On this weekend honoring World War II veterans with a new national memorial, Kevin Musser takes us again on a 1945 train ride, and Dave Jaehnig provides an update on its 2004 return trip. Keven writes:

Copper Range #29 has been sitting rusting at the Quincy Smelter. This week it was moved to North Freedom for restoration. The top photos were taken by Dave Jaehnig yesterday, just as #29 was crossing the Portage for the last time. The bottom picture is from 1945 showing #29 crossing the Portage under her own power. A good contrast to having to be hauled across on a semi. #29 was hauling passengers during the World War II re-instatement of passenger service on Copper Range.

As a side note, although it is unfortunate that #29 had to be moved out of the Keweenaw, she would have surely rusted into dust as there is no means to perform a complicated restoration of this kind locally. The volunteers at Mid-Continent are on a level with professional restoration companies and have performed amazing work on various other U.P. railroad artifacts, #29 will be in good hands. I was present last year for the first trip on Copper Range coach #60 after her restoration and was truely amazed at the effort and the detail that went into the restoration. The group at Mid-Continent is mostly made up of people with roots to the Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin and are interested in perserving its history. Restoring #29 will be a major undertaking, requiring a large amount of capital, but one day soon we will all have that chance to ride the school train once again, or for the first time, for many of us.

Good morning to all!!!

Windy here in the harbor today....Mornin' all!

I MISS THE STEAM TRAINS OF KEWEENAW. I USED TO HOP ON THE BACK OF ONE GOING FROM AHMEEK TO ALLOUEZ IN 1942. WE BORROWED THE MAN CAR ONE SUNDAY AFTERNOON, RIDING IT TOWARD COPPER CITY. WOW.-- I KNOW A GUY WHO BORROWED A WHOLE STEAM TRAIN IN GERMANY BACK IN THE LATE 40'S.

My dream home? A pulman car.

Good Morning to all Veterans and currant service personal on this Memorial Day weekend. I am an Korean era Veteran, and I thank all that served for our freedom. I pray for our service people every day. God Bless them all.

I would like to say a Thank You to all those who served our great country, as well as current active duty personnel in every branch of the military. I am a Viet Nam Era Veteran, and proud to be an American.

During WWII, when gas was rationed, my parents and I would take the train from Kenosha, Wisconsin to the Copper Country to visit my grandparents. We always came on the fourth of July. It was so exciting because my dad's friends would come to the house to greet him and they got a band together to march in the Lake Linden parade. They practiced in my grandmother Studer's barn behind the house on Hecla Street. During WWI Dad played in the Army Band in France with General Pershing. When he retired to Lake Linden he had Studer's Geman Band. He Loved the Copper Country...especially on the 4th of July!!

Mary Lou I remember the Studer German Band, Fred really made the day. Thanks for the memmories. Frank Picotte Calif.

Mary Lou,

I also remember the Studer German Band. There is no place like Lake Linden on the 4th. of July. Thanks to the LLFD for their hard work all these years. Will be visiting in mid June, so won't be there for the fourth. Most people plan their visits on the 4th. or homecoming or both. Great time to see classmates and friends.

Thanks to all our service people...I'm so glad the world war II monument was finished while some of us are still here to see it..It's wonderful!!

By Allouez Andre on Sunday, May 30, 2004 - 12:18 pm:

Here's a picture of old number 29 on the turntable of the old CRRR roundhouse in Hoton. If you look close, you'll see both Copper Range and Keweenaw Central on the tender. KCRR purchased No. 29 from the CRRR, so this photo was taken during the engine's transition of ownership.

That area sure was an exciting place for me when I was just a nipper.

An added note as the Copper Country bids farewell to Copper Range 29. The trucks which carried the engine south to Wisconsin took M-26 out of the area - going through Atlantic Mine, South Range, Trimountain, Painesdale, Toivola, Winona and many of the places that were faithfully served by engine 29 for many years.

I have heard that it isnt long before the remaning engine at the Smelter will be moved also, until an owner can be found for it. As for the #29 move, I missed her coming uner the bridge, but got some good shots in South Range, I also got some shots of the Tender being loaded, ended up with a Trip to the ER cause of that, those slag piles are sharp! I would have missed the move all togther if Kevin hadnt told me, thanks again Kevin!

A Sunday daydream: Several years pass and old #29 is fully restored and makes an excursion run from North Freedom back home to CC, stays for a week of touring, provides thrills for those of us who actually remember steam trains (young 'uns, too)and makes tons of money for the museum. Dreams are free, aren't they?

