Tintic Southern Rail Road

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This page was last updated on October 9, 2025.

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Overview

In March 2009, a new railroad was reported as being organized in Utah. Known as the ParsonMcKee & Tintic Southern Rail Road, the new planned shortline railroad was moving forward with plans to operate over the former D&RGW Tintic Branch (later known as UP's Tintic Industrial Lead).

(Read more about the former D&RGW Tintic Branch)

Since May 2002, the roadbed and track of the former D&RGW Tintic Branch (which later became Union Pacific's Tintic Industrial Lead) had been owned by Utah Transit Authority, with Union Pacific retaining operating rights to provide limited common carrier access.

The new Tintic Southern railroad was to be affiliated with Ophir Mineral and Aggregate Group, usually known as Omag, with Al McKee (Alan Dean McKee) as the new company's president. The formal name was Ophir Minerals and Aggregate LLC.

During 2009, McKee reported that Omag mined, loaded, and shipped by truck, commodities such as salt, food-grade calcium carbonate, flux-grade silica, high-grade silica, Gilsonite, Halloysite, Perlite, Dolomite, gypsum, and all types of concrete aggregates. McKee planned to increase operations and ship the increased production by rail.

McKee stated that Omag was part of the rapidly expanding McFarland & Hullinger/Broken Arrow, a trucking, construction, and mining company headquartered in Tooele, Utah. Although later found to be nothing more than McKee's fantasy when McFarland & Hullinger/Broken Arrow publicly stated that the company had no association with McKee or his projects.

In addition to increased quarry production, McKee stated that Tintic Southern was organized in anticipation of rejuvenated rail traffic at mines in the Tintic district, at the Burgin mine being developed by the Chief Consolidated mining company. But the new mining traffic never did materialize.

Burgin Mine

After the mid-1990s, Chief Consolidated Mining Corp. had tried various methods of leases and joint ventures to obtain funding that would allow mining to resume from its properties east of Eureka. There were proposals to re-start mining at the Burgin and Trixie mines, along with the concentrator built by Kennecott during the 1969-1978 lease of the property. In March 2008, it looked like some progress was being made when Andover Mining Corp. acquired 65 percent of Chief Consolidated, with the main asset being 16,000 acres of land near Eureka, Utah. Chief Consolidated had been working to develop the Burgin Mine (silver, plus lead and zinc) and the Trixie Mine (gold, silver, and copper). There were multiple feasibility studies, and each indicated high initial costs and varying degrees of success, depending on the changing prices of metals. The costs of its proposals and studies in hopes of a resumption of mining, were a severe drain on Andover's assets. In August 2013, Andover declared bankruptcy, and in February 2014, the company's attempt to reorganize failed and it was ordered to liquidate its assets.

(Read more about the Burgin mine at Tintic)

Timeline

May 2007
McKee purchased two Alco switching locomotives, stored at the former U. S. Steel coal washing plant east of Price, Utah. The two locomotives were moved in September and October 2007 to McKee's shop at Flux, on the west side of Tooele Valley, west of Grantsville.

March 2009
The new Tintic Southern Railroad was organized. The signs placed at several road crossings showed the company as Omag Mining/ParsonMcKee & Tintic Southern Rail Road.

July 2011
Many observers noticed new signs that appeared at points where the tracks crossed local highways and roads, announcing, "Please Be Aware. This Rail Line Is Subject To Reopen."

2011-2012
Andover removed the rail from Burgin mine area and sold it before they declared bankruptcy in 2012.

February 2014
Omag and Tintic Southern's plans for renewed operation of the Tintic Branch depended on the success of renewed mining operations by Chief Consolidated Mining Company, at its Burgin and Trixie mines, and surrounding area. Those plans disappeared with the bankruptcy and liquidation in February 2014 of Andover Mining Corp., a Canadian company that held 65 percent ownership of Chief Consolidated.

March 2014
Plans were in place as late as March 2014 to operate trains hauling stone from the Keigley quarry and other sites, as well as whatever Tintic ore traffic might develop.

May 2014
There were informal online reports that the environmental damage caused by UP removing any of the rail of its Tintic Industrial Lead that crossed the Goshen Valley, would be under the jurisdiction of the federal EPA, and could be expensive due to fines if "proper" mitigation and remediation was not part of the project. Abandonment-in-place was seen as the best solution. There were also informal online reports that Utah Transit Agency, in its "UTA 2030 Plan," showed a Frontrunner commuter rail line from Payson, west to Elberta, then north along the west shore of Utah Lake, to Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain.

May 2015
There were informal online reports that in 2009, Omag had hired a contractor to start rehabilitating the former Tintic branch line. The contractor's equipment sat for a few days on the Muir-Roberts siding until UTA and UP told them to remove the equipment. Omag kept their signs up until sometime in 2014.

Omag was caught in the financial difficulties when Andover Mining declared bankruptcy, due to their reported partnership with Andover on the Chief Consolidated properties. Omag broke their relationship with Andover during the bankruptcy and dropped the idea of re-opening the Tintic railroad branch line. Omag had planned to use the reactivated rail line to ship minerals, including Halloysite, from the Burgin mine, as well as shipping from the limestone quarry at Keigley.

As of 2015, the Tintic Southern railroad was a dead project. Especially since parts of the rail line had been removed. First in 2012 when Andover removed the rail on the property of the Burgin mine in 2012 and sold it before they declared bankruptcy.

