Catching the Lee A. Tregurtha

I ended up staying up late Saturday night to finish "War and Remembrance", as a result, I didn't feel like doing much Sunday.  Still, that didn't stop me from taking a look at Marine Traffic and see what was cooking as far as shipping was concerned.  When I saw what was coming down the river, I decided to go out and take some pictures.

 First up was the Lee A. Tregurtha.  She missed being the oldest self powered freighter on the lakes by a couple of months, as she was built in the summer of 1942 as a tanker.

 After the war, demand for cargos on the Great Lakes was high, so she was converted to the ship that we now know and love.

 Given that she is fairly well taken care of, I suspect we will be seeing her for a while.

 I think she was on her way down to Dearborn with a load of iron ore but I'm not sure.

 At any rate, based on where the water line was compared to her markings, I would say that she was fairly well loaded.  The water levels on the lakes are higher right now and the shipping companies probably love that because they load their ships more.

 She is definitely pretty low to the water.

And she continues on her way.

The Honorable James L. Oberstar on the Rouge River

So on Sunday, I saw that the Honorable James L. Oberstar was going to be delivering taconite to the AK Steel Plant in Dearborn.  I'm discovering that I like catching ships as they come up the Rouge River.  It makes for a unique setting and I think I will be happier once the Fort Street Bridge is cleared for pedestrian traffic.

 The steamship Ste Clair was launched by the Toledo Shipbuilding Company in 1910.  She would end up delivering passengers to Bob-Lo Island from Detroit for 81 years until the demise of the park in 1993.  She was declared a US National Historic Landmark in 1992.  She has laid fallow in that time and there are still decisions on her fate.  I'm hoping that some group is willing to restore her but that is looking more and more unlikely.  After spending some time at the Nicholson Dock, she was moved to this spot last year.

 The Dix Avenue Bridge is a highway truss bascule bridge.  With the replacement of the Fort Street Bridge, this is the last of this type of bridge in Michigan (although the Jefferson Avenue Bridge is similar but I suspect that will be demolished and replaced).  The bridge's designer was Hugh Young who was from Chicago which is why it is similar to the bridges in Chicago.

 Another angle of the Ste. Claire.

 The Dix Avenue Bridge was built in 1927 and renovated in 1989.  At that time the railings and deck were replaced but the Bridge retains much of its Chicago character.

 For the past few years, this bridge has been seeing heavier use than normal.  The Fort Street bridge was closed and the Jefferson Avenue bridge was damaged in the collision, this meant that the Dix was the only surface street bridge crossing the Rouge.  There are places where it is showing those signs of wear.  I suspect it is on the maintenance list.

 I really like the looks of this bridge and I hope they do a proper restoration.

 It wasn't too long before the Oberstar passed the Fort Street Bridge and appeared.  She was carrying taconite from the docks in Marquette to the AK Steel Plant in Dearborn.  She will probably make this run several times in the season.

 I never realized that I could get a headshot here but I suppose it makes sense since the ship has to turn towards the Bridge.

 I really do like the classic lakers of Interlake.  They are generally of a pretty nice design and it seems like Interlake takes pretty good care of them.  They don't seem to have the rust issues of other companies.

 I kind of like the sloped back look of her pilothouse.  It almost reminds me of the Sykes.

 She passes the Ste. Claire.

 And approaches the Bridge.  It seems like they had the Bridge open way before she arrived though but I guess given recent history, that's not a huge surprise.

 And she starts to pass the bridge.

 A shot of the rear of her pilothouse.

 Her hatch crane.

 I think they start removing the hatch covers as they pass Belle Isle.

 The front of her self unloader.

 I think this is one of the other parts of the mill.  Part of this may be famous because of the mural at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

 A shot of her stack.  On the top are the scrubbers that help her emit cleaner air.

 She starts to make the turn for the dock.

 I kind of like the setting.

 A cloud of seagulls following her as she leaves a wake of dead fish as well.

 A stern shot.

 One of the switcher engines for the mill.

 One more shot of her against the steel mill.

And I pretty much leave where I started.  I kind of liked the reflections in the water.

Waking Up to the Cort

So as I was checking AIS Saturday night, I was seeing the Cort approaching the Soo.  I wasn't sure if she would be there after sunrise in order for me to catch her.  As it turned out, she would arrive almost right at sunrise.

