BNSF Allouez Taconite Sorting Facility (Superior, Wisconsin)

USA / Wisconsin / Superior / Superior, Wisconsin
 railroad yard, iron mine
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Built as a staging facility for Great Northern Railroad hopper cars laden with iron ore and taconite as they completed their journey from various mines across the Western United States, this yard was primarily a railcar sorting facility for the quad-pier Allouez port. Once train consists were assembled, they were pushed directly onto the piers where they would dump their contents into pier hoppers which then dumped the cargo into freighters.

As the quad-pier facility grew older and more expensive to maintain, Great Northern began construction of a more modernized facility on the former Pittsburgh Coal Dock & Wharf Co dock which would be fed by conveyor belt rather than railcar. At the same time, the Allouez yard was also upgraded to deal with the changing scope of its mission. Starting in 1966, Great Northern began construction of a railcar dumping and sorting facility which would allow laden railcars to be quickly dumped out and returned to the mine while their cargo was sorted and loaded onto a new 3.5 mile conveyor belt system which brought it to a pierside silo for further sorting and loading onto freighter. Costing $8 million to construct, the new facility began full-scale operations in 1977 and has since become the main Taconite sorting and loading facility for Great Northern's successor BNSF.
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Coordinates:   46°40'5"N   92°2'33"W

Comments

  • Yes, this is, I believe, the BN ore yards with an elevated conveyor to the loading docks on the bay.
  • Yes, It's the BN Allouez Tac facility. Most of the pellets are reddish on the roads and non-used stock piles. The used stock piles are greyish.
  • The red is exaggerated, but that's the path between the Burlington Northern Santa Fe's Allouez Yard, SE Superior, WI, and its ore docks on Allouez Bay. At the yard BNSF trains arrive from the Mesabi Iron Range, 60 miles NW in Minnesota, to unload milled taconite (iron ore) pellets: http://duluthsuperior.railfan.net/images/BNSF_at_Scanlon.jpg http://duluthsuperior.railfan.net/images/BNSF_Allouez_Yd.jpg http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA120262 From the yard the pellets ride a 3.5-mile conveyor, 60 inches wide, to the one active ore dock on Allouez Bay, BNSF Dock No. 5. It's on the spit of land between this map's "Wisconsin Point" and "Ore Docks" inset rectangles. The latter shows the three remaining (of four) old Great Northern Railway docks. To their NW, on the other side of the mouth of the Nemadji River, is the single old Northern Pacific dock. The NP, the GN, and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy merged into the Burlington Northern in the 1970 (Santa Fe added in 1995). The following great shot, looking NW from Allouez Bay to Duluth, is from before Dock No. 5 was built and probably from before the 1970 merger: http://duluthsuperior.railfan.net/images/Duluth-2.jpg The active Dock No. 5, built in the '70s, is of a different type and has huge capacity and speed, making the old docks unnecessary. This next pic shows the old NP, old GN, and active BNSF docks, looking SE: http://duluthsuperior.railfan.net/images/BNSF_Ore_Docks.jpg Each of the 18 dockside silos of Dock No. 5 has a 36-inch conveyor. Altogether the facility can load 4200 tons of pellets per hour into a ship: http://duluthsuperior.railfan.net/images/Roger_Blough_at_BN_1995.jpg http://www.boatnerd.com/news/newpictures03b/Conveyor-8-9-03-ta.jpg http://www.inlandmariners.com/Mariners_06/im_recent_pioneer.htm That last great series of loading at Dock No. 5 is by Patrick Lapinski, from his site "Inland Mariners." Props to Kent Rengo for most of the other pics. Check out his site's homepage, "Twin Ports Railfan and Railroading Page," then this section, "Twin Ports Yards and Docks": http://duluthsuperior.railfan.net/railroad_yards_of_the_twin_ports.htm
