Reynolds (Ind.) Ore Pellet Trains To Resume


Thanks to an agreement between Republic Steel and ERP Iron Ore LLC, unit ore pellet trains like this one (CSX K502 on 6/26/16) will resume running in about a year. 

This news has a Peoria connection, so bear with me! 

First, Lorain County, Ohio's The Morning Journal announced July 25 that Republic Steel's Lorain, Ohio steel mill, idled since early 2016 when markets declined, will be producing up to 1 million tons of pig iron annually beginning in July 2018. 

The news was good for another shuttered plant - the former Magnetation LLC ore pellet facility in Reynolds, Indiana. According to linked article, 

ERP Iron Ore will send iron ore pellets to Lorain via rail from its plant in Reynolds, Ind.
ERP Iron Ore LLC purchased some of Magnetation's assets, including the Reynolds plant, in February 2017. Before Magnetation ended operations in October 2016, CSX delivered unit trains of hematite ore (loaded on BNSF in Minnesota) and received unit ore pellet trains which it hauled to AK Steel's Middletown, Ohio steelworks. 

Now what about that Peoria connection? One of the raw materials needed by Magnetation was bentonite, which during the plant's two years of operation was shipped from Wyoming and routed BNSF-Peoria-TP&W. The Toledo Peoria & Western Railway spotted bentonite loads at the Co-Alliance grain elevator siding in Reynolds from where content was trucked the final leg. 

Hopefully, TP&W will again handle this traffic when ERP Iron Ore LLC begins supplying ore pellets to Republic Steel's Lorain, Ohio mill. 

- David P. Jordan

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