It is good to see 29 headed for a good home. That, along with the restoration of C&H #3, is a success story for Copper Country railroading. Q&TL #6 is being restored in New Jersy after years of storage following her removal from the area in the 1970's, she has met a better fate than her sisters. Number 3 went to Flint where her parts lie in the back lot. Numbers 1 & 5 are rotting away on the hill near the Hoisthouse. Both 1 and 5 are significant locomotives. Number 1 was the first Q&TL locomotive and served the company until the end in August 1945. Number 5 is possibly the most historically significant locomotive in the UP. Before being purchased by Quincy, she was owned by the Mineral Range and was operated over all that road's narrow gauge lines North of the Bridge. Hancock to Fulton and possibly beyond to Gay or farther into Keweenaw Co. on the Bollman Lumber line.
The Copper Country railroads are a missed opportunity for the tourism industry. I am a fan of both the mining and the railroad industries and as such can assure you that the railfans vastly out number the mining fans. There are about a dozen or more monthly magazines devoted to railroading and model railroading published in the USA. This is a case of fix them up and let the press know and they will come. Now that the hoist is in decent shape, investment in the rail assets like 1,5, the roundhouse, and the water tower would expand the customer base dramaticly if the word gets out.

Is #29 the one that was next to the snowmobile trail? I live about 40 minutes from North Freedom, I will have to make a stop over there soon! Later, Skylar.

Somebody please explain exactly how the lift bridge works. In the first picture w/ the train on the truck, it looks like it is on the underneath part of the bridge as it curves around. I've been looking and trying to figure the bridge out even before this and am very curious. Are there two levels when the bridge is down? How long has this particular bridge been there? I went over a bridge here in 1967; would it have been the same one? I don't remember much about it. Thanks.

ert, GA... check out the info on the bridge at this site:
http://www.michigan.gov/mdot/0,1607,7-151-9620_11154_11188-28585--,00.html

Paul..Thanks for all the info .SO was there a QT&L engine #2 or #4..??

ert - the moving section (between the towers) has two levels. The lower had a road bed for cars with railroad tracks embedded in it (they may have pulled these out). The upper level is just for cars. When the bridge is in the lowest position, trains and autos can cross. The bridge can be raised to an intermediate position where cars use the road bed with the tracks and trains are out of luck.
When I lived up there, the bridge was kept all the way down in the winter so snowmobiles could cross on the railroad level. In the summer it was kept in the intermediate height so that small boat traffic could pass without having to bother auto traffic. All the up is needed only for sail boats and larger vessels.

WOW! This is SO awesome. Charlie, you have set up a GREAT dedication to old #29 and the photos are simply awesome.

Do ANY trains ever go over the tracks of the bridge anymore?

Visited Greeenfield Village in Dearborn yesterday for the Civil War Rembrence weekend. Saw an old steam locamotive running, don't know the number, although it had the Torch Lake Calumet and Hecla Mining printing on the side. was really good to see it billowing great white clouds of smoke into the air. Anyone know anything aabout it?

DH -- thanks so much! This is about what I had figured but I wanted to be sure I was right.

Oh, hope everyone's noticed the leaves coming out on all the trees on the BridgeCam! They look beautiful. We already have the heat of summer here in GA (yuck!).

Dave, thanks for the site. Now I feel like an expert on the Lift Bridge. Really a cool site. And now I know for sure that I have been over that very bridge.

This bridge is the only connection from the "Island" to the "Mainland"

Four posts above this one, Doug the Troll, Wixom, MI, mentioned an old steam locomotive at Greenfield Village, with Torch Lake Calumet and Hecla Mining on the side. Here's a shot of it from David Roberts' gallery.

Alex--the last train that crossed the bridge was in 1982, I believe. The tracks remained much longer, but were finally removed a few years ago. The tracks were removed all the way to just south of Chassell, but are only used as far north as Baraga, and then only rarely. There is still regular rail service to L'anse, at least for now.

Steve W. MTU '84

Steve-

Rail service to L'anse? I assume that would be freight, probably hauling wood or something for the Celotex plant????

Is there any passenger service north of Milwaukee or Green Bay anymore?

Looking for an appropriate Memorial Day wallpaper? Try PastyCam Archives, 7/4/99. Thank you to all who have served and are serving in our military forces.

Thanks, Steve W. I appreciate the info! One of the thrills I had when my dad and I would go to Niagra Falls each Summer, was going to LOCK #1, which was a draw bridge with a railroad going over it. I loved it when a train would go over. All the bells and lights... Cool stuff to a little kid. I'm not sure, but I think I'm STILL a little kid!

