Quincy Mine Roundhouse to be restored

o anderson · **Posted:** Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:59 pm

This is from the recent, Summer 2009 newsletter of the Quincy Mine Hoist Association:

Quote:

This summer, rehabilitation work has begun on the Quincy & Torch Lake Railroad’s Engine House here at the Quincy Mine! At the beginning of the season, The engine house looked like an abandoned old building made of poor rock from the mine. The wooden roof had rotted and fallen in, leaving no roof at all over the structure. The only remanants of the roof were rusted steel beams, but those have temporary supports added to them to keep them from collapsing under their own weight.

Existing wooden doors at the four locomotive bays are still attached to the structure, but are severely rotted and are beyond repair. The timbers under the tracks inside are rotted and it was belived that the entire wooden floor of the engine house was also rotted and for the most part gone, with only the soil visible. All of the windows are either broken or gone. Very little could be seen by looking into the bay doors for so much vegetation has grown in the interior.

Now as you look at the Engine House, the vegetation is gone and some flooring and artifacts are now visible. That is because a limited archaeological investigation was done as a starting point of the rehabilitation project. In preparation for upcoming rehabilitation work, faculty and students from Michigan Tech’s Industrial Archaeology program have spent the summer investigating and documenting the Quincy and Torch Lake Railroad engine house. Graduate student Craig Wilson, assisted and advised by Dr. Sam Sweitz and Dr. Patrick Martin, performed archaeological excavations in several key areas around the engine house to learn more about the structure’s history and to assist the QMHA in planning rehabilitation efforts.

Working with a crew of three undergraduate students from Michigan Tech, Wilson first cleared vegetation and debris from inside the structure. Large artifacts, such as a stationary boiler, a planer, a blacksmith’s hearth, a tool rack, a grinding wheel, a window, and the overhead belt drive system were documented through photographs and measured drawings. Each of these artifacts was also analyzed
to determine current conditions and potential for inclusion in future museum exhibits.

Wilson also performed traditional archaeological excavations in several locations throughout the engine house. The field crew excavated a 12.5 meter section in the machine shop area along the north wall of the engine house, exposing numerous original floorboards and recovering hundreds of artifacts. Crewmembers also excavated the first service pit to reveal original construction techniques. Three smaller excavations were performed at key locations around the engine house to expose the sub-floor structure. In all excavations, Wilson and the field crew gathered information about original construction techniques and current structural conditions to assist the QMHA and UP Engineers plan the upcoming rehabilitation work.

http://quincymine.com/Summer-Newsletter-2009.pdf

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6482

o anderson wrote:

This is from the recent, Summer 2009 newsletter of the Quincy Mine Hoist Association:

Quote:

This summer, rehabilitation work has begun on the Quincy & Torch Lake Railroad’s Engine House here at the Quincy Mine! At the beginning of the season, The engine house looked like an abandoned old building made of poor rock from the mine. The wooden roof had rotted and fallen in, leaving no roof at all over the structure. The only remanants of the roof were rusted steel beams, but those have temporary supports added to them to keep them from collapsing under their own weight.

Existing wooden doors at the four locomotive bays are still attached to the structure, but are severely rotted and are beyond repair. The timbers under the tracks inside are rotted and it was belived that the entire wooden floor of the engine house was also rotted and for the most part gone, with only the soil visible. All of the windows are either broken or gone. Very little could be seen by looking into the bay doors for so much vegetation has grown in the interior.

Now as you look at the Engine House, the vegetation is gone and some flooring and artifacts are now visible. That is because a limited archaeological investigation was done as a starting point of the rehabilitation project. In preparation for upcoming rehabilitation work, faculty and students from Michigan Tech’s Industrial Archaeology program have spent the summer investigating and documenting the Quincy and Torch Lake Railroad engine house. Graduate student Craig Wilson, assisted and advised by Dr. Sam Sweitz and Dr. Patrick Martin, performed archaeological excavations in several key areas around the engine house to learn more about the structure’s history and to assist the QMHA in planning rehabilitation efforts.

