Timetable: MC Hecla Belt Line - MCRR - Hecla Cement to Wenona Yard

This was a short branch line in North Bay City. It was the original Hecla Branch Line Railroad, which was built by the Hecla Portland Cement Company (on Saginaw  Bay) to reach coal and marl fields north and west of Wenona. When the cement plant went bankrupt, the line became part of the MC and was used as an industrial spur on the north side of the Saginaw River.

Key: BB=Bascule Bridge | C=Coal | CS=Car Shop | D=Open > Day | DN=Open Day and night | DS=Dispatcher | DT=Double Main Track | EH=Engine house | F=Diesel Fuel | HI=Half Interlocked Crossing | I=Interlocked Crossing | J=Junction | LB=Lift bridge | N=Open at night | P=Passing Track w/40' car capacity | Q=Quarry | RH=Roundhouse # stalls | RT=Railroad Resort | S=Scales | SB=Swing bridge | T=Turntable | TC=Telegraph call | W=Water | X=Crossing | Y=Wye | Yard=Yard

[REF] = Timetables.

Notes

The Hecla Belt Line Railroad Company was built by the owners of the Hecla Portland Cement Company, which had a plant on the north shore of the Saginaw River, at what is now the east end of Wilder Road in North Bay City. The purpose of the railroad was to bring coal from the Wenona and Auburn areas east to the plant, as well as marl and shale from Ogemaw County (via the Michigan Central at Wenona) to the plant to be used in the production of Portland Cement. Over its ten years of operation, the plant was a financial failure and operations discontinued about 1912 and the equipment and property sold off. The railroad was conveyed to the Bay City & Battle Creek railroad (a Michigan Central leased subsidiary which also ran from near Wenona Yard west to Midland).

Sources:

• Michigan Railroads and Railroad Companies, Graydon Meints, Michigan State University Press,
• 1992 Geological Survey of Michigan,
• Clays and Shales, by H. Reis, 1902
• The Michigan Miner, 1902. State of Michigan, Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics, 1907 Michigan Manufacturer and Financial Record, 1912.

A short portion of the Hecla Belt Line exists today from North Bay City east to the Saginaw River docks and is used by the Lake States Railway. It is parallel to Wilder Road, east of the LSRC crossing.

Time Line

1913. The Hecla Belt Line railroad about three miles long has been purchased by the Michigan Central according to a report here today. The road connects the defunct Hecla Cement company's plant with the Michigan Central tracks. The purchase price is said to be $50,000. Most of the machinery has been sold. [LSJ-1913-0114]