by Jeremy Winkworth
On the weekend of July 18th and 19th, 1998, North Central Cars (NCR) ran motor car excursions out of Euclid Yard in Ishpeming, which is in Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula. On Saturday, we traveled to Baraga over LS&I and WC trackage. On Sunday, we rode LS&I trackage to Republic Mine and then down to the ore dock at Presque Isle, north of Marquette. Euclid Yard has been the base for WC operations around Marquette since early 1997. This year the 11 track yard contained over 100 revenue freight cars, including quite a number of Algoma Central ore cars and lumber flats. Three WC box cars still in Soo red and white were a reminder of the days when that railroad serviced the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The ex-CN&W engine shed, empty for so many years, now houses ex-Algoma Central GP 2003, used by the WC for their bi-weekly runs to L’Anse and Baraga. The yard is jointly owned by the WC and the LS&I.
There were 36 motor cars this year, 90% of which were Onan powered, and no hi-rails. Under sunny skies, we backed out of the yard around 8:00am and headed West on LS&I rails. Almost immediately we were in the backwoods of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. As happened last year, there were no bugs to plague us – those NCR people think of everything ! Twelve miles out from Ishpeming, we came to Humboldt junction, once a diamond for the LS&I and Soo. We now moved onto ex-Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic (DSS&A) trackage, currently used by the WC. Ties on this line were replaced last year and fresh ballast had been dropped between the rails, indicating current investment. At Champion, we stopped for a breather and necessary restroom break. Fifteen miles past Champion was Nestoria, where the original DSS&A main line to Duluth curved off to the left. The track is still in place to Sidnaw, although unused and heavily overgrown. It is currently owned by the Escanaba and Lake Superior Railroad (E&LS). Alas, poor overgrown Nestoria has only a pale shadow of it’s former importance in South Shore and Soo Line days. Past here, the ties were old but piles of new ones beside the line showed that maintenance crews would be starting work soon in this section. At Summit, we began our descent of the famous L’Anse hill, 10 miles long and with a 3% grade in some places. Ah, how easy to let gravity do all the work, engine braking being required to hold our cars in check. At the bottom of the hill, the old L’Anse DSS&A depot has been gone for a year or so, replaced by a tiny shack with space for a fax machine and phone only. A spur to a Celatex mill, the line’s major customer, diverges in L’Anse. Five miles further on was Baraga, where we turned the cars, munched on snacks from the local gas station and prepared our cars for the upward assault of L’Anse hill.
Being in a belt-driven M9, which has one of Fairmont’s smallest engines, I was apprehensive of climbing L’Anse hill. As there was no opportunity to build up any momentum, the start of the hill at 3% was a challenge. All went well for the first 100 yards, then the engine speed started to increase and the smell of scorched belt told me that the belt was slipping, the first time it had ever done since I bought the car. By pushing the belt lever forward with all my strength and keeping maximum throttle, I could maintain enough tension to ensure a minimum speed, which was doubtless annoying to all those Onan powered cars behind. The car chugged on and while my arm muscles were screaming, I kept sufficient belt tension to make it up the 10 mile hill. I was never so glad to see the Summit sign. Now I really know how those South Shore engineers must have felt with a heavy train to get up the hill !!!
After that, the return to Ishpeming was uneventful, the beautiful lakes and woods of the Upper Peninsula unrolling around us. It was evident that the traffic base from Ishpeming to Baraga is pretty minimal and it is to the WC’s great credit that they have maintained this line and are investing in it.
As we were able to leave the cars in the Ishpeming yard, all that was required on Sunday was to turn them facing West. We first retraced our steps to Humboldt junction, taking the other fork leading to Republic Mine. Track improvements made in previous years resulted in a smooth ride on this branch. Now totally overgrown are the wye tracks to long disused Humboldt Mine. At one point, a brush fire had swept across the line and I was told that the LS&I had been instrumental in putting it out, using a hi-rail towing a 500 gallon tank of water. The convoy stopped just outside of Republic Mine, turned the cars, then motored back to Humboldt for lunch. During the return trip, we rode straight through Euclid Yard and up to Eagle Mills, where we paused to wait for a path down to the ore dock on Lake Superior just north of Marquette. This weekend the LS&I were very busy shuttling taconite pellets between the open-pit Tilden and Empire mines to the ore dock and we were fortunate to be able to ride this section at all.
I noticed at Eagle Mills that the LS&I have been cutting the tops off their fleet of boxcars previously used for paper service to the Kimberly Clark mill at Munising and using them as MOW flat cars, a clever use of surplus equipment to replace their 1925 vintage flatcars. Longtime inhabitant of the yard, RS3 #1608 was gone and some of the blue and white GE’s obtained from Detroit Edison had been cut up. Their function was evidently to provide parts for their ex-BN sisters bought by the LS&I. After only a few minutes, a hill job carrying empties back to Eagle Mills cleared the east end of the yard. We could then motor down to West Yard and directly up onto the ore dock. The dock is 1250 feet long and 60 feet wide, with 200 ore pockets, which can hold a total of 50,000 tons. We could very clearly see these pockets underneath our cars and closely examine the chutes. It was wonderful to be up there in good weather but it must be an inhospitable place to be during the late fall, when those gales of November come roaring through and the snow is flying.
We reversed down the dock approach and into a relief track in West Yard that was called the "Q" by the dispatcher. We watched a dock job push up some loaded cars and then bring down some empties. A train of loaded ore cars arrived, clouds of brake dust flying and then we were allowed to tackle the hill back up to Eagle Mills. Through Diamond Junction, we reached Negaunee and finally, after the big rock cutting, Euclid Yard. Before Negaunee, a pair of WC engines up from Escanaba could be seen by the leaders of the convoy taking a few cars from Euclid Yard through to Partridge via West Wye Junction.
Altogether, it was around 185 miles on the rails. There were no significant mechanical problems and no injuries – just a lot of people having a great time. Congratulations to Mike Paul, John Valek and Mark Arnold for masterminding this well organized and popular weekend. Thanks also to Al Freeman of the LS&I and our two WC escorts.
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Last Edited 28 January, 2018