• Armed Forces Day-What'sUP May 16 - 02:17 pm

Greg Burk was on a mission in the Gladstone area and while passing the Soo Line Train terminal, it dawned on him that this might make some good Pasty Cam material. I agree, so here we are with Greg's first shot, showing a CAUTION sign tell folks there are remote controlled locomotives in use there. Now that sounds like fun to me.... running real trains on real tracks, using remote controls! At least I think that's what that sign means...

Greg also spotted Soo Line Engine #730 which has been beautifully restored and kept under a roofed structure to keep some of the corrosive elements off her new finish. He got in there close so we can all see the shiny black and white metal parts looking "brand spanking new."

I (and I think we) have a never-ending fascination with trains. I especially remember the cog wheel trains up the scary steep grades in Switzerland, with the rewarding views at the top.

Love trains especially the old steam engines! Husband used to run those at the local steel mill until the owner died and all of those relics were scrapped. Many people took phots of him/them from all over the world but I never got any!

In the late 1940's in the evening my folks would drive me from Menominee up to Hermansville to catch the Soo Line for an overnight ride to St. Paul. The first time I had a "sleeper." Lots of college students rode the train and I learned to ride in a "passenger" car and rent a pillow for 25 cents. We'd stop in Pembine for a lengthy wait to meet the Milwaukee Road going south. I think, going across Wisconsin, we also stopped at every cow! However, we arrived in St. Paul in time for me to catch a street car down Grant St. to Macalester College, drop my suitcase at the dorm and get to my 8 am class on time!

Nice pics. They don't make locomotives like that anymore. Kind of reminds me of the train in that Tom Hanks movie, "The Polar Express."

Wonderful pictures of trains! Growing up on the "right" side of the tracks of the Illinois Central and the Rock Island and now living a short distance from the Iowa Northern. My best memory with trains is one from 1966 when my mom, younger sister, and I boarded a train here in Cedar Rapids, Ia. to Birmingham Al. to visit grandma.

Kevin Musser would be proud.

Speaking of trains -- I'm looking forward to the old Quincy #6 returning to Quincy sometime soon! :)

We use remote controls to move cars; have cameras on each end of the switch engine, it works great. Handle about 140 cars of grain and products per day in and out.

Woo, remote control trains!
That sounds like more fun than that ol' Lionel "O" gauge train set I had as a kid!

Just so you know, the Copper Country still has trains. The E&LS RR comes up to Ontonagon via Sidnaw, Frost Jct, Pori, etc 3 or 4 times weekly...though right now there's no train due to the Ontonagon mill being on longterm shutdown. The CN RR comes to L'Anse 3 times weekly (and once in awhile on to Baraga). And, please keep in mind the Houghton County Museum in Lake Linden, where we run a narrow gauge train on weekends, June thru October...usually gas engine on Saturdays and steam on Sundays.

I hear that up to 1/3 of all trains running now are crewless! Kinda scary when we see one particulary a long one, come through downtown Richmond or New Haven here with no one on it!

Me & Barbie have a friend whose daughter in MI. drives a train, will have to ask her about that.

I was born too late for the great days of steam locomotives, but I remember in the 1950s our Dad taking us to his chemical company in Wyandotte (Wayne County, not the UP one) to watch small steam engines shuttle cars to build the long trains. I still dream of it at times, only it is always night and the engines billow white steam into the darkness.

The Toonerville Trolley still runs

As a child, I would sometimes be unable to sleep and hear the old steam engine whistle blowing for a crossing in the darkness. Nothing as hauntingly beautiful....but lost in the past, like so many other things.

As a child, I would sometimes be unable to sleep and hear the old steam engine whistle blowing for a crossing in the darkness. Nothing as hauntingly beautiful....but lost in the past, like so many other things.

Growing up in Midland, I remember lying in bed at night, and hearing the whistles of the trains in the distance that would arrive at the Dow Chemical plant. Trivial as that might b 2 some, it's 1 of the pleasant memories of growing up there.