• Friday-What'sUP July 20 - 01:34 pm

Actually there aren't any automobiles in this photo from E. Neil Harri, but at least the roadway that they travel is there in plain view. Neil says this is an empty ore train returning to Marquette, as it crosses M-35, just south of Gwinn. Fascinating, as usual from our roving eye in the sky, once again coming UP with an interesting subject viewed from his cockpit. If you'd like to check inside the railroad cars to make sure they're really empty, you can click right here: Zoom in closer.

I want to count the number of railroad cars as I wait!

When Mary said there weren't any cars in the picture, I had to zoom in to see that white patch which seems to be approaching the tracks. Turns out that it is only the crossing sign on the pavement.

Thanks Charlie - I thought that was a car too! I love trains! Fortunately I don't live far from tracks and I love hearing them late at night or very early in the morning when all is quiet.

That's a great picture! The amazing thing is that when I looked at it (before I read about it), I thought that it looked like M 35 just south of Gwinn! I've been down that road many times heading to Perkins in Delta County.

This is one of the few roads in the UP I have not been on. I did live in Gwinn one summer, 50 years ago, in a big tent in the park, while working on the startup of K.I. Sawyer. Waited six weeks outside the hiring office til they gave in and gave two of us jobs for the summer. Couldn't get a job unless you were in the union and couldn't get in the union unless you had a job. Great college years memories, that and the bear rummaging through the garbage cans for the scraps from our evening cookout.

Hey, great photo. I love aerial shots of anything, but put a train in it, and I am reaaalllyyy happy.

Not to be argumentative, but I believe the train is loaded and not empty.

Great pic either way.

jonesey

Jonesey--go to the top note and do the "zoom in closer" to see that the cars are, in fact, empty.

Lets see now. Are the cars going to Marquette to be filled or to be emptied..........

FJL--They would be heading back to the Empire/Tilden mines near Palmer to be filled.

You're right. I'm wrong. I used Windows picture viewer, rather than wait the 13 minutes it takes for the large one to load here. It's worth the wait to get a clearer view of the locomotives. Wow, I love trains. And UP trains are even better.

jonesey

Why would CN be taking any cars to Marquette? They don't serve Marquette. They could be taking them to the mines to be filled before taking them back to the CN dock in Escanaba.

The train is north bound from Escanaba. The GPS coordinates are N46° 11.773' W87° 15.364' if you want to see it on Google Earth.

Yes, I admit it. I have no life.

jonesey

The train is actually heading to Palmer and the Empire/Tilden mines for another load of iron pellets. The train also runs to the ore docks in Marquette's upper harbor.

Some more great picture's from the man in the sky. What I would like to know did the SOO LINE get bought out? I havent been to the UP for a long time.

Robert, the Soo Line was absorbed by the Canadian Pacific RR, its not uncommon to still see locomotives still in Soo paint on the CP.

When I grew up in Detroit my grandma lived right by the tracks......I mean right by them. You could go to the back gate and say hi to the man in the caboose. The track crossed Wyoming and Plymouth Rd thru the alley and by grandma's. That's when kids were taught to respect thngs bigger than themselves and listened to their parents.....I so miss the sound of the train and the rumble feeling when it went by.

Thank you Mr Harri for the wonderful picture and letting me go back in time for a few short minutes......sigh.....wonderful memories.....

Be safe this weekend and God Bless everyone of you.......

The many trains passing here in Savanna, Il. it's Burlington Northern over Santa Fe, who BN bought out I gather. But have mostly BN over the SF. I love watching trains. Still can't translate those grafitti signs on the cars, tho.

I always wondered when they spray paint the graffiti on the those train cars with the perforated sides, doesn't the paint get all over the automobiles or the cargo on the trains. That would be very upsetting if your shipment of new cars was already vandalized when you received it.

In Grand Rapids when I was a kid, I use to go down to the switch yards and talk with the engineers as they worked. Every now and then some of them would give me a ride in the yard engine as they worked. Great memories. Can't even imagine anything like that going on today!

Neil strikes again with another great pic....of course I reminded him that he gets paid to look at the scenery from the air.....lucky guy....the day we landed at CMX, he met us and told us how they were tracking a wolf that they were trying to retrieve the collar from....now that is interesting work....thanks for the great pic Neil.........
Steve

The tracks being used by the train in the photo were the
property of the Chicago & North Western Railway for many years.
This company was bought out by Union Pacific in 1995. We
joked for awhile about seeing U.P. in the U.P. Union Pacific then
sold the line to the Wisconsin Central Railroad, which itself was
absorbed by Canadian National a few years ago.

As teens and college students, my friends and I would chase
trains up and down the UP. There's something about
trains...something like the affection some people feel for classic
cars. They're rare, they're big, they're powerful, and they're vital
to the economy. They embody some of the excitement of going
places, of crossing great distances to get things where they need
to go. Thanks for posting the pic!

Thank You Derek. I seen a SOO LINE boxcar a few years ago down in south carolina thats why I was wondering.