ClassicTrainsMag.com 57rolling stock, including a tender, still out-
side on tracks dotted with growing trees.
Back down in Houghton, we photo-
graphed Copper Range V01000 101
working in front of the station/general of-
fices, and could see one of the road’s oth-
er two Baldwins in the roundhouse.
From Houghton our course was south
130 miles to Minocqua, Wis., to visit my
college buddy Charlie Mote and mutual
downstate Illinois friend Ralph “Jay”
Weber, at the Mote family’s vacation
home on Lake Tomahawk.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3
The morning dawned overcast and
wet. After a group self-portrait on the
boathouse roof, Charlie and Jay cara-
vanned with us to Tomahawk, home to
the Marinette, Tomahawk & Western, a
15-mile forestry line dating from about
- MT&W’s power was two Winton-
engine EMC switchers: ex-Elgin, Joliet &
Eastern NC No. 408 and ex-Minneapolis
& St. Louis NW1 No. 90, both numbers
unchanged. The 408 was at the round-
house, while 90 switched a nearby paper
mill. MT&W connected in town with the
Milwaukee’s branch north from Wausau
and with the Soo up at Bradley.
The Milwaukee’s local from Wausau
went 74 miles to Woodruff, end of the
line, only on Tuesday and Friday, this day
turning at Heafford Junction, 6 miles
north of Tomahawk. We found it, with
RS2 491, at the diamond with Soo’s Sault
Ste. Marie line, guarded by a Soo
two-story wooden depot. Undoubtedly
illustrating the usual timing, Soo’s train
15 soon showed up, behind F3 203A and
GP9 407, both still in maroon. The inter-
change moves, mainly Soo giving MILW
two gondolas of logs, yielded nice photos.
The Heafford Junction interchange provided lots of entertainment for visitors on Thursday, September 3. At left, Soo Line train 15’s F3 203A
and GP9 407, with two gondolas of logs for the Milwaukee, near the diamond as Jay Weber watches. Interchange work completed, Charlie
Mote and the author look on as Milwaukee RS2 491 stops at the diamond to pick up two crewmen. MILW photo, Jerry Pinkepank
We chased 491, with an empty Great
Northern gon, the logs, and a caboose,
back to Tomahawk. Charlie and Jay then
went back to the lake, and we three drove
east to Rhinelander to intercept C&NW’s
Flambeau 400 from Ashland, just before
noon. Behind E8 5027A and F7 4077A
were two intercity bi-level coaches. More
coaches, plus usually a false-high-roof,
single-level diner and a bi-level parlor-
lounge, would be added at Green Bay. The
recent demise of the North Woods Fisher-
man had left the Flambeau the only Green
Bay–Ashland train and ended all C&NW
sleeping-car service. A small crowd
boarded, while SW1 1268 stood silentlynearby. Not far north was Soo’s small yard
and roundhouse, where SW1200 327
idled between work at local customers.
We called briefly at Rhinelander’s logging
museum, in a park with a relocated de-
pot, which featured memorabilia of the
Thunder Lake Lumber Co. narrow gauge.
Our goal was Green Bay, where we’d
stay two nights. We hoped to look up the
8-mile Laona & Northern, but it termi-
nated inside Conner Co.’s Laona paper
mill, which was working despite a strike
and pickets of apparent long standing, so
we moved on. I later would ride behind
its Vulcan 2-6-2, which still hauls tourists
on now-isolated trackage, and would