Working with a crew of three undergraduate students from Michigan Tech, Wilson first cleared vegetation and debris from inside the structure. Large artifacts, such as a stationary boiler, a planer, a blacksmith’s hearth, a tool rack, a grinding wheel, a window, and the overhead belt drive system were documented through photographs and measured drawings. Each of these artifacts was also analyzed
to determine current conditions and potential for inclusion in future museum exhibits.

Wilson also performed traditional archaeological excavations in several locations throughout the engine house. The field crew excavated a 12.5 meter section in the machine shop area along the north wall of the engine house, exposing numerous original floorboards and recovering hundreds of artifacts. Crewmembers also excavated the first service pit to reveal original construction techniques. Three smaller excavations were performed at key locations around the engine house to expose the sub-floor structure. In all excavations, Wilson and the field crew gathered information about original construction techniques and current structural conditions to assist the QMHA and UP Engineers plan the upcoming rehabilitation work.

http://quincymine.com/Summer-Newsletter-2009.pdf

OA -

Interesting stuff! The newsletter issue that was referenced, also highlighted Q&TL locomotives 5 and 6. Are these the only locomotives from the line that are still surviving? Also, where was number 6 that she had to be moved back home?

Thanks.

Les

JimBoylan · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 11:08 am

The newsletter in the link hints that Loco 6 was at the Pine Creek Rwy. in Allaire State Forrest, N.J.

steaminfo · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:01 pm

JimBoylan wrote:

The newsletter in the link hints that Loco 6 was at the Pine Creek Rwy. in Allaire State Forrest, N.J.

Here what we have on www.steamlocomotive.info

Quincy & Torch Lake 2-6-0 No. 1 at Hancock, MI

Quincy & Torch Lake 2-8-0 No. 5 at Hancock, MI

Quincy & Torch Lake 2-6-0 No. 3 at the Huckleberry RR

Quincy & Torch Lake 2-8-0 No. 6 at Allaire, NJ

JR May · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:37 pm

Yes, the Quincy #6 did leave the NJ Museum of Transportation/Pine Creek RR this past summer and has arrived home to the Quincy engine house. #6 was moved to NJ by the NJMT crew in 1975 under a lease with the Quincy Mining Company. While moving the #6 in 1975, the NJMT crew also moved two engines from the engine house up to their current location by the hoist house.
J.R. May

steaminfo · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 4:17 pm

JR May wrote:

Yes, the Quincy #6 did leave the NJ Museum of Transportation/Pine Creek RR this past summer and has arrived home to the Quincy engine house. #6 was moved to NJ by the NJMT crew in 1975 under a lease with the Quincy Mining Company. While moving the #6 in 1975, the NJMT crew also moved two engines from the engine house up to their current location by the hoist house.
J.R. May

Cool, I'll update the database.

Ron Travis · **Joined:** Sun May 15, 2005 2:22 pm **Posts:** 1543

What is the overall plan for the Q&TL engine house? I have heard they want to move #6 back into it once the building has been rehabbed. Will they move #1 and #5 back into the engine house as well? Is there any chance of getting #3 back from Huckleberry? It would be interesting to reinstate that locomotive in its state of teardown as it sat in the engine house after the mine shutdown in 1945.

Stationary Steam · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 9:44 pm

That is the saddest group of steam locomotives that I have ever seen! Where is the rest of number 3? Just a boiler and some kindling now where the cab once had been.

The enginehouse restoration will give hope for the day when the entire existing roster can be safely tucked away under cover and restored as well.

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6482

Stationary Steam wrote:

That is the saddest group of steam locomotives that I have ever seen!

Oh, I don't know. Mogul #1 looks like a rather simple machine and maybe even restorable. Of course, I have no idea as to the future plans for the engines.

