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.
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.
