A Very Hinckley Summer (2023)

[ZachBell4400]

A pair of FXE ACe's lead the H-SUPKCK.

[ebnertra000]

Neat image!

Needs more haze, though

[ZachBell4400]

TRAVIS,True, needs the Canadian smoke you folks been breathing in.

[BrandonS261]

I may need to add a few shots in this thread once I get the Hinckley area done on the mega route

[ZachBell4400]

I'd love to see the Hinckley area completed too. As well as the I-35 corridor I just did a separate deal here with the Hinckley Sub being it's not built all the way down to Coon Creek or all the way up to Boylston, WI.

[BrandonS261]

I built the whole route on my Midwest Mega Route. Including the Lake Superior Railroad Museum trackage. Only Tracks are fully completed and Roads are done for most of the route from Northtown Yard to Boylston Jct.

[ZachBell4400]

A southbound O-TSRP unit coke empty heads southbound through Hinckley, MN.

[ZachBell4400]

The northbound H-NTWSUP (or the Nutsoup as the railfanners call it) heads north with three SD40-2's (1687, 1619, and 1692) and a former ATSF GP60 (#160).

[eric]

BrandonS261 I may have to send you some ore docks and an ore carrier...

[ZachBell4400]

That would something useful for the CN Missabe route if constructed. I might work on that sooner or later depending on my work schedule once I finish up my east sector of the Northern Transcon running from Staples Yard to Northtown Yard in Minneapolis, MN.

[eric]

I modeled the wood dock at Escanaba but it's easily modified to a concrete dock.

[BrandonS261]

ZachBell4400 Why don't we team up and work on the Hinckley, Staples and Duluth/Superior area together? I already have the trackage and most of the roads complete for the Hinckley Sub done and the Staples Sub done out to St Could, MN The Duluth and Superior areas all have to be rebuilt but would be its own separate route.I also have the Brainard Sub built as well but plan on rebuilding that and hooking up the Staples Sub to it at Staples, MN.

There is no point to build routes that are already out and if there are two routes that are the same that are both being built it would make more sense in teaming up to build it together.

I am already in the process of splitting up the mega route into sections and my plan was to have the Staples, Hinckley and Brainard Sub in one route. Then have the Duluth/Superior area and the NSSR a separate route.

The ore ships and ore dock would be a great addition to the Superior and Duluth area route.

Brandon

[ZachBell4400]

[USER="287354"]ZachBell4400[/USER I am already in the process of splitting up the mega route into sections and my plan was to have the Staples, Hinckley and Brainard Sub in one route. Then have the Duluth/Superior area and the NSSR a separate route.

Sure thing Brandon! DM me sometime and I can surely work on it for you! I've lived in Little Falls since 2015 and I'm used to seeing all the trains heading through here.

[anderson martins]

ZachBell4400 Why don't we team up and work on the Hinckley, Staples and Duluth/Superior area together? I already have the trackage and most of the roads complete for the Hinckley Sub done and the Staples Sub done out to St Could, MN The Duluth and Superior areas all have to be rebuilt but would be its own separate route.I also have the Brainard Sub built as well but plan on rebuilding that and hooking up the Staples Sub to it at Staples, MN.

There is no point to build routes that are already out and if there are two routes that are the same that are both being built it would make more sense in teaming up to build it together.

I am already in the process of splitting up the mega route into sections and my plan was to have the Staples, Hinckley and Brainard Sub in one route. Then have the Duluth/Superior area and the NSSR a separate route.

The ore ships and ore dock would be a great addition to the Superior and Duluth area route.

Brandon

Good idea huh!!
If you have a ship and docks, you must have ore unloading equipment - CADUMPER

I've never seen one here on this forum.

it would be a new thing in an old group with new ideas @ZachBell4400 BrandonS261

[eric]

The ore docks on Lake Superior are gravity feed. Cars go up top and dump into a hold which is 30+ feet above water level, and those holds are in turn emptied via chutes into the ship's hold. It's almost a 100 year old process.

There is a more modern ground level dock in Escanaba on Lake Michigan which has a conveyer loading system. This replaced two older gravity piers - one was lost to a fire and the other decommissioned. That modern pier is now idle/dormant, as CN is no longer unloading ore or pellets at that location. Ore from upper Michigan is now either being loaded out in Duluth or Marquette, or is moving all-rail from the mine/plant to the steel mills.