This week’s episode of our YouTube tour of the PAD&W takes us to the section of line near Round Lake, MN (MP 89.5). After looping around a small lake and going through a double-trestle switchback, the grade continues to ascend along the northern face of a ridge. The engineering work is again heavy, with several cuts, a high embankment and a long, dark 300-foot rock cut. The views are spectacular.
This week’s episode of our YouTube tour of the PAD&W takes us to the section of line near Round Lake, MN (MP 88.5). After following the valley of the Cross River for a mile and a half, the railway now had to climb 200 feet in a very short distance to reach the Paulson Mine. Railway engineers looped the grade around a small lake before ascending into a double-trestle switchback.
You know, when you reach a certain age you don’t really look forward to birthdays anymore. There are no important milestones left, only ones that remind you that you are getting old. Despite all of that, it is nice to spend time with family and at least try to celebrate. Maybe you’ll even get lucky and get an unexpected gift. Boy did I get one this year!
It’s Christmas vacation kids! What a welcome break in the midst of chaos. I really needed the holiday…it was a bit of burnout city for me. The kids were pretty much finished too. By this time of the year they have no focus or attention and trying to get them to do anything is nearly impossible. One week has already flown by, but it with Christmas out of the way things are a little less hectic.
Mid-month snow, December 2018.
View from the mountain, December 2018.
View from the mountain, December 2018.
View from the mountain, December 2018.
So, I can’t not write this blog without making a comment about the weather, which surprisingly has been fairly subdued. Well, until a few days ago that is. Up until the 27th, we didn’t have a lot of snow and it’s been mild. They predicted a major snowstorm for right after Christmas and this time they weren’t wrong; it was quite the dump! We received more than 30cm of the white stuff and of course the temperature dropped the next day. That left me the best birthday present of all time-two hours of snow blowing in the freezing cold. Happy birthday Dave…
Snowstorm, December 2018.
After the storm, December 2018.
After the storm, December 2018.
After the storm, December 2018.
After the storm, December 2018.
With the respite from work, it means that I do have some time to devote to railway work. I did manage to make to get over to the Lakehead University Library just before the break to look up a few books. After going through the information from one of them over, I had to go and get it again. This time, I made the shorter trip the Brodie Street branch of the Thunder Bay Public Library who also had a copy of the book. That then prompted an examination of some microfilm, which didn’t quite yield the results I was looking for (both of the good quality viewing machines were being used). So, I went back a few days ago and was able to find the newspaper article I was l after. That’s a lot of time in the library!
I’ve also begun writing again. As I described in my last post, there is a bit of work left to do on the book, mostly finishing the last couple chapters and tweaking a few others. There is a chapter that will have to wait until after summer, that being the one that describes the second logging camp, Camp 8/11. Hopefully I’ll have an opportunity to make a more detailed examination of the site, with some luck in the company of some experts. That means I hope to have all the writing done by next winter, which means this odyssey will have encompassed the last 6 years of my life. Do all books take this long? Well, I guess I can answer my own question by saying “yes,” since I’ve been working on the PD for the past 24 years and I’ve written only one chapter!
Anyway, I better move along. This is obviously the last post of 2018, so here’s to another great year in 2019. I’ll be back soon with the latest news and exciting developments. Until then…
This week’s episode of our YouTube tour of the PAD&W takes us to the section of line near Round Lake, MN (MP 88.5). After following the valley of the Cross River for a mile and a half, the railway now had to climb 200 feet in a very short distance to reach the Paulson Mine. Railway engineers looped the grade around a small lake before ascending into a double-trestle switchback.
This week’s episode of our YouTube tour of the PAD&W takes us to the section of line west of Gunflint Narrows (MP 85.5). After crossing the international boundary on a high trestle, the railway continued along the shore of Gunflint Lake in Minnesota. The grade was blasted out of sheer cliffs in many places, creating some very high, lengthy rock cuts. As one could imagine, the cost of construction in the area was immense.
This week’s episode of our YouTube tour of the PAD&W takes us to Gunflint Narrows, the Canadian terminus of the line (MP 85.5). From here the railway continued west across the narrow channel between Gunflint and Magnetic Lakes and into the State of Minnesota. A station and hotel were located in the area, along with a small population of settlers and Indigenous people. The First Nations considered the waters of the Narrows, the Cow-o-bob-o-cock (where the rock ledges come together), a place where evil spirits resided.
Hey, so let’s try something a little different for a change. Since I’m not always able to write a full blog regularly, I thought I’d copy a little initiative I’ve been doing on social media.
Since January, I’ve been featuring videos from my YouTube channel on social media, which highlight parts of the line. These videos date back to 1997 and I am still producing new ones regularly. Part of their purpose is to promote the history of the railway as well as to chronicle some of the physical remains of the line and its infrastructure before it all disappears. I know I started this many months ago, I am doing this rather mid-stream, but there never can be too much publicity. In any case please enjoy!
This week’s episode of our YouTube tour of the PAD&W takes us to the section of line west of Leeblain (MP 84). Here, in October 1892, crews were working a rock cut for the right of way. Unfortunately one labourer, Joseph Montegia, was tragically killed in a blasting accident. In his memory, his fellow workers carved a cross in the side of the rock cut near where he died. It still remains, 126 years later, as a silent tribute to all those that toiled constructing the railway.
