and breakdown of the ACR's trackage, here are some figures compiled from the ACR's own annual reports. Note that the manufacturing column will be primarily finished steel.
Overall Tonnage Numbers: (000 tons) ----------------------------------- Year Mining Manufacturing Forestry Total 1970 2338 975 621 3934 1971 2338 922 519 3779 1972 2561 994 504 4059 1973 2875 1056 506 4437 1974 3194 1027 474 4695 1975 1881 683 281 2845 * Tonnage drops by 50% across the board. Strike on AC? 1976 2434 831 484 3749 1977 2338 832 492 3662 1978 2382 984 566 3932 1979 2383 1139 545 4067 1980 2053 1130 515 3698 1981 1993 1296 455 3744 1982 1239 685 311 2235 1983 1775 982 320 3077 1984 1803 1053 294 3150 1985 1906 1224 401 3531 1986 1625 796 407 2828 1987 1529 1071 437 3037 1988 1443 1222 421 3086 1989 1677 1355 354 3386 1990 1013 944 361 2318 * 4-month strike at Algoma Steel in 1990 1991 1569 1406 437 3412 1992 1437 1313 309 3059 1993 1393 1567 335 3295
Timetables list nos. 9 and 11 northbound, and 10 and 12 southbound. However, according to some sources, the ACR regularly ran 3 northbound trains out of the Sault on a daily basis in the late 1970s, with the morning and afternoon trains primary ore empties, plus miscellaneous freight, and the evening/night train a steel train for Franz and Oba interchanges (train will go to Hawk Junction with the loads forwarded on train no. 5 next day). My earliest ETT is from 1978, and all the timetables I have only list 2 scheduled freights in each direction but extras, especially extra ore trains, would be common. Second sections of regular trains are always possiblities when traffic warrants. A good place to read more about operations in the early-mid 1970s is found on Ray Kennedey's Old Time Trains site, in the form of an unpublished article by Wayne Brittain from 1975.
Along the ACR's trackage there are many small camps and cottages, that depend entirely on the railway for supplies. These supplies would be delivered by a once-weekly wayfreight. In the 1970's this service was handled on the rear of one of the ACR's regular freights, with the wayfreight cars tacked onto the end, just before the caboose. With the curving track on the ACR, the engineer could never see the end of his train, so the conductor would call out car lengths over the radio until the car was directly across from where it would be unloaded.
In the 1990's, the wayfreight would be its own little train. There is a wonderful segment in the video "Tracks of the Black Bear" documenting the activities of this little train on its run from the Sault to Hawk Junction, no more than an engine, 3 boxcars and a caboose. Anything and everything that could be required by the camps along the line: construction supplies such as lumber and windows, propane tanks, and wood stoves are all visible being unloaded from this train in the video.
As the ACR's division yard and the junction between all three of the ACR's subdivisions, all trains in all directions start and terminate at Hawk Junction. There was no assigned yard switcher; both the SW8s worked Steelton and Sault Ste. Marie exclusively and all outbound trains switched their own cars.
Weekday regulars: Train #5 left Hawk Junction in the morning, Mon-Fri, and returned from Hearst the next day as #6 (Tues-Sat.) As the only freight trains running the length of the Northern Subdivision, most of the switching is done by these two trains.
Turn jobs: On weekends, #5 is replaced by the Oba Turn, running as #15. As
its name indicates, #15 runs as far as Oba, handling interchange steel traffic for Franz and Oba, and any overflow
switching requirements at the pulpwood operations at Mosher. The train returns to Hawk Junction from Oba as #16.
A second turn job, the Franz Turn, ran Mon-Fri in the evenings in the 1970s and 1980s. This train primarily
handled a second mill switch at Dubreilville, including delivering outbound loads to the interchange at
Franz. The Franz Turn ran as an extra and is not listed on any period timetables.
The large rigid 3-axle trucks of the SD40's and SD40-2's cause increased track maintenance on the ACR. For this reason they are almost never operated north of Hawk Junction where the geography is less rugged with lighter trains and lighter track. The SD40's spend most of their time putting their higher horsepower and 6-axle trucks to good use hauling heavy freights between Wawa and Sault Ste. Marie. Track conditions are upgraded to a higher standard south of Hawk Junction as well, and the southern portion of the line does not feature any of the muskeg found near the Oba-Hearst area.
Transportation Safety Board Report on 1994 Derailment near Hearst
A southbound freight derailed 8 miles from Hearst due to a broken rail joint. The TSB report attributes
the derailment to a pre-existing crack in a joint bar, caused by poor track conditions, and exacerbated by a
recent set of CN detours. The report highlights that the ACR did not normally allow heavy 6-axle locomotives
on this northern section, and that the last CN train to detour (and likely other before it) contained 6-axle
locomotives in the consist. Poor track conditions and increased wear by the heavy CN engines are blamed for
the derailment.
Timetables from the 1970s and '80s show no scheduled trains on the branchline; all mine and harbour runs were operated as extras. Some sources indicate that during the 1970s period as many as two or three runs to Wawa would be made daily. In later years this would decrease to a single train daily for Michipicoten and Wawa needs.
