I’m here in Upper Michigan, serving our mission which has been without a priest since February.
Yesterday, I was sitting around with some of the folks and I mentioned the Copper Country Limited which ran from Calumet to Chicago. One of the older ladies said she used to ride it in the 50’ s and 60’ s. Others said they wished it was still available.
Tracks have been pulled from nearby Houghton and the adjacent Keewenaw Peninsula. Driving here on US 41, I saw the tracks extend to somewhere west of Baraga. I’m not sure if they curve south into Wisconsin beyond there.
Anyhow, I wonder who out there remembers the Copper Country Limited? Speaking of UP passenger trains, the deacon, a young whippersnapper of 46(we share a birthday Aug 17!) was fascinated when I told him how the trains used to be transported by boat between St. Ignace in the UP to Mackinac City on the Lower Michigan shore.
While I never rode the Copper Country Limited, my grandfather rode it many times. He was born in Republic and grew up in Champion, where many of his relatives lived (He lived in Richmond Indiana). The train was really a Milwaukee Road operation, even on the DSS&A north of Champion. Only rarely did the DSS&A’s RS1s get pressed into service there. The main reason it hung on as long as it did (It was the Soo Line’s very last non-caboose passenger train) was the RPO that ran between Milwaukee and Houghton. Once the mail contract was gone at the end of 1967, so was the train. At the end the Milwaukee-operated sleeper only ran every other day, up one and back the next.
Baraga is the present north end of track. The track goes south to Nestoria where the branch joined the DSS&A main line. The former main line west of the junction is used by E&LS to store cars. The main line to the east runs as far as the junction with the LS&I and the ex-C&NW near Negaunee. The ex-C&NW to Escanaba is the only rail outlet for the line. At Champion there used to be the connection for the MILW to the south, but this has been cut back to Republic, and much of the remaining line is out of service to Channing. One bright spot was the short branch to the Humboldt mill had rail re-installed to serve a new nickel ore concentrator.
Anyone know when the tracks were pulled from Houghton? I first came here in 1995 and I believe they were gone by then. The station by the waterfront still stands, right next to the nice little public library.
As I mentioned elsewhere, that famous railroad bridge was still above downtown Marquette in 1995. I don’t know if the tracks were still in use then.I’ve rarely, if ever, seen an active train in the U.P. There may still have been some F units here in the 90’s. I didn’t see any.
If you do a search on the Forum Archives, simply under DSS&A you will uncover a ton of material, enough to do a Doctoral Dissertation … it has been a very well discussed topic over many years.
I was in Houghton in 1975, and saw a train run into the Yard. The track was still in to Lake Linden and Calumet. There was even still some Calumet & Hecla track (abandoned) in Calumet, and the National Park Service was considering including the C&H roundhouse in the Historic Park. (I think it survives as an auto repair shop. There is still a few hundred feet of track left and a snowplow.) In 1992 I rode a Soo Historical group excursion from Marquette to Baraga, at that time the end of track. By then the Soo was long out of the ore hauling business in Marquette. They were still hauling iron ore in 1969, when I did my geology field course in the Marquette area. Now the LS&I ore dock is the only one active in the UP, as Escanaba was closed recently.
That was a great video. I’m too young to have seen that era. I first visited the western UP when the LS&I had their U-boats and a few Alcos left. It was still good but it died for me when CN bought the WC and the Escanaba ore dock closed.
I was a kid in 1970 and that is far back as I can remember trains at this point. Only rode a few Milwaukee Road trains and I believe by 1970 it was bare bones. Copper Country Limited I did not find out about until about 2-3 years ago. Went on a Family camping trip to Lake Superior, all I remember was a pebble stone beach and an supersonic jet flying over the lake…I think that might have been 1972-1973. Pretty sure it was not the UP but was near Ashland, WI. Never saw a train up there.
Train 9 Copper Country Limited
Lv Chicago 745pm
Ar Calumet 855am
Sleeper, coaches, and dining car.
Also sleeper for Sault Ste. Marie to interchange with Soo at Pembine (arr 251am, dept train 8 at 315am. Arrival SSM @ 935am
Train 10 - Copper Country Limited
Lv Calumet 515pm
Ar Chicago 800am
Sleeper from Sault Ste. Marie arrive at Pembine 1010pm, pickup at 1050pm
