Northern Pacific Railway "Old Town Job" Power at Duluth, Minnesota March 1969
If this image was published in a book, the caption would likely identify it as an NP Alco S4 coupled to an NP EMD F7B at Duluth, Minnesota in 1969.
Woof.
That's not even 10% of the story here.
The NP's "Old Town Job" ran to Superior East End all the way from Rice's Point, via Central Avenue. That job is what brought cars to and from East End for the docks located there. NP used a combination of pairs of Alco RS3 and RS11, and EMD GP9 locomotives on most of these runs. But they did have a rather odd and special set of locomotives that made the trip on a very regular basis too. That set included an Alco S4 switcher that was multiple-unit capable (note the conspicuous m.u. receptacle with the silver cover mounted to the end handrails about four feet above the coupler) so that it could bring an EMD F7 or F9B along with it to help pull the tonnage back up the hill from the water's edge. After dropping cars in the yard at East End this odd combo of power would turn on the wye, to reorient the S4 into a lead position again for the return trip to Duluth. That was the longest transfer run in all of the Twin Ports. Here's a shot of the Old Town Job's Alco S4 and EMD F7B motive power combo on the ready track at Rice's Point in 1969.
I got this one from my old friend, Russ Porter, who had relatives in Duluth which made for a good excuse for him to visit the NP's roundhouse several times each year. Special thanks to Russ, because he is sorely missed on good old planet Earth, and his images live on to help share what he taught me about railroading in Duluth, Minnesota. Everyone has some kind of value-add. Russ Porter's was bigger than most. He was a talented artist, humble, friendly. There wasn't anything he enjoyed more than sharing a lunch with another rail, talking trains.
As my mom would have said, Russ was a good egg.
When Russ shot this picture on Kodak Kodachrome film with his 35mm camera his eye was certainly looking through the camera's view finder to compose the shot—but all the while his breath was being held to keep from fogging the view finder glass—and his vision of this remarkable scene. He shot one frame. Not multiples. Nobody else ever shot this set-up.
I invested about 3 hours of time into restoring this image to remove all of the processing problems, chemical stains, dust, and did a bit of color correction too. Sadly, Russ never got to see this image in this wonderfully restored state. Bit I know that he would have LOVED IT. Rochester's Kodak gave him far less for his investment in film and processing fees, than what you see here today. And I am happy to share it with the world because I know that Russ would have wanted it no other way. I absolutely love this shot because it is so much a part of what railroading used to be in Duluth-Superior. If you were going on duty at the Rice's Point roundhouse on this day working the Old Town Job, and you saw this power waiting for you, then you KNEW you had a bunch of cars coming back to Duluth from Superior East End.
That's the real story here today.
Cheers!
Northern Pacific Railway "Old Town Job" Power at Duluth, Minnesota March 1969
If this image was published in a book, the caption would likely identify it as an NP Alco S4 coupled to an NP EMD F7B at Duluth, Minnesota in 1969.
Woof.
That's not even 10% of the story here.
The NP's "Old Town Job" ran to Superior East End all the way from Rice's Point, via Central Avenue. That job is what brought cars to and from East End for the docks located there. NP used a combination of pairs of Alco RS3 and RS11, and EMD GP9 locomotives on most of these runs. But they did have a rather odd and special set of locomotives that made the trip on a very regular basis too. That set included an Alco S4 switcher that was multiple-unit capable (note the conspicuous m.u. receptacle with the silver cover mounted to the end handrails about four feet above the coupler) so that it could bring an EMD F7 or F9B along with it to help pull the tonnage back up the hill from the water's edge. After dropping cars in the yard at East End this odd combo of power would turn on the wye, to reorient the S4 into a lead position again for the return trip to Duluth. That was the longest transfer run in all of the Twin Ports. Here's a shot of the Old Town Job's Alco S4 and EMD F7B motive power combo on the ready track at Rice's Point in 1969.
I got this one from my old friend, Russ Porter, who had relatives in Duluth which made for a good excuse for him to visit the NP's roundhouse several times each year. Special thanks to Russ, because he is sorely missed on good old planet Earth, and his images live on to help share what he taught me about railroading in Duluth, Minnesota. Everyone has some kind of value-add. Russ Porter's was bigger than most. He was a talented artist, humble, friendly. There wasn't anything he enjoyed more than sharing a lunch with another rail, talking trains.
As my mom would have said, Russ was a good egg.
When Russ shot this picture on Kodak Kodachrome film with his 35mm camera his eye was certainly looking through the camera's view finder to compose the shot—but all the while his breath was being held to keep from fogging the view finder glass—and his vision of this remarkable scene. He shot one frame. Not multiples. Nobody else ever shot this set-up.
I invested about 3 hours of time into restoring this image to remove all of the processing problems, chemical stains, dust, and did a bit of color correction too. Sadly, Russ never got to see this image in this wonderfully restored state. Bit I know that he would have LOVED IT. Rochester's Kodak gave him far less for his investment in film and processing fees, than what you see here today. And I am happy to share it with the world because I know that Russ would have wanted it no other way. I absolutely love this shot because it is so much a part of what railroading used to be in Duluth-Superior. If you were going on duty at the Rice's Point roundhouse on this day working the Old Town Job, and you saw this power waiting for you, then you KNEW you had a bunch of cars coming back to Duluth from Superior East End.
That's the real story here today.
Cheers!