Classic Trains – September 2019

ClassicTrainsMag.com 61

caught our eye because freight Fs were
getting scarce on C&NW and the cab
unit was the first we’d seen with a “bald”
nose, the number boards having been re-
moved. At MILW’s facility, an A-B-B-A
set of F units, FP7 60A on one end, had
replaced yesterday’s C-Liners.
Top priority was to chase GB&W’s
boat train. A bonus was the power: the
502/312 duo we’d chased from New Lon-
don into darkness last evening, but re-
versed with the FA leading! We got sever-
al good action shots. At Kewaunee,
C&O’s City of Flint 32 was waiting, and
Ann Arbor’s Arthur K. Atkinson was ex-
pected shortly. We’d be catching the latter
back to Lower Michigan.
Meantime, we wanted to try for the
Ahnapee & Western before our boat
sailed. The A&W, which had been part of
GB&W’s system but independent since
1947, ran 34 miles northeast from Casco
Junction on the KGB&W via Algoma to
Sturgeon Bay. A&W had dieselized in
1952 with GE 70-tonners 600 and 601,
painted rust red on the hood and green
and yellow on the cab.
The road was notorious for its litiga-
tion with the Ann Arbor, trying to force
the Menominee carferry run to make a
stop at Sturgeon Bay as it traversed the
Sturgeon Bay canal between Lake Michi-
gan and Green Bay. That effort had come
to naught, but the slogan on A&W’s GEs
still proclaimed “Rail-Water Route.” Op-
eration was not daily, but we found 601
parked at Algoma. Southbound, the train
usually made Algoma by 10:30 a.m. and

the KGB&W connection by 11:30, then

on the return would stop in Algoma for

lunch. A&W’s enginehouse in Sturgeon

Bay was south of the canal, and by this

time A&W would cross the canal draw-

bridge only when necessary.

Back at Kewaunee, we found the 502

and 312 had switched the Atkinson in 40

minutes and were already gone, typical of

GB&W’s operation. The fast switch was

no mean trick, for the Atkinson sailed

with 26 freight cars (space for passengers’

autos subtracted 4 from the full capacity

of 30), and 22 cars were left behind. Such

a heavy eastbound load was customary.

The Atkinson sailed on schedule at 3

p.m. Central Time with us on board, and

we were in Elberta by 7 p.m. Eastern. Af-

ter viewing sunset across the lake from a

park, we drove south, reaching Lansing

before midnight.

Roger and I overnighted with Jerry

and returned to our home Detroit area

Sunday, having nailed all of our railroad

targets up in the northwoods.

J. DAVID INGLES, Classic Trains’ senior

editor 2000–2018 and now contributing

editor, began his “Ingles Color Classics” se-

ries in 2011. This two-part article was con-

densed from a 10,000-word trip report Jerry

Pinkepank wrote after returning home.

FA1 502, one of only two such units left on GB&W, leads the “boat train” east toward Kewaunee for a rendezvous with Chesapeake & Ohio’s
carferry City of Flint 32. The line east of Green Bay was owned by suitably named subsidiary Kewaunee, Green Bay & Western.

Short line Ahnapee & Western’s train is parked for lunch by the depot at Algoma. The road,

based in Sturgeon Bay, dieselized in 1952 with two GE 70-tonners, 600 and 601.