Mid January around the Central U.P. L'Anse, Escanaba & MORE!

Give us a run down of what you saw, post pictures if you'd like...any info is welcome.
CAT345C
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Mid January around the Central U.P. L'Anse, Escanaba & MORE!

Unread post by CAT345C »

Been a busy month of snow plowing up here, but I still managed to catch some decent rail activity.
On January 9th, I ventured south to the Escanaba area and caught the L549 near Rock kicking up some snow.
ImageL549 at Rock by Mike Tabone, on Flickr

Once I arrived to Gladstone A451 the train that runs to the Soo was departing the yard. I scurried out east of Rapid River. They had 54 all rail ore followed by about 30 freight. Now the all rail ore is back down to 45 cars due to the stock Algoma has on the ground.
ImageCN 2588 at Rapid River by Mike Tabone, on Flickr

After getting some gas at the new Meijer the ELS departed the car shops and headed back to Wells with the 402 dragging a gaggle of mixed cars for the CN interchange. Here they are by the Community College.
ImageGone Rail by Mike Tabone, on Flickr
Again switching on the lead to the locomotive shop. If there is an open track they have cars waiting to be shopped on it.
ImageGone Rail by Mike Tabone, on Flickr

On the 12th the girlfriend and I ventured out towards Munising to look at some frozen water falls, caught the Munsing local trundling along with a couple cars.
Here they are in the middle of the Seney Stretch along M28 with a clean IC GP38-2
ImageL541 Along Seney Stretch by Mike Tabone, on Flickr
ImageL541 Along Seney Stretch by Mike Tabone, on Flickr

In Shingleton passing some hibernating track equipment.
ImageIts Stuck by Mike Tabone, on Flickr

Passing through Wetmore
ImageL541 at Wetmore by Mike Tabone, on Flickr

Later in the week I managed to catch L540 departing Ishpeming and heading to L'Anse. Here they are at the west end of Euclid.
ImageL540 at Euclid by Mike Tabone, on Flickr

It then snowed for about 5 days straight so I was too busy plowing at night to pay attention to what the railroads were doing. This past Tuesday on the 21st I went to L'Anse to catch the L539 job and hopefully follow them back to at least Nestoria.
Here they are running around their train at the True Value in L'Anse.
ImageL'Anse Runaround by Mike Tabone, on Flickr

Once they ran around their train they then backed into Celotex to begin their pickup. The box cars on the head end are idlers for the hill in L'Anse. The top of the hill at Hermain is 1197' above sea leve, the train in this shot below is at 97' above sea level. The last 3 miles of this 8 mile long hill drops close to 3.5%.
ImageUS41 Crossing by Mike Tabone, on Flickr
ImageUS41 Crossing by Mike Tabone, on Flickr

Departing L'Anse at the Mead Crossing
ImageCreeping up L'Anse by Mike Tabone, on Flickr
Mead hasn't been shipping anything by rail but it is curious to me that the siding and switch have been cleared out.
ImageCresting L'Anse Hill by Mike Tabone, on Flickr

A hairy drive into the Huron Mountains brings us to the town of Herman. The top of the hill between Nestoria and L'Anse. The building on the right was once railroad housing for the section men. Its safe to say a couple more good snow falls and it may be a goner.
ImageHerman isn't Home Ma by Mike Tabone, on Flickr

One last shot from this trip sees L539 rounding the corner at MP 208 with some nice snow flocking on the trees.
ImageL-539 at Summit by Mike Tabone, on Flickr

That is all for now, looks like more snow plowing is in my future tonight into the weekend. I'm hoping next week to catch the E&LS.
Making the railroad all Catywompus since 2008

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AARR
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Re: Mid January around the Central U.P. L'Anse, Escanaba & M

Unread post by AARR »

CAT, excellent pictures and observations as usual!

A couple of my own observations.

The E&LS train looks like it has scrape loads on the head end. Are those from A&L?

The train west of Newberry seems to rarely have more than a couple cars. It's my understanding they run to Munising twice a week. Do they ever run a big train to Munising?
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

CAT345C
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Joined: Sat Jul 30, 2005 8:42 pm
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Re: Mid January around the Central U.P. L'Anse, Escanaba & M

Unread post by CAT345C »

The loads came from the scrap yard next to the car shops. They pushed cars in and pulled loaded scrap cars out.

Munising seems to be hit or miss I haven't nailed down how often they get there. I saw them on a Sunday. I think it may be 3 day a week service. There were 8 cars at the plant 6 boxes and 2 tanks.
Making the railroad all Catywompus since 2008

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AARR
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Re: Mid January around the Central U.P. L'Anse, Escanaba & M

Unread post by AARR »

Thanks CAT. The scrap yard is A & L.
CAT345C wrote:The loads came from the scrap yard next to the car shops. They pushed cars in and pulled loaded scrap cars out.

Munising seems to be hit or miss I haven't nailed down how often they get there. I saw them on a Sunday. I think it may be 3 day a week service. There were 8 cars at the plant 6 boxes and 2 tanks.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...

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