Friday was the biggest, and probably best day of the whole trip. We started around noon. The Saginaw was back at the ore dock, this time on the South side. And a bonus was a pair of LS&I U-Boats working the dock.
Here the dockworkers are feeding Hematite pellets into the Saginaw. The ship dropped more than a foot in the wather diring the short time we were there.
We went back to the ‘Triangle,’ but nothing was running. I attempted to drive down to Palmer, to see the Tilden Mine up-close, but the road there had a ‘Closed – Private Property’ sign tacked to a sawhorse in the middle of the road, halfway up a hill, no less. I’m willing to bet that the dear County Road Authority didn’t want to pay the maintenance on some little-used pat through the forest. As if the Road Authority did a great deal of maintenance on any of their other roads. Why, there was this pothole in Eagle Mills that could have swallowed a Volkswagen, but I digress…
This is the Tilden mine as seen from several miles away. More on this later.
Finding nothing to shoot, I mustered up my courage and we went in to the LS&I yard. After a stop at the office we were equipped with passes…
…And hard hats. I should have asked if I could have bought it.
Anyways, there was a great deal of power parked in the power rack, although, how thrilling, half of it left to prepare for road jobs as soon as I put a lens on the camera. This is what remained, or was in the act of leaving.
Armed with a lineup from the dispatcher, Mr. Carello’s guide, and the DeLorme, we were ready for a chase. This was shot from inside the tower when we returned our hardhats and protective eyewear.
Pairs of U-Boats were moving in all directions around the yard as they prepared the road jobs. The first train out was a freight job, two cars!, of covered hoppers for the Tilden Mine. That was to be followed by an ore empty, also for the Tilden Mine.
This is a 500mm telephoto shot of some of the switching for the freight train. The deal in back is part of a taconite preparation plant. Brutal rape of the landscape comes to mind, but I digress…
This is at the M-35 crossing.
After a riotous chase, thank goodness we didn’t have to wait long for it to go by at the crossing; we caught up with it at a place called ‘Rock Cut,’ for obvious reasons.
Here we are in ‘Trashpile.’
Passing the namesake. On the 3072x2048 images, I spy 1 washer, 1 dryer, 2? Sets of wash tubs, 2 oil barrels, 1 water heater, 1 lawnmower, 2 fridges, and some other crap that I can’t even identify, and this is just a corner. If that junk showed up down on our corner someone would have it schlepped away before you could sneeze.
And now, a series. Shot from the County Road 480 bridge. This is the ore train.
Back to Rock Cut.
An attempt to shoot at ‘Not-Quite-North Trashpile’ was thwarted by the appearance of Big Mama and her brood in their monster van. Not only wasn’t there enough room pass her on the icy road, but she drove smack down the middle of it to make sure that we weren’t getting anywhere ahead of her. She knew exactly what she was doing, as her little maneuver to get in front of us told me she wasn’t worried about slipping on the ice or any such nonsense. Someday someone is going to give her a push – into the ditch!
And now we retraced half our steps and busted our chops on down to the Tilden Mine. I have a lovely 25,000 pixel-wide panorama to show of the mine, but the posting limit will have none of that. Anyway, the Tilden Mine was the most hellish sight I have seen in many years. There is something very sinister about piles of tailings, piles of ore, massive machinery, frozen air, and dead silence. There are these huge pools of hot chemicals that give off steam…
The U-Boats dropped their empties and picked up loads, but the place gave me the creeps, so we left as soon as possible.