 Sadly, I was shooting into the sun for the shot, so she's quite a bit silhouetted.  I still thinks it makes a nice shot.

 It was getting a little lighter as she was working her way up the river.

 But still not quite light enough.  However, you can see the #1 on her deckhouse.  That declares her status as the first thousand footer on the Lakes.

 Here she is about to greet another thousand footer.  More on that one in the next post.

After some lollygagging, I decided to head over to the other side of the locks in order to catch her there.  This was the best I could do as Sherman Park was closed until spring.

Going to Chicago on the Wolverine

When I took my brief trip to Chicago over the Fourth of July weekend, I decided that I would want to go back there when I could spend more time.  So I ended up getting train tickets for yesterday.  I was a little hesitant because Chicago in the summer can be brutal but fortunately the weather held out for me.

 Probably one of my favorite signs, the one that says "To Trains".  If you didn't figure it out, I love trains and I love riding on them.  It is a very pleasant way to travel because the seats are fairly comfortable, you aren't packed like a sardine and time seems to slow down while you are riding in the train.

 They've been adjusting the Wolverine schedules lately.  This one normally leaves at 7:30 but it left at 6:40 yesterday which is just fine because that gives a little more time to spend in Chicago.

 A map of the Amtrak rail system.  You get just about everywhere and I think they cover 46 of the 48 contiguous states.  The exceptions being Wyoming and South Dakota.  If you're aren't in a particular rush, I highly recommend taking the train.

 The sunrise looked pretty impressive yesterday.

 Although I hate the waiting part but that is unavoidable.

 I decided to wander a little over to the Gandy Dancer to get a picture of the old train station.  I really wish this were the Amtrak station.

 Just in case you forgot where we were.

 One more shot of the empty tracks.  Actually, I kind of got a little treat as the Ann Arbor Railroad was using the set of tracks on the other side of the Huron River.

 And on of my favorite sounds, the horn of the approaching train.

 And as the train gets closer to the station, it turns its bell on.

 Next I would get to hear my other favorite phrase...."All Aboard".  It's funny, for being such an outdated technology, they can get people on and off fairly quickly compared to other modes of travel.

 Passing the Chelsea train station.

 And the Jiffy Mix plant.

 A shot of a pair of buildings in Jackson.

 And then a shot of downtown Jackson.

 As we were leaving Jackson.

 I think this is a grain elevator for the Kellogg Plant but I'm not sure because it could also be one for Post Cereal.

 One thing nice about this particular trip is that we pass through some of the busiest railroad real estate in the country.  It seems like there were trains everywhere.

 I'm not sure what railroad these belong to.

 I think this was a park in Kalamazoo.

 Passing a street as we were leaving Kalamazoo.

 There is also a bunch of farm country.

 I think this might be the St. Joseph River but I wasn't paying close attention to a GPS this time.

 The best way to enjoy a cup of coffee in my opinion.  One other thing about train travel is that the people on the train are so much friendlier.  The Amtrak staff is mostly friendly and so are the other passengers.

 Going past the Three Oaks train station.  Tjree Oaks is the movie that was used to film the movie Prancer.

 Passing a Norfolk-Southern engine.

 Passing a pair of CSX engines.  Apparently the reason why they are typically coupled this was is so that they don't have to mess with turning one of the engines around if they need to hook up to go the other way.

 This is Norfolk-Southern Country.  If there is one drawback to riding the train, it's the fact that Amtrak has to lease many of its lines.  Because of that, they take secondary priority to the freight trains.  They do own some of the Wolverine lines though and I think they are planning to buy more of them.  But until then, they have to follow the freight companies.

 I managed to pass both the Roger Blough and the Lee A. Tregurtha.  I couldn't react in enough time to catch the Blough but I sort of managed to get the Tregurtha.

 And yet another NS engine.

 Chicago is a convergence point for all of the major railroads.  If you are looking for a particular company, it is a good place to go but you have to find the yards for each of the companies.  I think the Union Pacific yard is to the west of the city.

I was trying to get a picture of my engine in the station but it's a little too dark and I was having issues with my flash (that was later fixed).  If you look closely at the bottom right, you will notice a bird that got smacked.  I got to believe that many animals have met the same fate when meeting a train.