lemscate wrote:Thanks for all the awesome pictures and updates. I really appreciate knowing what's going on up there.
I have one odd request for ya.. could you get a good roof shot of the 2501 on display? I'd really love to see the roof detail on it. I don't know if you have a camera with enough zoom, though.
The 2501 is fenced off I cant get close to it, I might be able to zoom in from the dock, but you have a good guess my camera sucks, but I can try for ya.
JT wrote:How many trains a day go through there, and in what direction is the line? East/west or north/south (or somewhere in between
The bridge is North - South, but the line has many curves around rock cuts, little waterfalls, and great views( tree tops and skylines)of Marquette just North of US-41. On a given day there will be 12 trains that cross it. Most time when there's a Hill job they bring 120 loads down to Marquette, 120 emptys back to Eagle Mills, 120 loads back and 120 emptys back to EM to finish the day.
C&O6088 wrote:Also, where the 2501 is located now....was that an industrial spur at one time that was pulled and they parked the loco there? Or did they put that track there for the display?
At the end of the Stokke yard, all the tracks 1-7 come back together to a main where it crosses Presque Isle rd ( To the Left of 2501) over to the Merchandise Dock. This dock as seen here upper right corner by the 2501, and the tracks are right behind the caboose running East /West. The 2501 is facing South and a display was just put there and never a spur. The spur under the old Soo dock spun off in the upper part of the West yard where the wye used to be.
![Image](http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee210/CJKowalewski/S5000017-1.jpg)
and here with the building on it
![Image](http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee210/CJKowalewski/S5000016-1.jpg)
Merchandise Dock was a main dock where there used to be buildings up and down the dock that got dry good and other things brought by ship and loaded on the LS&I cars. Also when the current LS&I ore dock was built in 1912 all the good where shipped to the Merchandise dock and railed up the high-line.
The old Soo dock..
![Image](http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee210/CJKowalewski/S5000022.jpg)
I never had a chance to see the approaches to it, but I have seen the pictures and can only imangine what it must have looked like, also at Founders Landing where the old LS&I engine shops where right under the Soo dock is pretty hot topic in the city of Marquette for devlopment of condo's I think. Little history of the Soo dock. Built around 1930 for Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway. It never shipped ore in pellet form for like the LS&I it was always raw ore (Slagg), that's why the shoots are differant, and it was the Soo line that stoped shipping ore when the Mather "A" Mine and the Mather "B" Mine shut down in the 1970's. It was donated years later and now is mine museum. Here a website on the DSS&A dock and removal.
http://www.andylphoto.com/trains/trestle/