Utah Southern Railroad (of 2006)

This page was last updated on March 16, 2012.

Additional Information

Google Map — A map of the Iron Mountain area, showing the former Union Pacific Iron Mountain Branch, now operated by Utah Southern.
Palladon's Iron Mountain Project — A description of Palladon Venture's Iron Mountain Project, at their own web site.
Iron and Steel in Utah — A separate page about the mining of iron ore, and the making of steel in Utah.

Utah Southern Railroad (USRC) is a shortline railroad operating over the Comstock Subdivision of Union Pacific's Cedar City Branch, between the re-opened iron mines at Iron Mountain, and UP's Cedar City Branch at Iron Springs, Utah. Rail access to the nation's railroad network is provided via UP's Cedar City Branch between Cedar City and the Salt Lake City-to-Los Angeles mainline at Lund, Utah.

Timeline

May 2006
Reports surfaced about a new Utah Southern Railroad having been organized in Utah to operate rail service along UP's Comstock Branch. Projected operations was to operate run-through UP motive power (using Utah Southern crews) to move approximately 2 million tons per year in 12,000 ton, 84-car unit trains. Operations were planned to begin in the third quarter of 2006. It was reported that Palladon and Utah Southern had already reached agreements on the needed rehabilitation of the trackage between the mines and the interchange point with UP at Iron Springs Junction, also known as Comstock Junction. (Trainorders.com, May 6, 2006)

More reports described the planned routing of the iron ore units trains from Iron Mountain. The planned route for about half the iron ore was by way of Donner Pass, then to the Port of Richmond (via Richmond Pacific) for loading into ships bound for China. The other half was to be moved to Portland for loading on ships. It was also reported that Utah Southern was owned by Mike Root, who also owned Albany & Eastern Railroad in Oregon, and that he had completed a hi-rail inspection of the line on April 20, 2006. The planned production rate from the mine was to allow the operation of 240 trains of 80 to 84 cars each. Utah Southern was to construct three train-length holding tracks at Iron Springs for interchange with UP. (Trainorders.com, May 4, 2006)

September 14, 2006
Palladon Iron Corporation received federal Surface Transportation Board approval for its lease of Union Pacific's Iron Mountain Branch, running from Iron Springs station on UP's Cedar City Branch, south to the Comstock/Iron Mountain iron ore mines being developed by Palladon. On the same date, Palladon leased the branch for operation to the newly organized Iron Bull Railroad (IBR), controlled by Albany & Eastern Railroad (AERC), a shortline operating in Oregon's Willamette Valley. (STB Decision)

July/August 2007
The owners of Iron Bull Railroad also owned the Albany & Eastern Railroad in Oregon. In early August 2007, they sold their interest in Albany & Eastern to focus their activities on the further development of their interests in Utah, which was expected to begin operations during the third quarter of 2008. (Trainorders.com, July 26, 2007)

June/July 2008
Track rehabilitation began in early June with the first train expected sometime after July 15. The road's operating plan called for two or more cuts per day to be loaded and brought down the hill from the mine to the UP connection at Iron Springs. There is not enough room at the mine to load a whole train. Motive power will be SD40-2 locomotives. (Trainorders.com, May 16, 2008)

September 2008
The informal name for the new operations, Iron Bull Railroad, was set aside to prevent confusion with the name of the iron mining company. The formal name, Utah Southern Railroad, with a reporting mark of USR, and as it was originally referred to, was the name chosen to be placed on the two newly acquired locomotives.

October 17, 2008
Test operations began, after the two locomotives were delivered on October 16.

April 2009 to March 2010
Mining operations were delayed due to financial difficulties of Palladon Ventures Ltd., resulting in its subsidiary Palladon Iron Corporation being reorganized in early March 2010 as CML Metals Corporation. (The CML name comes from the name of the mine actively being worked, Comstock/Mountain Lion.)

(CML Metals Corporation is 78 percent owned by Luxor Capital Group and 22 percent owned by Palladon Ventures, Ltd.; Luxor Capital Group is a hedge fund founded by Christian Leone.)

(Palladon Ventures, Ltd., is a mining company based in Vancouver, British Columbia. As of March 2010 Palladon's CEO is Dale Gilbert who is also President and CEO of Gilbert Development Corporation, the project's mining contractor. Also on Palladon's Board of Directors is Steve Gilbert, founder of Gilbert Development Corporation.)

July 12, 2010
Regular operations began. The first trains used 150 Rapid Discharge hopper cars leased to CML Metals Corporation, but use Utah Southern Railroad's USR reporting mark because CML does not yet have its own reporting mark.

Plans during 2010 called for two trains per week, with Utah Southern Railroad handling the loads from the mine on the Comstock branch. (discussion at Trainorders.com)

December 14, 2011
Due to several contract disputes, CML Metals Corporation evicted Utah Southern Railroad from property owned and leased by CML Metals, and CML Metals took over rail operations at its iron mine and the rail line leased from Union Pacific. Claims and counter-claims have been filed with the court system.

January 15, 2012
Utah Southern Railroad operations formally ended due to loss of the contract with CML Metals to provide rail service to their CML iron mine. The two locomotives, USR 3000 and 3001, were sold to Western Rail, Inc. (WRIX) and moved to their facility near Spokane, Washington by late January 2012.

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Locomotives

Road Number	Locomotive Model	Previous Number	Builder Number	Date Built	Date To USR	Notes
USRC 3000	SD40-2	UP 3164	Feb 1972	7334-42	16 Oct 2008	1
USRC 3001	SD40-2	UP 3188	Jul 1972	5819-16	16 Oct 2008	2

General Notes:

a.	Painted in a yellow and brown scheme that is reminiscent of UP's paint scheme from the mid and late 1930s. (click here for photos)
b.	Both locomotives were shipped from LTE's facility in MacDonald, Ohio, on September 30, and delivered by UP to Utah Southern at Iron Springs on October 16.
c.	First train, in the form of a test train of 25 empty cars, was run on Friday October 17, 2008. (photo)

Notes:

1.	USRR 3000 was built as UP 3164, which was retired by UP on 24 January 2008 and sold to Larrys Truck Electric; lettered first as LTEX 3000, then Utah Southern Railroad 3000.
2.	USRR 3001 was built as UP 3188, which was retired by UP on 24 January 2008 and sold to Larrys Truck Electric; lettered first as LTEX 3001, then Utah Southern Railroad 3001.

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