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of the new cars. These cars are in the 601400-601599 number series and are 35 feet in length versus longer 42-foot cars purchased over the past decade.
Lake Superior & Ishpeming
The stalemate between Essar Algoma
and Cliffs Natural Resources continues with Essar’s mill at Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., receiving ore from U.S. Steel’s Minntac mine via the port of Two Harbors, Minn., as well as ore from Iron Ore Company of Canada from eastern Quebec by way of the St. Lawrence Seaway System. Essar had previously received ore produced by Cliffs’ Tilden mine in Michigan, using LS&I’s dock at Marquette and an all-rail routing over LS&I and CN.
REGIONALS/SHORTLINES WEST GARLAND MCKEE
Aztec Land & Cattle buys Apache Railway The last three years of Apache Railway
has read like a Hollywood drama, one cliff hanger after the next. It now appears the Apache Railway will survive after all. In 2012, Apache’s main customer
and owner, the Catalyst Paper Mill, closed. Both the mill and railroad were purchased from bankruptcy by California investment group Hackman Capital Partners. After the mill’s closure the local leaders, fearing the loss of the Apache Railway would doom economic development in the Snowflake area, formed the Snowflake Community
Foundation to purchase the railroad. While Hackman scrapped out the mill, they did loan the Snowflake Community Foundation a $7.2 million short term loan to purchase the 38-mile railroad by June 2014.
That began a hectic three-year process
to find the funds to pay off Hackman. At first there was hope the mill might be sold or reopened but that didn’t last long, as the mill was scrapped. The railroad cut back operations to “as needed” and laid off all but eight employees. The railroad continued on, providing service to its remaining customers, mostly the Hormell Foods hog farm south of Holbrook (which receives about 90 cars of feed per month) and Preferred Sands. The railroad also started providing car storage as well as doing contract railcar repairs for BNSF. In fact the railroad was able to grow back to 21 employees and was forecasting a $400,000 profit on in $2.8 million in revenue for 2015. But that wouldn’t be enough to stave
off the wolves at the door who, with the improved economy, valued the railroad at $11 million. With that, the frantic search for the money to repay Hackman began. Several very optimistic attempts to get government grants all failed. With time running out and Hackman making it known they were looking to take over the Apache in May 2015, the Snowflake Community Foundation placed the railroad in bankruptcy in order to stall for time to save the line. The court set a November 30 deadline for Snowflake Community Foundation to come up with the money to repay the loan and purchase the railroad or Hackman would be free to proceed with its plans to scrap the 98- year old railroad. Enter the Aztec Land & Cattle
Company, who owns much of the real estate surrounding the Apache Railway. AL&C formed an entity that on November 30 paid off the Hackman debt and related liens and will let the railroad continue under a new ownership group. Aztec worked with local and state people who were able to come up with a $2.5 million joint loan from the Arizona Commerce Authority’s Arizona Innovation Accelerator Fund program ($1.75 million) and Arizona MultiBank ($750,000).
Eviction Continues for Fillmore & Western
The Ventura County Transportation Commission just isn’t giving up on its efforts to evict California’s Fillmore & Western from the city-owned Santa Paula Branch. In 1995, the city purchased the 31-
mile branchline and contracted Fillmore & Western to operate it. Things went along pretty smoothly until 2007 when the executive director of the commission retired and the new director started questioning maintenance of way charges and stepped in to prevent Fillmore & Western from an interchange agreement with Union Pacific to allow freight service. In June 2013, the VCTC cancelled Fillmore & Western’s contract to operate the line. Although the VCTC originally won an attempt to evict the Fillmore & Western in court in 2014, that decision was overturned in late September 2015 by a three-judge panel. In the meantime, Fillmore & Western has continues to operate its trains while it awaits the legal outcome. In December, the VCTC returned
Georgia GP30
Georgia Central Train No. L783 rolls through the small Georgia town of Hagan. The “Savannah Local” operates between Savannah and Collins on a Monday-Friday schedule as needed. At Collins this train meets the L782 “Vidalia Local” where they swap cars and L783 return to Savannah and L782 returns to the GC headquarters and shops in Lyons, Ga. Leading the train on this warm December night is leased LTEX GP30 No. 2435, originally built for Santa Fe in 1963. The Georgia Central was acquired by Genesee & Wyoming in 2005.
PHOTO BY BLANE BRANDENBURG
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