Les

Ron Travis · **Joined:** Sun May 15, 2005 2:22 pm **Posts:** 1543

The Q&TL locomotives are in very rough shape. They were seemingly about used up when the mine shut down in 1945. I am just guessing, but #6 may have been in the best condition at that time. The copper country snows eventually crush anything made of wood. Number 3 is in pieces today, but it was half disassembled in the engine house when the mine shut down in 1945. Quincy had earlier bought a new boiler for #4, which was nearly identical to #3, but #4 was scrapped before the boiler was installed on it. The boiler, in red oxide primer, had sat outside on a flatcar since before the 1945 shutdown.

At the time of the shutdown, #3 was being dismantled, I assume to have its boiler replaced by the new boiler for #4. Therefore, I assume that the new boiler is at Huckleberry with the disassembled #3. Putting #3 back into the engine house in its state of teardown with the new boiler outside on a flatcar would be an interesting display in interpreting the shop aspect of the engine house.

Ron Travis · **Joined:** Sun May 15, 2005 2:22 pm **Posts:** 1543

Here is a builder's photo of Q&TL #3. I think it is the most handsome narrow gauge locomotive I have ever seen.

Stationary Steam · **Posted:** Thu Nov 12, 2009 8:24 am

Yes that is a beauty. At least the possibility exists of seeing that locomotive in the flesh again someday.

John Risley · **Joined:** Tue Aug 24, 2004 10:34 pm **Posts:** 966

I agree those Quincy locomotives are cute. The boilers on the two that have been at the Hancock, MI site are very interesting locos to study. If you are the type who studies boiler repair {on stuff and mounted locomotives} they are just fascinating. Some of the most scary repairs I have ever seen. To say these locomotives were used up at the time of the shutdown is an understatement. Granted the unrelenting climate of the UP didn't help anything, but you can tell these little gems were rode very hard and put away drenching wet. If one had a lot of money for new everything you could restore those two that have stayed put, but unfortunately there is not much left of them to rebuild. It would be a labor of love, but you would pretty much have to make all new patterns and start over. The boilers and the repairs that have been done in the past would make you laugh, wish I had more pics of some of the repairs. Adds to the wonderful mystique of the Quincy&Torch Lake history.

Is the CN&W #175 still sitting by the smelter? Haven't been up there for a few years now.

I went up there snooping around in the early 1970s around Christmas, was cold and snowy. The engine house was intact with
the one loco tore apart. The machine shop was the coolest place. The roof was already half off, but the whole shop was intact and most of it or all of it was overhead belt driven! No camera, not even my trusty Kodak Instamatic with flash cubes. It got dark and we found a tavern. Very hard country up there, I admire anybody who chooses to live there. You got to be made of some pretty tough stuff.

Cheers, John.

Ron Travis · **Joined:** Sun May 15, 2005 2:22 pm **Posts:** 1543

John,

I sure know what you mean by the outlandish boiler welding on those two engines on display. I can’t recall if it was #1 or #5, or both, but they sure put a lot of faith in the arc welder. That entire Quincy Mine complex was an awesome place when it was derelict in the 1960s and early 1970s. The stamp mill on Torch Lake was a huge timber structure complex built in many levels cascading down the hillside. It had line shafts and highly complex machinery all over the place. There were electric motors the size of Volkswagens tucked up into the ceiling timbers here and there. Back at the mine site in Hancock, there were multiple hoist houses, a compressor house, boiler houses, the giant No. 2 shaft house, the blacksmith shop, and the machine shop. All of these were bigger than barns and contained unbelievably large machinery.

This is just what was left in the 1960s. There had been much more physical plant that had been torn down over the years as mine shafts were discontinued and the stamping operation was moved from below the mine in Hancock to Torch Lake. The Quincy Mine had a whole lot of history even before the Quincy & Torch Lake RR was built in 1890. If I recall correctly, the Quincy No. 2 shaft, on an incline, reached a depth of nearly two miles measured on the incline.

And that was just one mining company, although a large one, out of many up there. There were hundreds of mines up there over its history. Some of them were shut down and out of business before 1850. It is staggering to contemplate the total mining surface plant, underground workings, railroads, stamp mills, and smelters that were once operated in the “Copper Country.”