By the Spring of 1986 if not sooner it was becoming obvious that the CNW Alco fleet that had called the ore lines home since 1974-1975 was living on borrowed time. The CNW had SD50's on the property and SD60's coming and the 50's had already put in an appearance in ore country during the winter prior to this photo. This inspired me to make every attempt to get to Escanaba whenever I was able to get off work. I'd spent a good part of my last 10 years of railfanning shooting these Alco's every time I had the chance. This cloudy May day I set up at the Goose Lake curve to get 6704,6718,6701 just starting the trip to the dock with 110 loads in tow. As I waited for the train to depart Partridge it started to lightly rain and the mosquitoes started to have a feeding frenzy on me. A few years before I'd have bailed on the shot, leaving it for another day but time was growing short. End of the line...not quite as the Alco's lasted into December 1986, giving one last summer and fall of service before being parked for good at Escanaba.
This will be photos that were taken north of Green Bay on the C&NW ore lines. Mainly photos of ore trains will be in this album along with some manifest trains and switch jobs that worked the area.
