Saturday, August 25, we arrived at the set-on location. Several cars were there already waiting for our arrival. Shortly Al Freeman from the railroad showed up with his Ford hi-rail pickup and radioed for some track time. Since no trains were operating on this stretch of the railroad, we were told to set on the main. Our car was the rear car. We set-on first and watched as the others followed. We were surprised to see Jeremy Winkworth in an open car! The clouds were quite thick when we departed the yard next to the ore dock. After a few miles we crossed the Dead River Trestle - a very long and high trestle. A mile or so later, we crossed the scale. We had strict instructions to "go slower than a walk" to avoid setting off the scale which would mean the railroad would have to have someone re-set the scale. We did not want that to happen and it didn't. I was in radio contact with Al and let him know where we were at certain points through out the day.

Beyond the scale a couple of miles is the Eagle Mills yard, the railroad's main yard, locomotive facility, car repair shops, etc. This was our rest stop. It was starting to mist. This yard is the center of operations. It has three main routes leaving it. One heads downhill to the ore dock, the second (which we did not go on) heads to the Empire and Tilden mines - both very active, and the third route which heads to Republic in beautiful Northern Michigan.

After a brief stop, we left the building to find a light rain falling upon us. A few operators closed their curtains and some turned on their wipers. Jeremy put on his raincoat. When we left this yard we headed towards Republic Mine which hasn't been used in several years. Very few LS&I trains operate on this section of track, mostly the Wisconsin Central uses it. Much of this track had CTC on it. Very recently the CTC was abandoned on this section, replaced by track warrants. A couple of places are now hand-throw switches. Before we just continued along and let the Eagle Mills Operator throw the switches.

Since I was in the last car, it was my responsibility to line the switches back to normal position and radio that information up to Al. About 10 miles from the mine, the WC branches off from the LS&I. The last section towards Republic hasn't seen a train in years. Al said that a crew went out Friday to clean crossings and trim the brush back!

The rain let up as we turned our cars at the Republic Mine. Shortly we arrived at our lunch stop. Jeremy now has his rain pants on as well as his raincoat. As we finished lunch, it again started to rain. Jeremy had taken refuge in my car waiting for the restaurant crowd to return to their cars. All aboard, the hi-rail headed out followed by 14 motorcars. Again I threw the switches as required and reported that to Al. Another stop at Eagle Mills yard, and then it was off to get weighed again. Still raining. When we arrived back at the set-on point we were offered the opportunity to go up by the dock. All but Jeremy went up there. He thought he was wet enough.

Four tracks extend approximately 1200 feet on top of the dock out towards Lake Superior. There are pockets under the tracks that the ore is dumped into. Each pocket is two tracks wide and holds three carloads of ore. Chutes extend from the pockets to the ships. Two ships can load at one time. Three of the tracks were full of loaded cars waiting to be dumped. The forth track was empty of cars, but had ore heaped up over the rails. Two ships were due in Sunday and they would hold all the ore that was in the dock. We backed down off the dock to the set-on point. Fourteen cars and not one tow bar was used!!!