Burlington Northern Ore Train passing the Fog Boards at Dewey, Wisconsin 1972
Here's a late-in-the-day shot showing a pair of ex-Great Northern Ore Wagons (BN 654 and 653) and one ex-NP Covered Wagon (BN 740) pulling hard on 180 MTY ore cars destined for Kelly Lake, Minnesota. The round trip for an ore crew took about 10 hours, leaving Allouez with an MTY train and returning with a loaded ore train over these same rails.
When it comes to railroading, the early years of Burlington Northern are my personal favorite. Those of us who are fans of the first 4-5 years of BN have learned to spot the smallest things as incremental changes were omnipresent as the former roads' identities were phased out while the new Cascade Green image was phased in. When the locomotive renumbering began new BN initials and numbers were stenciled in predetermined locations on each locomotive. At first, that's all that occurred. Then shortly after, logos and heralds were removed. Finally, road names were removed or painted out. Notice how BN 654 still has its "Great Northern" lettering while trailing A-unit BN 740 has very recently had the words "Northern Pacific" painted out with fresh black paint.
I remember the first time that I chased an ore MTY to this very location. Not far west of Saunders the road became something less than what I was hoping for. Past Dewey it became worse. The trains quickly eclipsed my ability to keep up with them and I realized that there was a pretty good reason why most rail photographers rarely ventured past this point to grab shots of GN and BN trains back in these early days. The roads were terrible and it was a long distance to the next potential photo spot. With the sun setting in the west, it was far simpler to make a u-turn at Dewey and head back to Superior.
There was a restaurant on Belknap Street called The Shack that served up a great meal back in that day. Also on Belknap Street was the Manning Motel located was just down the road from the BN's big roundhouse. You could get a room at the Manning for 17 bucks, the bed was comfortable, and the gal at the front desk was easy to look at and fun to talk to.
So after I shot my train at Dewey it was time to head back to the Ports for a beer, a delicious steak and potato at the Shack, and a good night's sleep at the Manning. Little did the night hostlers at the BN roundhouse know that the very next morning I'd be standing there along the bike tracks waiting for sunrise so that I could shoot that day's engine sets before venturing out through town yet again to record some of my own Twin Ports rail history.
For me, those were the days.
Burlington Northern Ore Train passing the Fog Boards at Dewey, Wisconsin 1972
Here's a late-in-the-day shot showing a pair of ex-Great Northern Ore Wagons (BN 654 and 653) and one ex-NP Covered Wagon (BN 740) pulling hard on 180 MTY ore cars destined for Kelly Lake, Minnesota. The round trip for an ore crew took about 10 hours, leaving Allouez with an MTY train and returning with a loaded ore train over these same rails.
When it comes to railroading, the early years of Burlington Northern are my personal favorite. Those of us who are fans of the first 4-5 years of BN have learned to spot the smallest things as incremental changes were omnipresent as the former roads' identities were phased out while the new Cascade Green image was phased in. When the locomotive renumbering began new BN initials and numbers were stenciled in predetermined locations on each locomotive. At first, that's all that occurred. Then shortly after, logos and heralds were removed. Finally, road names were removed or painted out. Notice how BN 654 still has its "Great Northern" lettering while trailing A-unit BN 740 has very recently had the words "Northern Pacific" painted out with fresh black paint.
I remember the first time that I chased an ore MTY to this very location. Not far west of Saunders the road became something less than what I was hoping for. Past Dewey it became worse. The trains quickly eclipsed my ability to keep up with them and I realized that there was a pretty good reason why most rail photographers rarely ventured past this point to grab shots of GN and BN trains back in these early days. The roads were terrible and it was a long distance to the next potential photo spot. With the sun setting in the west, it was far simpler to make a u-turn at Dewey and head back to Superior.
There was a restaurant on Belknap Street called The Shack that served up a great meal back in that day. Also on Belknap Street was the Manning Motel located was just down the road from the BN's big roundhouse. You could get a room at the Manning for 17 bucks, the bed was comfortable, and the gal at the front desk was easy to look at and fun to talk to.
So after I shot my train at Dewey it was time to head back to the Ports for a beer, a delicious steak and potato at the Shack, and a good night's sleep at the Manning. Little did the night hostlers at the BN roundhouse know that the very next morning I'd be standing there along the bike tracks waiting for sunrise so that I could shoot that day's engine sets before venturing out through town yet again to record some of my own Twin Ports rail history.
For me, those were the days.