"Ah Wilderness!" - North to Channing on the E&LS
by Mike Paul

" Ah Wilderness!" will be recalled by aficionados of the Denver and Rio Grande Western narrow gauge as a flag stop on the steam powered three-footer north of Durango, Colo. To aficionados of the MCCA, however, "Ah Wilderness!" may not be a "Rocky Mountain High," but it definitely is a "high" for those such as yours truly, who relish a motor car outing on the "Wilderness Rails" of the Escanaba and Lake Superior Railroad. On July 15-16, 1989 , the E&LS again graciously hosted the MCCA and 38 motor cars and hi-rails took to the steel between Howard, Wis. ( Green Bay ) and Channing , Mich.

Exactly one year ago, MCCAers were treated to a ride on the E&LS between Channing and Ontonagon. Those who participated in last year's meet will recall the virtual absence of grade crossings on that trackage. This year, we were treated to a more urbanized version of the E&LS; between Howard and Crivitz , Wis. (40+ miles) are 70 grade and farm crossings, with 30+ crossings located north of Crivitz. This bit of geography was to play havoc with our northbound timetable but this is getting ahead of the story.  Saturday dawned beautifully clear and brisk, and the temperature stayed below 80 all day, making for picture-perfect rail running. Hank Brown had sent out a special mailing to meet participants in order to avoid confusion as to the exact starting point of the meet in the Village of Howard Industrial Park. Yours truly followed the directions to a "T" and got himself to a grade crossing in the Industrial Park that had no other motor cars in sight. The presence of a C&NW "No Trespassing" sign rapidly made the point that this was not the correct grade crossing! After thoroughly mapping out the industrial park, a local citizen took pity when I stopped at a supermarket to ask directions and pointed me in the right direction. Last year it was time zones; this year it was map skills. What am I doing wrong, Hank?! Having located the correct spot, I was greeted by the usual sight of a bevy of motor cars, their owners and guests, and the flurry of excitement surrounding the railing of the cars, signing of waivers, and wondering if the departure time of 9:00 a.m. would be met with an hour's grace. To my everlasting surprise, we were actually "turning wheels" at 9:05 a.m. ! And, I thought, if we leave on time, we will arrive (at Channing) on time. Wrong, as I was later to find out. Dead wrong.

With all the grade and farm crossings between Howard and Crivitz, and with 38 motor cars and hi-rails sandwiched between the two orange E&LS hi-rail pickup truck escorts, "Big John's" greatest concern was safety. We left Howard under "train orders" that we were to keep within 200 feet of the rail vehicle in front of us. Furthermore, we were to be "bunched" before running the grade crossings. Well, due to the short distance between crossings, and stopping prior to each crossing to bunch up, the Fairmont cars with 2-cycle engines were soon blowing their cool, as were some of the operators! The average speed between grade crossings was too slow for the one-speed, belt driven, Fairmont-engine cars to fully notch up on the belts or get the revs up, and steam was a common sight at the front of those cars. To make matters worse, some of those 2-cycle owners hadn't brought along a water reserve, and this was to add to the story later on. As for the Onan-powered MT's, the speed wasn't quite high enough to run in high gear without lugging the engine. When we left Howard, lunch was targeted for Crivitz. Now, 40 plus miles in three hours' time didn't appear in the realm of the impossible, but such was to be!

Our targeted noon destination was achieved at 2:00 p.m. At 2:30 p.m. , we were northbound once again. With fewer grade crossings north of Crivitz, the pace picked up somewhat, but it was 6:00 p.m. by the time we rolled into Iron Mountain : 77 miles in just over 8 hours. Those who tired of the exacting pace "took the siding" at Iron Mountain to take in the local culture and swimming pools, while the other (roughly) 75% headed north to Channing to observe the nothingness there of the engine house that burned to the ground after last year's meet. Once at Channing, there was no time to meander around the yard; time was getting late, and the sun was rapidly disappearing in the west. Our "train" rolled north through the switch network at Channing on to the now-unused line to Republic, until the "caboose hi-rail" was in the clear of the north switch of the wye. Once in the clear, we backed down the wye onto the Ontonagon line, and once in the clear of the wye switch, we were again on the roll for Iron Mountain -for a mile or so. Our lead hi-rail ground to a halt shortly out of Channing, and by way of  Jim Lindholm's scanner, we learned that one of the 2-cycler's had completely run out of water! Jack Wendler's "Blue Bomb" ex-Rock Island S2 doesn't have a condenser, just a couple-gallon aluminum water jug. The slow northbound running had caught up with the valiant S2. Fortunately, the engine didn’t seize, and once cooled down a bit a replenished with an emergency dose of good old H2O, our entourage was once again on the move. Iron Mountain was finally reached at 10:30 p.m. , and some mighty tired rail riders headed for the sheets. Well, not everyone: the Wittenwyler gang was last seen on the balcony of the Downtowner Motel keeping the townsfolk appraised of the day's doings while waiting for the Domino's pizza man to arrive.

