Location: Ore Yard, Presque Isle, MI

The Lake Superior & Ishpeming had an ore classification yard at Presque Isle, known as West Yard. Ore jennies were brought down to this yard from Negaunee, Palmer, Ishpeming, Humboldt, and the Republic area and classified for loading into ships at the nearby dock.

Photo Info: An aerial photo of West Yard at Presque Isle. The ore dock and roundhouse facilities are also observed in this birdseye view. The area of the roundhouse and buildings are now occupied by a coal burning power plant. The coal dock can be seen to the right of the ore dock. This photo was taken in the 1950's. [Mike Tabone collection]

Notes

The LS&I maintains a 17-track classification yard here with a capacity of 1,092 ore cars. They also have a 3-track arrival yard which hold 125 cars each. A three track departure yard also exists here. 

The railroad has two "hot houses" for thawing 56-cars of ore at a time. [LSIOR]

LS&I car and locomotive shops are located here, until they are moved to Eagle Mills in the 1960's. The LS&I also has a small roundhouse in Ishpeming.

In case of over capacity of ore in this yard, a "tramp run" will take ore to the DSS&A yard along the lake front in Marquette for storage. The same runs will also transport ore which needs to go out on the DSS&A dock.

Time Line

SNAPSHOT (1960's): There is a home signal at the entrance to the Marquette ore dock yard. This signal governs the movement of trains into the arrival years, which is made up of three tracks and diverge off the main line. The LS&I has remote control switches for these arrival tracks which are under the control of the dispatcher at the ore yard.  Arriving trains do not stop for the head brakeman to jump off the run ahead to throw the switches for the train.  [LSIOR]