The Coal Spur

Mine railroads served three primary functions. The first - and foremost - was to transport copper rock from the mine to the stamp mill for processing. Secondly, it was used to then move the finished copper to the smelter. And lastly, it was used to deliver coal to the mine’s various boilers to keep the whole operation moving along. The Q&TL served two of these purposes: both the delivery of copper rock down the hill to the mill and the return up the hill with coal for the mine’s boilers. Mines would stockpile coal in large coal sheds similar to the one pictured above (this one is C&H’s) after being unloaded from ships. At Quincy this coal shed sat down along the shore of Torch Lake (see this post for details). After dumping off their copper rock cargo at the mills, the trains would then snake down the hill to the coal shed and pick up their cargo for return to the mine.

We have already seen the start of this coal spur for the Q&TL, up behind Mason. The steepness of the hillside here meant that instead of coming straight down it, the trains made a zig-zag along the hills face on the way to the shoreline. After its zig at Mason, the train would zag down this corridor shown above. As with most of the Q&TL’s right-of-way, 75 years of abandonment has taken its toll. Just use your imagination.

Before reaching the coal sheds at the lakeshore, the line first had to cross the Hancock and Lake Linden Road (now M26) by means of a trestle. Here you can see the western support for that trestle. You can still easily make out this structure driving along M26 today, between Mason and the Mills. Check out the BIG PICTURE for a more detailed look.

At the other end of this now-vanished trestle is this support. Less elaborate then its western counterpart, this large earthen bern helped support a second trestle just beyond it that crossed the Mineral Range line. Interestingly that while the opposite side sported poor-rock walls and concrete footings - this side used simply wooden posts to support the bridge.

Here’s a shot of the opposite side of that Mineral Range crossing, as seen out on the sands themselves. From here the line made a turn northward (to the right) and dropped down to the coal sheds beyond. (and further out to the boilers for the mills as well)

This is all very straightforward (and a little boring), but that all changes in about 1910 when the Copper Range RR decided to pass on through on its way to Calumet. Since the Q&TL line had been in place for 20 years by this point, the Copper Range had to become a little creative in order to get its line through the Quincy property. You can see in the photo above this Copper Range line on the left and the existing Q&TL line on the right. Quincy would not allow the Copper Range to pass its line at grade (which due to the differences in gauges I’m not sure they could) so the Copper Range had to build a trestle here in order to cross.

Things get a little confusing here (it took me a while on the ground to figure out what I was looking at) so here’s a map of the intersection. In green is the Q&TL line coming down the hill (in a zig-zag) on its way to the coal shed. You can see the trestles over both the Mineral Range and M26 marked in white. This was how things were for a good 20 years until the Copper Range came on through - shown in red. At the Q&TL intersection, the Copper Range built a trestle to run over top of it. Sounds simple enough, except at the time the topography wouldn’t allow it.

The problem was that this entire area use to be just a sloped hillside. In order to get over the Q&TL line, Copper Range had to build up a raised grade about 15-20 feet in height through this area (from Mason straight up to the Mills themselves) on which to run their line. This raised grade created in essence a “cut” through which the Q&TL now had to run. In the photo above you can make out the northern retaining wall of this cut - built from concrete.

If you take a look at the BIG PICTURE of this cut you can make out an area of rock and debris now filling it in. This confused me further until I realized that this was a modern addition to the whole mess. Currently the old Copper Range line serves as a snowmobile trail. When the mines closed shop, the trestle that once crossed this “cut” was most likely removed for scrap. Instead of building a new trestle across this gap (which would of cost too much money), the snowmobile trail makers simply bashed the retaining wall and filled it in with debris. Now the trail simply runs over the top. Genius except for the fact that it destroyed history in the process.

On the other side of the modern snowmobile trail you can make out the southern retaining wall to the old “cut”. The Q&TL line would of ran from the right side of the photo (up the hill) down to the left side of the photo - where the snowmobile trail now blocks the way.

In closing I bring you a close shot of the Q&TL trestle approach over M26 to prove an earlier hypothesis. I had concluded that the stone wall at Mason was part of the Q&TL coal spur’s “zig-zag” down the hillside. While pretty confident at the time, the ruins revealed today prove it. It has to do with construction materials. The Q&TL pre-dates the Copper Range by a good 20 years here, which means the infrastructure from both lines would have to appear twenty years apart in both material and technique. The “cut” created by Copper Range to cross the Q&TL is built using poured concrete, while the approach to the Q&TL trestle seen above is built form poor rock. While the Q&TL does use poured concrete from time to time, the Copper Range never uses poor rock. That poor rock wall at Mason was most likely built by the Q&TL - not the Copper Range.

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