Station: Eagle Mills, MI

Eagle Mills was the center of operations for the modern Lake Superior & Ishpeming railroad. The railroads locomotive shops, car shops and control tower are located here for the entire railroad.

The control operator controls (dispatches) all operations in the region on LS&I tracks including what is left of the centralized traffic control system established in the 1960's. There are at least two main yards at Eagle Mills. The site was also home to the nearby Eagle Mills ore processing facility east of here, opened in 1957. [LSI2].

Photo Info: Top, the control tower at Eagle Mills Yard in Negaunee. The tower houses the yard office as well as the control operator (dispatcher). 2003. [Dale Berry]. 2nd photo, the CTC machine at Eagle Mills in 1992. This controlled the joint line from Partridge Junction on the left, to Winthrop Junction (west of Ishpeming) on the west. See notes below. [Brian Buchanan photo]. 3rd photo, a diagram of the machine above, preserved in the Cliffs Shaft Mine Museum.

Notes

Prior to the existence of LS&I terminal operations here, the DSS&A had a 1/2 mile long passing siding on their main line. This would have been east of Diamond Jct.

The Marquette & Western line (merged into the DSS&A as a second main line) also passed through Eagle Mills. [DSSM]

The CTC machine pictured above, was formerly operated by the Soo Line dispatcher in Marquette. It was moved to the LS&I as Soo Line ore operations reduced. Noted in the photo, the wyes to Tracy Mine had been removed by this time and covered over with tape. The Motorola radio console to the right has four active channels and four spares. There is a traditional dispatcher's sheet on the desktop. 

The stations from left to right on the diagram photo below the CTC machine are:

• Line coming north from Empire and Tilden Mines
• Empire Junction (connection to the C&NW near Partridge)
• South J&L (wye to the Jones & Laughlin Tracy Mine from the south)
• North J&L (wye to the Jones & Laughlin Tracy Mine from the north)
• Eagle Mills Junction (LS&I line to Eagle Mills via Queens Mine)
• South Wye (connection to Eagle Mills yard or Ishpeming)
• East Wye (connection to Eagle Mills yard and Soo Line)
• West Wye (connection to Ishpeming main line)
• Baldwin Yard
• LS&I Junction (former connection to LS&I main line to Ishpeming; connection to XXX mine)
• Euclid Yard East (east end of Euclid Yard)
• Landing Junction (connection to the C&NW and LS&I lines to Humboldt and Republic mines)
• Euclid Yard West (west end of Euclid Yard)
• Soo Junction (to National Mine)
• Soo main line west to Nestoria.

Time Line

1891. November 1. The railway station, some timber and a general store belonging to J. W. Read & Co., at Eagle Mills, six miles west of Marquette, were totally destroyed by fire this morning. Eagle Mills is a village of 200 people that has grown up around Read's saw and planing mills. Only by the greatest exertion was the fire prevented from cleaning out the whole settlement. The loss exceeds $15,000. [DFP-1891-1102]

March, 1906. The DSS&A begins using an electric train staff system between Eagle Mills and Negaunee. No train can proceed in either direction without having obtained from the operator at the block house a train staff, giving them absolute right-of-way between the two stations. [DFP-0301]

1918. The DSS&A had an agent/operator at this location during the day. [TRT]

1960's. Eagle Mills has yard assignments working the Pioneer Improvement plant and the Eagle Mills Improvement plant. They also take empty ore cars from here to the Empire Mine, and the Mather B Mine and return with loads for the dock. Road trains go to and from Euclid Yard and Humboldt, as well as the docks. Traffic declines during winter months due to the frozen Lake Superior. [LSIOR]

1967. The LS&I builds a high speed scale just north of Eagle Mills which weighs moving cars and uses Automatic Car Identification (ACI). This relieves weighing of cars at the ore dock. [SLIOR]

Industry

• Pine lumber mill located here in the late 1880s. [DSS]