4/20/04 : Added John December's Upper Peninsula website at bottom. Also catching up on old submissions. From Kevin Musser, Please excuse this email but I thought you all might like to know (or maybe already know) that Clint Jones has made an arrangement with Mid Continent to move Copper Range #29 to North Freedom and for them to start restoration. Just think about riding in coach #60, behind combine #25 being pulled by #29. Time is running out to make donations to have the move take place before the sale of the Quincy site. April 30th is the deadline. Get Details
4/15/04 : Andy Roth found the following news item. The yahoo group 'Yooper Rails' site has just had new information posted that LS&I wood caboose #16 will be moved to its new home at the mining musuem in Ishpeming poosibly in April or May of this year. The caboose is currently sitting on Escanaba & Lake Superior track at Wells, MI. It will be moved via low-boy truck.
1/26/04 : News from Greg Schultz.
Well, it was like walking in on
major surgery of a close relative.
When I arrived at the Ohio Central's Morgan Run shops on Wednesday
afternoon, the sight I beheld was breath taking. If I didn't know the
locomotive I was looking at was old #33, I would have never recognized
her. The cab had been removed and the boiler was stripped bare. All
appliances and piping had been completely removed and over 100
staybolts had been cut out to remove the side sheets of the firebox.
The ash pan had been removed so I peered up under for a look at the
fire box and it was almost completely gone! Bothe side sheets, thermic
syphons, arch tubes and knuckle had been removed. I got a good look at
the walls between the inside and outside sheets and many of the
staybolts. I walked outside and had a look at the old side sheets -
they were crumbling and were less than 1/4 inch thick. One more fire
up and it could have been disasterous. The new knuckle had been
fabricated and prepped for drilling and the new side sheet material
was brought in and prepared for cutting to size. Gary Bensman -
probably the most experienced person in active locomotive restoration
and boiler specialist is doing the boiler work.
I spent Thursday marking the boiler for ultrasound testing and Friday
using a sanding pad on an electric grinder preparing smooth spots for
the ultrasound. I ginded over 300 spots with at least 1 and up to 5
spots in each square foot of the boiler barrel. The firebox area will
be done as well. Also on Thursday I had the opportunity to work with
Jerry Ballard - founder of the Hocking Valley and previous owner of
the #33.
Saturday we needle scaled the #33's drivers and removed the side rods
and cylinder covers.
Sunday we all took the day off from the shop and worked the photo
charter special on the OC's Grand Trunk Western 4-8-4 #6325.
Progress on the #33 is considered ahead of schedule and we anticipate
having her ready and tested for
TrainFest 2004 in July.
For all of you LS&I fans, you might be interested to know the plan is to restore
the locomotive to LS&I livery.
I'm working on a restoration video of the #33 and would like to find old phot
os (or better yet film!) of #33 in service with the LS&I. I will give proper cre
dit and a copy of the final version to anyone who can help me out.
Thanks, Greg Schultz.
Here are some pictures he sent. First is the firebox. Next is the wheels. Third is the marked boiler. And last is the backhead.
10/25/03 : James Meyland watches the Mining Journal closely and sends along information quite often. Here is is a picture of some of the effects of the dam break. I have heard that the power plant is back in full operation. Perhaps someone out there knows how the LS&I shipping season went? Here is an article on the last LS&I steam engine which has been sold. My thanks to Jim for keeping me updated. Both the photo and the article are Mining Journal property.
1/31/02 : Tom also wrte me in October saying the busiest frequencies are 160.230 (LS&I Road Frequency), 160.950 (LS&I Maintenance), 160.785 (WC Channel 1 Road), 160.335 (WC channel 4 road). He also reported he saw a 'traffic jam' while a maintenance crew was working and LO40, WC Sore1, LS&I Tilden ore, WC Sore2 and Escanaba LO39 were all trying to fit into the 2 rail siding and main at partridge.
1/15/02 : John Mallard was a Fireman and Mechanics Helper on the Marquette & Huron Mountain RR in the mid-70s. He writes that No. 23 is being restored by the Empire State Railroad Museum and they plan to repaint her in the green scheme. He also writes the picture of the 2 coaches and the depot was from a postcard we sold. It was taken in the 60's. Notice ex-Copper Range #60. And he says, And, short-lived tourist line indeed! 1964 to 1984, granted not operating 1968 - 1971.
