While it is not the LS&I find the Port Inland Railroad in Michigan's Upper Penn. a interesting little railroad so on our way to Marquette from Pittsburgh we made the stop to try and get some shots of the rare C&IM SD20's that are used for power and we ended up getting luck with a empty limestone train shoving back to the mine.
Our next stop was in Escanaba to see what was moving and to also catch the extremely rare ex-LS&I RSD12 1804 that is suppose to be scrapped very soon.
After catching some CN and looking around Esky we checked in to our hotel and it was finally time to go out and catch some LS&I. The first stop on the line was one of our favorite spots, Eagle Mills jct where we caught the 15:00 Tilden job dragging a cut of loads towards Eagle Mills with a pair of AC4400's
With nothing else moving on the LS&I it was time to head back to the hotel. The original plan was to be up by sunrise on the 14th so we could catch the evening jobs coming into Eagle Mills and the 07:00 jobs leaving. Well..... that didn't happen, we ended up getting track side about 8am where we caught the L539 arriving at Partridge yard with traffic for esky but the power wasn't anything interesting to stick around for as two LS&I jobs had called out of the Mine, first being the hill job that ran to the mine to get ore as they were out at Eagle Mills. We missed the train leaving the mine but we caught it at the east end of Eagle Mills yard double loads for the dock and to our surprise it was a pair of U30C's with the honor of leading the train.
The 07:00 hill was pumping air for a air test so we headed for the west end of Eagle Mills to catch the 07:00 Tilden with more loads from Tilden lead by a pair of the CEFX AC4400's
With the pair of boats on the train the chase was on, after watching the train leave Eagle Mills we headed straight to the crossing at the west end of West Yard to catch the train roll down hill.
Thanks to road work in Presque Isle a detour now takes you right through West yard opening up some new shots of the Hill job arriving and the Dock job switching, here the 07:00 Hill with the U30C's rolls up the lead to head to the west end of the yard, this shot is not part of the detour though
With a expected switch of power between the Dock job and the Hill job we were now off to the Scales to wait the arrival of the hill heading back to Eagle Mills. After exploring the ex-DSS&A tracks around he scales and no sign of the train coming we started to leave when the faint horn of a ex-BN GE could be heard blowing for Dead River so we hurried up to our spots and was happy to see the 3073 come rolling around the corner with a U30C trailing. This shot was taken from the rock cut just a 100 or so feet north of the scales, the DSS&A tracks used to hug the trees to the left.
Power was exchanged at Eagle mills for a pair of the CEFX's so we drove around to see what else we could find but everything was pretty much dead till the evening. Knowing there should be a 15:00 hill job going on duty, which ended up not running, we headed for the Massive Dead river Trestle to try to get a shot i had wanted since the first visit to the LS&I. Shadows growing long and 3 hours wasted in Dead River with no signs of a train moving our way we started the mile long walk back to the truck, but wouldn't you know it as soon as we got to the truck the 15:00 Dock job called out of West yard with empties for Eagle Mills, knowing the U30C's would be the power we stuck around and got the 3000 chugging away.
Disappointed with not getting the shot at Dead River we headed back in the morning, where we finally nabbed "The" shot of the trestle, even though the other shot i had in mind was on the west side of the bridge for a evening shot, this shot was on the east side and turned out better then i could have hoped for, here the 07:00 hill brings empties from West yard to EM. Due to the shadows i had to go with the super wide angle 10-22mm lens to capture this great scene.
With the day light going to crap and becoming cloudy we took a drive by the shops to see what power was sitting outside in the deadlines. Power sitting around was the 3074, 3073 the last two C30-7's still operating, 3071, 3072, 3003, 3010, 3051 which was scrapped this week per a post on Yooper Rails, 3052, 3001, 3004, and three units stored serviceable 3011, 3006 and 3053.
With the afternoon slow again we took a drive by the docks where three ships, the Kaye E. Barker, John J. Boland and the Algocape were all waiting to take on Ore. Hearing the 15:00 Tilden call out we headed for Empire jct where a pair of AC4400's were leading a train of ore to Eagle mills and the Massive Tailing's piles towering in the background.
Shortly after the Tilden rolled by a CN train called out that we never heard but were able catch from a spot above Palmer Line jct, here the U7?? which used to be called Sore 2 rolls down the trackage rights over the LS&I between Empire jct and Tilden Jct.
Wanting to chase a train down the Ore sub we took off for Sawyer airbase to catch it rolling south but were surprised to hear CN desk 13? answering the emergency tower at Little Lake, come to find out the local had hit a car at Sawyer on the single track, we were the first on scene luckily no buddy was hurt.
8/16/11, last on day on the LS&I. I woke up to a cloudless sky and it was time to catch a couple last LS&I ore trains before heading to Duluth. First stop was at Goose Lake where we caught U7?? or Sore 1 rolling along Goose Lake with a train of DM&IR Ore jennies loaded for Escanaba. With the scanner on and nothing talking we took a drive by Empire mine where we heard the 07:00 Tilen call out for Eagle Mills so we headed for Palmer Line jct to watch the train roll by, next stop was the M-35 crossing at Eagle mills where we caught the train entering the yard.
As the Tilden rolled by the 07:00 hill called out of West Yard for Eagle Mills so we headed to the east end of the yard where we waited for the train to arrive. "1001 to the Operator over" was heard as the train neared the yard, listening to the conversation we found out that the 1004 had over heated and the power would be exchanged for a pair of the BN GE's which mean more boat photos. We headed for a spot in Forrestville that we had found the day before. After waiting a hour and a half the horn of the 3073 could be heard at the crossing a mile away and it was time for one last shot of the LS&I, here the "new" power for the hill job rolls past a small lake just west of Marquette and i decided i needed at least one video of the LS&I and this was a perfect spot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaol45zDSs4
The LS&I part of the Trip was a big success, i am currently going through withdraws for the area
so i am planning a trip back up in the near future. The old GE's are still running but barely the current roster has the 3073, 3074, 3000, 3008 and 3009 still remaining but for how long is unknown. From a discussion with a recently retired employee of Cliffs Mining, this is gonna be a record year for ore. In the 4 and a half days of shooting we saw 5 ships load/unload at the docks but due to no ore at the docks a couple of the ships were there for 2 or more days but the day they were loading the Barker and Algocape the LS&I was running 12 hour docks jobs to keep up with the demand.Thanks for looking!