Then in 2015, the federal Bureau of Land Management pulled up long lengths of rail when they "chained" the area to remove trees and brush. The chaining process, officially known as "vegetation removal," uses very large chain from ship anchors, connected between two bulldozers, and dragged across the landscape. The process physically up-roots trees and brush, which are then moved into piles and burned. The purpose of chaining is to remove trees and brush to make the land available for planting grasses useful for cattle grazing. (Read more about chaining)

The Tintic Southern, and reactivation of the former D&RGW Tintic Branch (UP's Tintic Industrial Lead) was a good idea, and might have worked had it not been promoted by persons who were later convicted of various forms of felony fraud, connected with their methods of reactivating the rail line.

Locomotives

The plans for Tintic Southern included the operation of two rare Alco switchers that had been saved from the scrapper's torch.

The two locomotives had been stored for over 10 years at the defunct U. S. Steel coal washing plant near Wellington, Utah. The locomotives were both built for U. S. Steel:

USS no. 1 was an Alco S-6 built in 1957 for U. S. Steel, and spending its entire service life at the Wellington wash plant. Painted all-black.

USS 1217 is an Alco SSB-9, the cab unit of a unique cow-calf set built in 1956 for U. S. Steel's Oliver Iron Mining operation in Minnesota. The 1217 came to Utah in about 1981 after U. S. Steel closed the Oliver Iron operations. Painted all-yellow.

U. S. Steel closed the Wellington plant in 1984 when they also shut down their coal mines at Horse Canyon in Utah, and at Somerset in Colorado, along with their Carbon County Railway subsidiary. U. S. Steel sold the coal mines and coal washing plant to Kaiser Coal in 1984, but Kaiser never put the coal mines into production, or the Wellington coal preparation plant into operation. By 1989 Kaiser was bankrupt and sold the Wellington facility to Castle Valley Resources as a loadout location for their Genwal Mine in Crandall Canyon. But Castle Valley decided to use the site at Mohrland on Utah Railway, instead of the Wellington site to load coal, and the locomotives at Wellington remained idle until their sale to Omag in 2007.

After 2007 both Alco locomotives were owned by Ophir Mineral and Aggregate Group, usually known as Omag. Omag's president, Al McKee, had noticed the two locomotives sitting at the Wellington location in about 2002. The locomotives were owned by NEICO (Nevada Electric Investment Company), parent company to Nevada Power. Mr. McKee had done some work for Nevada Power at their Reid Gardner coal-fired power plant at Moapa, Nevada, and had some contacts within Nevada Power. He contacted them in January 2007 about buying the two Wellington locomotives and was told that the locomotives could not be moved over UP tracks because they had solid bearings (also known as friction bearings), instead of the needed roller bearings. McKee wanted the locomotives to switch rail cars at his Omag facilities at Flux, Utah, where they load salt into rail cars, and at Wendover where they load gypsum for use as a soil amendment.

Omag purchased both locomotives in May 2007. Union Pacific agreed to move the former USS 1217 to Flux, but only after a very extensive inspection. The move took place in September 2007. The former U. S. Steel No. 1 was moved by truck in October 2007. Both locomotives were moved to McKee's Omag shop at Flux, on the former WP branches west of Grantsville.

Omag planned on repairing and repainting the 1217 upon its arrival at Flux. At one time, UP would not approve the movement of the old USS no. 1, so Omag made plans to move it by flatbed truck to Payson where they will repair and repaint it for use at their Keigley facility at the former Geneva Steel Keigley quarry west of Santaquin on UP's ex D&RGW  Tintic Branch. At Keigley, Omag loaded limestone (calcium carbonate) into rail cars, and planned to use the former USS no. 1 at that location. After loading the cars at Keigley, Omag will move them to over UP's former D&RGW Tintic Branch to a connection with UP's mainline at Springville. But instead, the locomotives was moved on a flat car to Flux.

During summer 2015, while the two locomotives were stored at Flux, and after the failure of the Tintic Southern Railroad in spring 2015, copper thieves stole the external copper cables, making the two locomotives totally unserviceable, with costs to rebuild being too high for old locomotives. The two locomotives would likely be scrapped. As of early 2016, both units were sitting out away from the Broken Arrow facility at Flux, apparently sold (or about to be sold) as assets of the bankrupt Omag and its failed Tintic Southern Railroad.

Road
Number		 Previous
Number		 Builder
Model		 Builder
Number		 Builder
Date		 Notes
NEICO 1 USSX 1 Alco S-6 82303 Sep 1957 1
NEICO 002 USSX 002 Alco SSB-9 81817 Oct 1956 2

General Notes:

  1. USSX 1 was built for Columbia Geneva Steel.
  2. In September 2001, USSX 1 was seen to have the number "1" in its number boards, with USSX and the number "1" visible under the paint. The unit also had a metal plate saying, "Property of Columbia Geneva Steel Div Geneva Mine 31-39".
  3. USSX 002 was built as Oliver Iron Mining (OIMX) 1217 as the 'A' cab part of a two unit cab-and-booster set, with the 'B' booster part having been scrapped. (Oliver Iron Mining became U. S. Steel's Minntac operations in ??)
  4. Both units were still there by September 1994, as Castle Valley Resources.
  5. Both units were owned by Coalplex International by August 1995.

Notes:

  1. NEICO 1 was sold to Ophir Mining and Aggregates Group (Omag) in May 2007; with plans to use it on a new shortline railroad planned to operate over UP's former D&RGW Tintic Branch, which UP calls its Tintic Industrial Lead. The new road hopes to serve the Keigley limestone quarry at Santaquin.
  2. NEICO 002 was sold to Ophir Mining and Aggregates Group (Omag) in May 2007; with plans to use it on a new shortline railroad planned to operate over UP's former D&RGW Tintic Branch, which UP calls its Tintic Industrial Lead. The new road hopes to serve the Keigley limestone quarry at Santaquin. The unit, with its original 1217 number still visible, was seen in May 2007 at the dolomite facility at Flux, on UP's Ellerbeck Branch south of Great Salt Lake.

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