Sunday dawned just like Saturday, a gorgeous day for rail running. Upon hearing the chant of a pair of ex-Reserve Mining SD-9 locos, still in RM paint as they were a year ago, pulling the Sunday southbound into town, a few of us hustled the one block from the Timbers Motor Lodge down to the E&LS crossing to hail the train's passing. From our vantage point at trackside, we could see that, one block to the north, someone had rolled a four foot diameter wooden spool for electric cable right up to the tracks during the night. It was located just around a curve such that the locomotive engineer couldn't see it in time to stop. As the twin-unit SD-9 set rounded the curve, the engineer never even backed off the throttle and bounced the spool off to the side like it was a match stick. After a friendly wave to the trainmen, we were soon off to the Iron Mountain yard where our steeds had rested overnight. An E&LS employee had stood guard overnight to ward off any potential vandalism, and, to my knowledge, no one reported anything missing.

By the time we rolled out at approximately 9:00 a.m. , Hank Brown had wheedled and cajoled the E&LS escorts to "open up" the throttle, and the southbound run was accomplished at a much nicer pace. The 2-cycle Fairmont ’s kept their cool. At 11:45 a.m. , I looked at my watch and figured we'd arrive at Crivitz exactly at noon . Actually some cars in our entourage did, but yours truly was one of a number of motor cars behind an open-top 2-cycle Fairmont that decided to peter out on a long grade just north of Crivitz. As the reluctant Fairmont was set off to allow it to be towed by a motor car further back, the Fairmont 2-stroker that had been behind it (and now was at the head end of the group of cars waiting to get going again) decided it had a turn coming being recalcitrant, and promptly died as the other dead 2-stroker was being re-railed further back.

Jon Knight's MT19 was right behind the copycat deadbeat, and this occasion gave him the opportunity to be a White Knight (pun thoroughly and thoughtfully intended!) to push the dead car in front of his. It also gave him the opportunity to have open track in front of him, and for those of you who know Jon, the pace he set the rest of the way into Crivitz was not slower than the fastest pace the E&LS had maintained to that point - not by a long shot. As Jon led our delayed “second section" into Crivitz, Hank Brown announced that we had an hour for beans. At 45 minutes into our lunch hour, a fellow meet participant came into our restaurant and announced we should return to the rail head, as the E&LS crew was eager to move out. My daughter, Jenny, our guest Jerry Hitchcock, and I readily complied; but our seating partner, Bob MacDowell, decided he had a full hour and headed back to the buffet table. Last we saw of Bob, he was helping the E&LS crew flag grade crossings; he never did get his blue Suburban hi-rail back on the track!

The condition of the rail and roadbed on the Howard-Channing section was very good, with the rail itself slenderizing from south to north. At the risk of being biased, the track condition seemed to be better in Wisconsin than in Michigan ; could it be that Wisconsin taxpayers are a bit more favorably disposed toward their railroads? Not many sidings are used any more along this E&LS line; the major shipper appears to be a good sized paper mill between Iron Mountain and Channing; this also seemed to be confirmed by the consist of the freight that moved southbound on Sunday morning. I didn't see much wildlife along the line, although there were a couple of reports of deer running along-side and between motor cars at dusk on Saturday night. (Don Drake's pickup had an encounter with a deer on the way up from Illinois , but that is another story.) We arrived back at Howard just in time to avert the heavy thunderstorm that approached us as we loaded our motor cars back onto our trailers.

So ended the "Wilderness Rails 1989" outing on the E&LS. The most racy car at the meet had to have been the Camero IROC owned by "Big John" of the E&LS; too bad it didn't have hi-rail wheels. I must compliment "Big John" on his physique this year; he is not longer a true heavyweight, but rather a light-heavyweight. Come to thing of it, maybe the pounds melted off just by chasing our motor car trips!

In closing, I would like to thank John Larkin, president of the E&LS, for inviting MCCA back for the second consecutive year. Given the weekend hours that his crew spent to escort the trip, I know that out meet registration fee didn't even come close to meeting the out-of-pocket expenses incurred by the E&LS. It is my hope that John will invite us back again next year, perhaps to explore the Channing to Escanaba trackage. And last, but not least, thanks once again to Hank Brown for organizing the meet; without his dedication, 'Wilderness Rails 1989" just may not have happened

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 Last Edited 28 January, 2018