  • Here are a few additions to what I wrote 14 days ago. Some quotes are from the library book =Burlington Northern and Its Heritage=, by Steve Glischinski (1996 ed.), esp. p. 125; other quotes and facts are from the net and my gradually putting things together. * The Mesabi Iron Range may be only 60 miles from the Allouez Yard as the crow flies, but it's considerably farther by train. * The Great Northern Railway (major predecessor to BNSF) had long taken ore and pellets by train right onto the docks, where the hopper cars unloaded their cargo into dock "pockets." http://www.gngoat.org/mpc_yard_allouez.jpg (The train in that old postcard seems to be, rather than on "G. N. Ore Dock, No. 4," on Dock No. 2.) http://www.usda.gov/oc/photo/01di1439.jpg http://www.usda.gov/oc/photo/01di1439.htm http://www.mhsd.org/photogallery/images/arthurb.homer-1997-wesleyr.harkins.jpg * I don't think in the old days many of the cars would have dumped their loads at the Allouez Yard. That would have required later reloading into hopper cars to take them out onto the docks. If the docks weren't ready for them, cars would likely just sit in the yard, a staging area for the last leg to the docks. * "In 1966, GN spent $8 million to construct a pellet-handling facility adjacent to its ore docks {that is, to upgrade the Allouez Yard, a few miles SW of the docks}, which included on-land car dumpers, storage facilities, and conveyor belts to the docks" (Glischinski). With the upgrade, hoppers (and gondolas) would be quickly unloaded at the yard, and the pellets would be moved and sorted as needed, then taken by conveyor up to the docks. A 1969 photo in Glisch., however, shows both the conveyor and an ore train apparently on the approach to the ore docks. * "GN had four conventional-design ore docks at Allouez, which were once the largest of their kind in the world. Dock No. 1, last used in 1988, lasted the longest" (Glisch.). GN Dock No. 1 is the NW-most of the formerly four-"pronged" set of ore docks. At 2,244 feet, it's the longest of the four and, in this pre-1965 view to the NW, farthest from the camera: http://duluthsuperior.railfan.net/images/Duluth-2.jpg To give you more of an idea of the scale of things, those ships seen loading in the GN docks, and the ship near the old Northern Pacific dock NW of them, are probably 600-700 feet long. * A digression: "The growth of the Duluth/Superior area is tied with the introduction of the railroad in 1870; dredging of the harbor, which began in 1873; and shipment of iron ore, which began at Allouez Dock #1 in 1892." http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:TTOuAehItq8J:www.rulmecacorp.com/Bulk%2520Europe%25202006_printa.pdf+BNSF+ore+silo&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=17&gl=us The Duluth and Winnipeg Terminal Company built it, but the Great Northern eventually acquired this and other docks in decades to come and upgraded them again and again. * "Dock 2 was taken out of service in 1980, and Dock 3 was the last timber dock on the Great Lakes when it was dismantled in 1965. Dock 4 was taken out of service in 1974" (Glisch.). Docks No. 1, 2, and 4 have been stripped to an extent, but because of their being made of concrete and steel, rather than all timber like Dock No. 3, they are still standing out there in Allouez Bay.
