Video of the former Canadian Northern Railway/CN-Kinghorn (Dorion) Subdivision (MP 50.2-52.7) west of Jellicoe, ON. Features the grade as it skirts Blackwater Lake until it reaches the 115-foot trestle over a portion of the lake.
Part 3 of 4.
Active, 1914-2005.
Video of the former Canadian Northern Railway/CN-Kinghorn Subdivision (MP 45-49) at Jellicoe, ON. Features the grade west of Kinghorn Road with cuttings, culverts and a former 132-foot trestle that filled in to create a large embankment in the early 80s.
Video of the former Canadian Northern Railway/CN-Kinghorn (Dorion) Subdivision east of Cameron Falls, ON. Features the 1924 Cash Creek Trestle. Part 4 of 6.
Active, 1914-2005.
In honour of the 115th anniversary of its completion, and the 12th anniversary of its demise, we revisit the Gunflint Corduroy Trestle.
This amazing structure was built in the winter of 1904-1905 by the Pigeon River Lumber Company for their logging railroad, the Gunflint & Lake Superior. To climb the ridges south of the lake, the company built a very crude trestle by corduroying logs and topping it with gravel. Just over 250 feet long, the elevation increases 25 feet in that distance, creating a brutal 10% grade. It was probably one of the most unusual railroad trestles in all of North America.
Later that year they purchased a Shay locomotive (SN-683) to work this section of the line.
Sadly, the trestle was lost in 2008. The year before it was engulfed by the Ham Lake Fire and the logs smoldered for months. The USFS was forced to dynamite the structure to extinguish the fire. I’m glad I was able to see it before its demise and shoot this footage. My apologies for the shaky recording; I was very young, rather excited and there was no stabilization!
Video of the former Canadian Northern Railway/CN-Kinghorn (Dorion) Subdivision near Pass Lake, ON. Features the Pass Lake Trestle/Blende River Viaduct, constructed in 1912.
Video of the former Canadian Northern Railway/CN-Kinghorn (Dorion) Subdivision near Pass Lake, ON, featuring a 1/2 mile of rails and the eastern side of the Pass Lake Trestle/Blende River Viaduct.
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). We return to the northern face of the ridge from the last episode, passing through the dark 300-foot rock cut again, before making our way along yet another cut, this one shorter, but cut directly into the side of the ridge. We view both sides of a 400-foot trestle, which towers nearly 100 feet above the adjacent valley. The views along the sheer cliffs 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 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 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.
Poverty, Agony, Distress & Want! 