In addition to the shipments from Wawa to Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie, Algoma Ore Properties also shipped some amounts of ore from Wawa to an Algoma Steel operation in Port Colbourne, ON (near Niagara) for processing into "pig" iron (ingots). I don't have any indication of a start date to this service, but I have seen a photo of new AC 8000 series hoppers in Port Colbourne in 1972. The smelter and blast furnaces at Port Colbourne closed in 1977 which puts a definate end limit to this operation. Loads would have been forwarded via CN at Oba. As late as 1985, CN's General Operating Instructions booklet has a specific mention under Speed Restrictions for Algoma Central hoppers in series 8200-8500 restricting movements handling these cars to 40 MPH. It's possible this may be a left-over reference from the 1970 movements of ore to Port Colbourne rather than a separate contemporary shipment. Shipments of sintered iron from Wawa to Sault Ste. Marie outweighs all other ACR traffic combined, as seen in the tonnage numbers above. Through the early 1990s this traffic declined, and in 1998 the sintering plant at Wawa shut down and was demolished along with more than half of the ACR's traffic numbers.
Finished steel products from Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie were handled to every interchange except Hearst. CN and CP both provided additional cars for loading. Algoma produced sheet, coil, plate, rail, beams and pipe. There was no wire mill at Algoma. In addition to finished steel out, some scrap steel for the oxygen furnace would have been received as well.
In the 1970s and early 1980s there was a scrap yard between the Sault Ste. Marie passenger station and the paper mill that had a spur into it. (Trader's Metal).
From 1974 to 1985 Newaygo Forest Products operated a lumber mill at Mead (mile 275 between Oba and Hearst). A good portion of the output of this mill was likely exported to the US via the SOO Line.
At Dubreilville, between Franz and Hawk Junction, is a mill operated by Dubreil Forest Products (formerly Dubreil Bros. Lumber). Dubreil Bros. once operated a lumber yard next to the Steelton shops where lumber was off-loaded for sale or export to the US (by truck). For this service, the ACR rebuilt a couple of the ACIS woodchip cars as special lumber cars. The end doors were removed to load/unload the cars from one end and the car would normally be handled at the end of the southbound train to facilitate cutting it off at Steelton and moving it to the unloading ramp. (Only 2 or 3 cars were so modified, and 2400 series bulkhead flatcars also carried lumber from Dubreilville to Steelton, as well as to other locations in the US. The modified chip cars were only used between Dubreilville and Steelton)
During the period from 1974 to 1985 when it was in operation, the Newaygo Forest Products mill at Mead (between Oba and Hearst) exported woodchips into the USA via the SOO Line interchange in Sault Ste. Marie. The chips were loaded in the ACIS 1401-1489 and AC 1501-1523 series 60' woodchip cars, which were provided exclusively for this service. These shipments averaged about 10-12 cars daily at its peak. The mill closed in 1985 and the cars were largely sold off. (Most were taken by Newaygo for use on other routes and locations.)
The Dubreil Bros. mill at Dubreilville also shipped out massive amounts of woodchips to James River Pulp & Paper in Marathon, ON from the late 1970s or mid-1980s at least into the 1990s, if this service does not in fact still continue today. Empty cars for this service were provided by CP Rail from White River. This service averaged 15-18 loaded cars daily from Dubreilville to Marathon via Franz.
During the 1970s Abitibi's paper mill in Sault Ste. Marie shipped a good portion of the paper it produced there via the CPR with empty cars provided from Sudbury. Photographic evidence suggests that CN also supplied paper empties from Oba for loading. With the Free Trade Agreements signed in the 1980s, much of the US-bound traffic switched over to SOO line cars. In 1987, WC bought the line into Sault Ste. Marie, MI from the SOO Line, so US traffic would be hauled in mostly WC cars. With CN's purchase of the WC (and the AC) in 2001, any CN family (WC remains extremely common) paper boxcars can be seen in Sault Ste. Marie, although Huron Central (in QGRY cars) and CP still provide some cars for paper loading as well.
Abitibi (the mill was sold by Abitibi and renamed St. Marys Paper in the early 1980s) also received shipments of baled market pulp from James River and Kimbery-Clarke in Marathon and Terrace Bay, respectively (both located on the CPR west of Franz).
Some shipments of pulp from Marathon and Terrace Bay were also routed over the ACR to mills on the CN and Ontario Northland via Franz and Hearst. Scan of a switchlist at Franz, note one car of pulp (QC 210322) being lifted for Kapuskasing
There is also evidence that some shipments of paper from Kapuskasing (CN) and Iroquois Falls (ONR) were routed via the ACR into the US (Wisconsin & Chicago area). Some westbound movements from Kaspuskasing or Cochrane may have also been routed via Hearst-Oba.
There was a propane dealer (Canadian Propane) and a fuel dealer (Texaco Canada) in Wawa that were rail served. The Canadian Propane spur is listed as out of service by 1986, and removed from the timetable by 1989, while Canadian Propane is still listed into the early 1990s. These two companies would have received occasional one-car shipments.
There were also a couple of fuel and propane dealers at Hearst that were rail-served, but cars for these would have come over CN from Cochrane.
Sulphuric acid is used in the paper making process for chemically pulping the pulpwood logs. Acid tank cars can be commonly seen in Sault Ste. Marie at the paper mill, and seem to mostly come in via CP/HCRY. (INCO and Falconbridge (now XStrata) in Sudbury are major producers of suphuric acid and may be suppliers to St Marys Paper in the Sault.)
There's also a scan in the documents section of this site of a waybill for a tank car of molten sulphur destined for the paper mill in the Sault.
Clay slurry from the southern United States would be shipped into the paper mill in Sault Ste. Marie for use in making high quality coated papers. Today this mostly comes in from CN over the former WC lines, and probably would have arrived via SOO Line or CP (Sudbury) in the 1980s. Some clay may have also been sourced from the east, or from Canadian sources, especially pre-free trade agreements.
This page ©2002-2005 Chris VanderHeide