  • Previous series comments continued: * The pellet conveyor still heads right to the old GN docks. Since they are inactive, the conveyor then makes a couple 90-degree turns (E, then N again) to "feed" BNSF Dock No. 5, to the SE. http://duluthsuperior.railfan.net/images/BNSF_Ore_Docks.jpg (Scale again: The series of silos at Dock No. 5 is about 850 feet long, and there is 1,475 feet of berthing room along there.) This zigzagging may seem a bit indirect, but it's easier than redoing the conveyor approach, partly enclosed and elevated over the Allouez community (part of the City of Superior) as it comes straight N from the yard. * On a 1928 map the spit of land that BNSF Dock No. 5 now sits on was called the Pittsburgh Coal Dock & Wharf Co. Dock No. 5. Since (1) there were no Pittsburgh Coal Docks Nos. 1 through 4 around, and (2) Superior and Duluth docks owned by unrelated companies weren’t just numbered down the line (for example, the old Northern Pacific dock was never included in any numbering sequence even after the NP-GN[-CB&Q] merger), I’m guessing this Pittsburgh Coal Dock & Wharf Co. was owned by the Great Northern, which then included the dock in its Allouez dock-numbering sequence. * Another Dock No. 1 digression: BN Dock No. 1 (in 1975 the company was now the Burlington Northern) was where the SS =Edmund Fitzgerald= received its final load, taconite pellets bound for a Detroit-area steel mill. Superior was the last land the 29 lost sailors, RIP, could have set foot on. (Assuming they actually left the ship during the quick berthing and loading, for example, or none taxied over by boat from Duluth before departing.) "About 0830 (all times are Eastern Standard based on the 24-hour clock) on November 9, 1975, the SS EDMUND FITZGERALD began loading 26,116 long tons of taconite pellets at Burlington Northern Railroad Dock No. 1 in Superior, WI. This pier, known as a 'chute pier,' is equipped with built-in storage bins, known as 'pockets,' which are usually filled before a vessel arrives. Chutes are lowered from each 'pocket' to direct the cargo into the hatches of the vessel. "Loading was completed about 1415 on November 9. The chief mate informed dock personnel that the vessel’s final drafts were 27 feet 2 inches forward and 27 feet 6 inches aft. Drafts were taken after receipt of the taconite pellets and 50,013 gallons of No. 6 fuel oil, delivered by a barge which came alongside while the cargo was being loaded. . . . "Upon departure at 1415, the FITZGERALD proceeded at full speed of 99 rpm, approximately 16.3 mph." The ship and all its men were lost about 1840 the next day, November 10, at the other end of Lake Superior. http://www.uscg.mil/history/WEBSHIPWRECKS/EdmundFitzgeraldNTSBReport.html
  • Excellent info. I've long been fascinated by the history of these docks. Thank you for your work grumpy ore dock!
  • Ore Dock One: Original construction of timber in 1892. Rebuilt with timber 1906-07. Rebuilt with concrete and steel inner one-third, 1925-26. Middle on-third, 1927-27. Outer one-third, 1927-28. Gantry crane and floodlights installed 1952-53. Ore Dock Two: Original construction in timber, 250 pockets 1899 and 1900. Original construction in timber. 100 pockets 1901-02. 250 pockets rebuilt in timber 1909-1910. 100 pockets rebuilt in timber 1911-1912. Entire dock rebuilt with concrete and steel 1922-23. Floodlights installed 1952-53. Gantry crane installed 1952-53. Ore Dock Three: Original construction in timber, 160 pockets 1902-03. Origiginal construction in timber, 166 pockets 1905-06. Inner 160 pockets rebuilt in kind 1917-18. Outer 166 pockets rebuilt in kind 1920-21. 60 inner pockets rebuilt in spring 1942. Next 86 pockets rebuilt spring of 1944. 80 pockets rebuilt 1952-53. Ore Dock Four: Constructed with concrete and steel in 1911. From the excellent book: Great Norther Railway: Ore Docks of Lake Superior Photo Archive by Douglass D. Addison, Sr.
  • Hi again, Allouez! As at the comment a couple weeks ago re the other dock, thanks for the great details. Last week I had an email exchange with the Douglas County Historical Society, which publishes the Addison book. I asked what became of the bust of James Hill, the man behind the Great Northern Railway. The bust's former site, Central School, was torn down a few years ago, to the chagrin of the society and others who wanted it preserved and adapted for modern usage. Hill's bust now resides, according to the society correspondent, over at the BNSF offices, somewhere off Belknap north of Billings Park. She mentioned that the society is soon publishing a book on Central School--and that I might be interested in another book it published, =Great Northern Railway: Ore Docks of Lake Superior Photo Archive=! I'm going to have to get that, as much as I've been collecting pics of these and other docks off the net.
  • If you look at the bottom of the http://duluthsuperior.railfan.net/images/Duluth-2.jpg photo you can also see the old Chicago and Northwestern dock, which was torn down in the mid 60's if I recall correctly. I don't recall what they loaded there, since I was still quite young when it was demolished.
  • Updated the article based on comments here.
  • And now has the worst terminal manager ever!!!!
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This article was last modified 12 years ago