1/11/02 : Some notes from Andy Inserra - The latest news on the on LSI units in the Twin Cities. First, RS3 1B is now in regular service with one of the C424ms on the MNNR around their lines. Second - the much of the LSI stuff at the arsenal is moving to the Iowa Northwestern, inc the U23C's. The plan is to see three of the four get back into their own power. And the LSI caboose on hand is off to WGN in Spooner. Also, MNNR plans to use 1608 as a slug now once the parts are removed and stored for 1B. So another one that was never expected to live this long!
12/30/01 : More from James Meyland. There is an article on the sale of LS&I RSD12s in Railfan & Railroad, Sept 1989. The Boatnerd site contains pictures of the old Gantry crane in the Marquette Lower Harbor. It would unload coal at this site. Jim has also found articles concerning LS&I and ore in the Mining Journal. I haven't included them here, but some dates are 10/26, 11/28, and 12/15. The shutdown of the mines has affected the LS&I and resulted in some layoffs at the LS&I as well. The Empire has been shutdown indefinitely and the Tilden has a planned shutdown.
12/26/01 : Stewart Hobbies has announced Alco C628 and C630 high hood units. They don't say anything about C&NW paint, unfortunately. Curt Fortenberry supplied this photo of 6710 just to whet your appetite.
11/03/01 : Received two replies to the request about the Soo Line '400' passenger service. It was actually run by the C&NW. Here are two links to pictures. From the front and side. Both of these are links to other sites. First was from James Meyland and second from Robert Oom. Robert also adds that C&NW service ended about 1966, DSS&A in 1958, and Copper Country Limited in 1967.
05/12/01 : Tom Carello says that most of the ore traffic is going to Partridge siding instead of to the dock. There is only one or two hill jobs a day instead of three. Ore going to Partridge Siding is hauled to the Escanaba Dock twice a day, and one other trip goes all-rail to Sault Ste Marie and Algoma Steel. Trains to the Escanaba dock are 6200 ton trains, whereas LS&I trains to the dock are 7000 ton. The WC uses 3 bay hoppers and fills them 1/3 to 1/2 full. The all-rail train heads to St. Ignace, then north at Trout Lake. The LS&I still has the same amount of work, since they are loading trains for the WC.
02/24/01 : From James Meyland, formerly of Munising. I noted the photo provided by Kevin Musser of combine #63 with interest. There's no doubt that the picture was taken in Munising. I spent a lot of time on that platform watching switching activities. The photo is taken looking eastwards with the ridge line in the background just behind the paper mill. It looks like you can see a bit of the smoke stacks from the mill. The train would arrive in Munising at about 8:30 a.m, stop with the combine at the station (in the opposite direction from that in the photo). The train would have to be broken because it would block the street (Elm Avenue) to the waterfront park area. After that it would back down the mainline to leave the combine out of the way. Switching activity would take place with the locomotive facing westward. The back areas of the paper mill would be serviced. When that activity was done, the locomotive would back down the mainline picking up the combine and would back down to a wye and the front area of the paper mill. After that area was serviced and the locomotive and combine were turned around on the wye they would be backed into town and to the engine shed where the crew took a break for lunch. After that there would be some more switching activity to assemble the train to go to Little Lake (where the LS&I met the C&NW). The assembled train would then drift from the engine shed down to the station at about 3:30 (that's ususally when I got my cab rides) for a departure from Munising at 4:30. The photo you featured would have been taken in that time period from about 3:30 to 4:30. The combine normally used during my time of interest in the rail events in Munising was a twelve-wheel unit (painted a dark green - not sure of the number). The unit in the photo, # 63, however, is not the one I normally saw. I do recall seeing #63 on those few occassions when the other unit was not being used (most likely being serviced). Combine 63 is now at the National Railroad Museum.
8/11/00 : From Tom Carello and Robert Oom. 3001 and 3002 are being scrapped on site, 3000 and 3004 remain in service. All the ex-Detroit Edison units are being scrapped. Lots of trackwork being done this summer. All the property is now hardhats only. 100 "new" ore cars were purchased from the Long Island, but are Minnesota cars and must be worked on to fit on the dock.
8/3/00 : Pete Forthbridge sent a note that chop nose 1801 is at work on the Western Tennesee Railroad.
11/3/99 : The 3072 is out of the shops now and is the latest
of the "new" C30-7 units. The 3007 hit one of the chutes on the pocket at
the mine and is wrecked and out of service. The 3050 is also out of service
due to mechanical problems.
