Foggy Morning Loading of the Railroad Car Ferry Incan Superior on October 12, 1984
If memory serves me correctly I believe that this photo opportunity was my introduction to the Incan Superior. It was a foggy morning with visibility of about a thousand feet. Certainly not the best weather for photography. But it seemed like the thing to do given the rarity of the subject matter. I say rare because the turn-around time on this vessel, to unload cars and reload and leave the Ports—was FAST! This was the easiest thing to NOT photograph if you were railfanning the area because it came into port quiet, stayed briefly, and left nearly as quietly as it arrived. At least until it got through the Duluth entry on its way back to Thunder Bay. Then it literally roared its way to Canada at 30 knots.
If you look at the rail cars at the left notice how most of them are steel box cars. The Incan Superior's main traffic base was rolled news print paper coming out of Thunder Bay, Ontario. When there was extra space available on the vessel, the occasional grain hopper was carried too. As this was traffic originating on the Canadian Pacific in Canada, those hopper cars were generally either CP and Soo Line cars, or private owner cars destined for connection with the Soo in Superior. At least that's how it worked for most of the operational life of this boat. Go to the next image for more on this story...
Foggy Morning Loading of the Railroad Car Ferry Incan Superior on October 12, 1984
If memory serves me correctly I believe that this photo opportunity was my introduction to the Incan Superior. It was a foggy morning with visibility of about a thousand feet. Certainly not the best weather for photography. But it seemed like the thing to do given the rarity of the subject matter. I say rare because the turn-around time on this vessel, to unload cars and reload and leave the Ports—was FAST! This was the easiest thing to NOT photograph if you were railfanning the area because it came into port quiet, stayed briefly, and left nearly as quietly as it arrived. At least until it got through the Duluth entry on its way back to Thunder Bay. Then it literally roared its way to Canada at 30 knots.
If you look at the rail cars at the left notice how most of them are steel box cars. The Incan Superior's main traffic base was rolled news print paper coming out of Thunder Bay, Ontario. When there was extra space available on the vessel, the occasional grain hopper was carried too. As this was traffic originating on the Canadian Pacific in Canada, those hopper cars were generally either CP and Soo Line cars, or private owner cars destined for connection with the Soo in Superior. At least that's how it worked for most of the operational life of this boat. Go to the next image for more on this story...