Manistee, MI: PM+ME&W+M&NE Railroads and Tes Filer City Power Station

(Satellite)

While studying the railroad swing bridge in Manistee, I noticed that CSX now goes up the east side of Manistee Lake to come back down the west side to the industries along the west shore of the lake. When I checked my 2005 SPV Map, I noticed that there was a railroad that went directly up the west side. So why didn't they use that rather than the current route that requires maintaining three bridges? 

To answer that question, I need to document the three railroads that terminated in this port city. The now abandoned railroad that left town on the north side was the Manistee & North-Eastern Railroad. The one that left town to the south was the Michigan East & West Railway. The still existing railroad on the east side of the lake was the Pere Marquette. All three of these railroads were owned by C&O by 1958, so the remnants are now owned by CSX. 

Aban RR Map

We can see in the lower-right corner of the above map that the ME&W crossed the PM. The following topo map shows why the ME&W route is not used to directly access the industries --- it was abandoned by 1958.

1957 Bar Lake and 1958 Manistee Quadrangles @ 1:62,500

While looking for what kind of industry still existed on the south side of the swing bridge, I noticed a power plant that still had piles of coal. Judging by the piles near the edge of the dock and the lack of railroad facilities, this plant evidently still receives coal from ships or barges.

Satellite

It is a very small coal plant, just 70 MW. One reason it still exists is because it sells 50,000 pounds of process steam per hour to the paper mill just to the southeast of this plant. It receives low-sulfur coal from Gibson Mine. Given that one of the photos on the mine page shows an Evansville Western Railway train being loaded, the coal must be transloaded to barges near Mt. Vernon, IN. I would think it would have to be transloaded again from waterway barges to Great Lakes ships or barges in Chicago. But I'm not aware of any such facility. It doesn't speak well of CSX that it is cheaper to transload the coal twice than it is to haul it such a short distance by railroad. The plant also burns petroleum coke, wood waste biomass and tire-derived fuels. [gem] I imagine the paper mill next door creates quite a bit of wood waste. In fact, that would explain these brown piles between the two plants.

Satellite