Station: Hermansville, MI

Hermansville is located in northwest Menominee County and was settled about 1878. The Wisconsin Land & Lumber company was organized here in 1883 and began manufacturing hardwood products for national distribution. [MPN]

Hermansville was also the crossing at grade of the Soo Line railroad (Minneapolis to Sault Ste. Marie via Gladstone) and the Chicago & North Western line from Powers west to Iron Mountain and beyond. The Wisconsin Land & Lumber Company, known as IXL, had manufacturing facilities here with access to both railroads.

Photo Info: Top, a photo of the Hermansville depot and main line. A string of box cars is on the siding at the left. This photo is from around 1910. 2nd photo, an inside view of the C&NW depot around 1920. This is a fairly common depot arrangement for the agent/operator. The man at the left is the telegrapher and on the right is the agent. [CNW Northwestern Newsliner in 1947]. 3rd image, a USGS map of Hermansville in 1988. The IXL lumber facilities are on the west side of town and have rail service from both the Soo Line and the C&NW. [USGS/Dale Berry]

Notes

The two railroads here had a double wye in the southeast corner of the crossing in 1917, with one leg likely used for car interchange.

The C&NW depot was just west of Linden Street crossing. This location also had a separate freight house. These were moved to the crossing in 1925.

Time Line

1895. August 24. Joseph Duke and Eugene Webster, employees of the Chicago & North Western, were instantly killed in a railroad accident at Hermansville last Saturday evening. The locomotive was struck by a flat-car coming down grade, and was thrown into the ditch crushing the two men to death. [RTR-1895-0824]

1917. The grade crossing at Hermansville was protected by a track gate. [CNWV-1917]

1918. The C&NW had an agent at this station on the day shift and a telegraph operator on the day and 2nd shift. The MStP&SSM had operators here around the clock, likely at the crossing tower. [TRT]

1925. The C&NW passenger and freight depot was moved east (from Linden Street) to the northwest quadrant of the CNW/MStP&SSM diamond. This became a union depot serving both lines. The freight house was moved to the southwest quadrant of the wye. The depot had a cinder platform on the C&NW and a plank platform on the MStP&SSM line. Each line had a separate baggage room at the crossing.

1941. A five-car derailment on the Soo Line railroad about nine miles east of Hermansville (between Hermansville and Tesch) last week caused an interruption in service on the road for 12 hours. The derailment occurred on an extra westbound freight. [IDG-1941-0813]

1958. 27 cars jumped the track in a derailment of a Soo Line railroad main line near Hermansville Friday. Crews are at work clearing the wreckage. Two crew members were injured. The derailment appears to be caused by a broken rail. 500 feet of track were torn up and another 1,300 feet damaged. The railroad is detouring passenger trains over the North Western and Milwaukee Road tracks from Hermansville to Pembine, WI to maintain passenger schedules, but some freight trains will be annulled until the track is clear. The wrecked train was No. 11, a westbound fast freight between Minneapolis and Sault Ste. Marie.[EDP-1958-0208]

1964. Twenty-two cars of a Soo Line railroad freight train were derailed at 3:30 am about nine miles east of Hermansville. The cause has not been determined. Train No. 15 was enroute to Rhinelander, WI and left Gladstone about 12:30 p.m.. Nineteen of the cars were off the right-of-way and three more were simply derailed. The firm's wrecker is being brought in from Marquette to get the cars back on the tracks. None of the crew, from Gladstone, were injured. [EDP-1964-0227]

1965. February. The MPSC will hold a public hearing on a petition of the Soo Line railroad to replace the agent at Hermansville with a traveling agent to be located at Gladstone. The Soo noted that it has seven station employees at Gladstone, which is open to the public 7-days-a-week. Gladstone is equipped with a teletype and flexiwriter and under the plan the agent would be available or on call to serve patrons at the Hermansville station. The road would continue to render all carload and less-than-carload services now available at Hermansville. The Gladstone station would order cars, prepare shipping documents and perform other essential duties in handling Hermansville business. They would also be available 8 or more hours each business day with the railroad paying all toll charges incurred in business calls. A staff member would travel to Hermansville "as often as business conditions require" to handle matters which require an agent's presence. [EDP-1965-0220] The request was granted in June, 1965 by the MPSC.

1965. Ten miles of pipe will arrive via the Soo Line railroad here, unloaded and stored, for use by the Michigan Consolidated Gas Company for its pipe line. [EDP-1965-0325]

Industry

The Wisconsin Land and Lumber Company had a saw mill and factory here. In 1917, it was served by the C&NW, but later had access to both railroads. [CNWV] By 1926 the MStP&SSM also had an access track. The plant had a two saw mills, hot water pond, factory, and two dry kilns. They also had their own locomotive house and water tank.