Chuck-
Yes, the rail line to L'anse is freight only. Celotex still ships out of L'anse, although I understand they are using trucks more and more instead of rail. Mead Westvaco ships out of their woodyard in Bovine, just south of L'anse. The occasional service to Baraga is to a logging loadout, I think.

There has not been public passenger service north of Milwaukee since the inception of Amtrak in 1971, although apparently because of a legal quirk you could ride in a Soo Line caboose in the UP into the 80's. The last passenger train that ran in the UP was C&NW's Peninsula 400, which quit in July, 1969. The Copper Country's last passenger train was the the Copper Country Limited, which made its last run in March, 1968.

Wish I could have seen and ridden them!

Alex--Re Niagara Falls area locks--there is a similar set-up over the Soo Locks. In the 70's my family used to visit a friend who lived on a bluff overlooking the locks. I, too was thrilled when a freight crossed the system of bridges going across the locks. One of them is a lift bridge.

Steve W. MTU '84

my dad and I rode in the Greenfield engine for several laps of Greenfield Village about 1977.I got to ring the bell and blow the whistle several times.
I have to assume it is the very same one as the one shown above by Mary Drew.
the engineer was an old copper country resident who had been living in Detroit after retirement.The plaque on the side said it was donated by Universal Oil Products {they bought out C&H in 1967}.I do think the engineer said it was FOUND somewhere in the Keweenaw pretty much abandoned by C&H, and of course U.O.P. had no use for it.

About the Torch Lake locomotive at Greenfield Village. I was told that when C&H took it out of service, my grandfather, A. E. Petermann, Sr. made arrangements for Greenfield Village to get it. I rode in the train pulled by it there a number of years ago, and then for a while it was taken out of service. I'm glad to see that it is back in service at Greenfield Village.

Thannks for the reponses on the Torch Lake engine. I knew someone here would be able to shed some light on the story. I've seen that steam engine operating in the village for many years now. It's always one of my favorite things to see in the village and museum. We go a few times a year.

The Torch Lake had a long story. She is the last of her kind - a Mason Bogie - and would be the most historically significant loco motive in the UP if she was still there. The stories about her being found in the woods are somewhat true. C&H had exploration operations at the Cliff and Phoenix mines during the '20's and '30's. To reach these they used the defunt Keweenaw Central Railroad that ran from Calumet to Mandan and Lac la Belle. That road quit in 1918 but the tracks remained in place long after. C&H leased the the line at least as far as Phoenix and the Torch Lake being old and small was sent up to handle coal, equipment, and ocasional rock traffic. Once the depression set in, the Torch Lake sat in the Phoenix enginehouse. She was put to use hauling materials for road construction in the '30's (HWY 41). After that she returned to the Phoenix enginehouse which was located between M-26 and Eagle River opposite the Phoenix Mine office which is still standing. There she was more or less forgotten until a couple of guys went up and rescued her. They brought her down under her own power over the long unused KC tracks. I am not sure weather this was before, during, or right after WWII - when ever, it must have been an adventure. In any case she was saved from the WWII scrap drives that saw so much removed. After that, her where abouts were well known to C&H and steam fans. She was kept in the enginehouse at the Allouez Yard across the road from Ahmeek. They rolled her out and painted her up for the C&H Centennial in 1966. UOP did donate her as stated above and that maybe the high light of their association with the Copper Country.

Former Local,
There were #2 and #4 Quincy & Torch Lake Locomotives. Number 2 was nearly indentical to number 1, but was a bit of a lemon and was scrapped around 1915. Number 4 was a larger locomotive nearly identical to number 3, number 4 was scrapped at the end in 1945.

Kevin, you're exactly right about the UP connections to the Mid-Continent Museum. My dad was a lifetime member of the museum and grew up in Hancock. As a matter of fact, he might have even helped restore some of the rolling stock that he once rode on as a youth, as he volunteered many hours in North Freedom.

It is very sad to think these artifacts have left the Copper Country......It seems that a National Historic Park would have a responsibility to keep these historic engines in the area...isn't that what a National Historic Park is all about.....preserving history????..

Is there a C&NW steam engine still left behind
in Lake Linden? Seems to me that that were two
steam engines sitting there at one time. Maybe
the National Historic Park could make use of it.

The memories of no. 29 going past Albion, crossing 41 by northgate motel, putting pennies on the tracks, maybe a spike once and awhile, standing next to the tracks while the big beast rumbles by, we were only 8 to 12 years of age, smelling the coal smoke, hearing the steam whistle. I hope to ride it again some day, see ya no. 29.

Hello: I would like to know if there is anyone out there with Copper Range lamps or lanterns for sale? I am also an active Museum, volunteer member where the Copper Range #29 went to. Thanks,

Jeff Haertlein