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C Roger Giles
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Posted: Mon Mar 3rd, 2008 01:21 am |
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Fred;
I have fished Lake Wabayongishi******* At the resort / fish camp where we stayed was a maintance/goffer type worker that had worked on the Algoma Central until he had a terrible mishap. He was going down the tracks on one of those selfpropeled work cars and met up with an oncomming train that could not get stopped in time. If I remember his name is also Fred and he walked all bent over and had a crick in his neck.
Fishing was just so so for walleye, so one day I wondered off up a little stream and caught a creel full of Brook Trout 15/20 of those tasty little gems and caught hell from the camp management for the wander off sans a guide. That went in one ear and out the other as per usual with me.
BTW we flew in out of Wawa
Rog
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Richard Flanders
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Posted: Mon Mar 3rd, 2008 04:39 am |
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Hats off to Fred if he can remember the name of Lake Wabatangushi after 55+ yrs! I am most impressed. Must have been a memorable trip indeed!
Last edited on Mon Mar 3rd, 2008 04:40 am by Richard Flanders
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John Dallas
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Posted: Mon Mar 3rd, 2008 11:55 am |
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| For any of the Michiganders on this site who are steamtrainophiles ( ? ), stop near Fairview (north of Mio on M33). A family has put together the neatest family attraction featuring a 1/4 scale railroad. Two different engines - one steam and one diesel. Runs on the weekend. Cleanest, neatest grandkid magnet I've seen in a long time. Called the Au Sable Valley Railroad.
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Fred Preston
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Posted: Mon Mar 3rd, 2008 04:09 pm |
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John, I usually get up to Oscoda County two or three times a year for grouse and woodcock, but I haven't seen the little railroad yet. Next time I'll look it up.
Fred
Rog, Ol' Fred kinda sounds like me, but it wasn't.
Last edited on Mon Mar 3rd, 2008 04:12 pm by Fred Preston
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Destry Hoffard
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Posted: Mon Mar 3rd, 2008 04:37 pm |
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This has been one of the best threads we've had on here in a long time. At least from my point of view! That's a great story Fred, tell us more about the trip.
Destry
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C Roger Giles
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Posted: Mon Mar 3rd, 2008 09:36 pm |
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Fred;
What little I know about you, I am sure you are far too smart to get involved in any kind of a train wreck, maybe a woman/ female type of wreck though.
Say hi to Mia
Roger Ciger
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Fred Preston
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Posted: Mon Mar 3rd, 2008 10:38 pm |
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Yo Destry, I do have a couple of more tales of the Algoma Central. For the easily bored, relief is just a click away. On the way back on the trip noted above, the locomotive smacked a moose (a not uncommon happening on that line) and the engineer hit the brakes and phoned back to the conductor what happened. The conductor talked to three guys who got off the train with a chainsaw, axe and a couple of knives. They butchered that moose and threw the good parts into the baggage car and we were on our way again in less than 15 minutes.
Another time my brother, Jim, and I went up that way to go bear hunting. We got off the train at our usual place and the train moved on. As we were carrying all our stuff and the canoe the 100 yards to the water on the east side of the tracks, we heard the put put of a maintenance jitney coming down the track northbound (no, it wasn't Ol' Fred). It was a three man crew of Native Canadians and they were pulling a little flat car. They stopped and we chatted a little as we told them that we were going B'ar hunting. The head man told us that we shouldn't be doing that east of the tracks as that was a game preserve area. We checked the map (last resort) and found that he was correct. That left us with a three mile hump down the tracks till we found good water on the west side (legal hunting). Those good guys took pity on us and offered to let us ride on the little flat car with our gear. We gtatefully accepted. We were about a mile or so down the tracks when I thought and said "Jim, the rifles!". We had left them on the west (legal) side of the tracks and forgot them in or haste to get loaded and going. I hollered to our "engineer" to stop and told him of the problem. I thought I would have to hump back to get them and then go north to where they would drop Jim and the gear off. No, those good guys, chuckling over the stupid tenderfoot Yanks, backed up that mile to recover the rifles, then took us to where we should have been in the first place. Canadians are really nice folks.
Fred
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C Roger Giles
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Posted: Mon Mar 3rd, 2008 11:43 pm |
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Up in Traverse City, Mi. in the old town section of the city is a steak house by the name of Bill Dills. He has a model train set up just below the ceiling that runs all around the place and it is a big sprawled out building. As a matter of fact there are several trains running around on one set of tracks. I have no idea how he manages to avoid train wrecks.
This thread has jumped the tracks and left L.L.Bean out in the cold waiting on a train.
PTG Roger
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Bill Murphy
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Posted: Tue Mar 4th, 2008 12:32 am |
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| Roger, I don't care if we hijacked the original thread. I got to tell the story about traversing thirty miles of abandoned logging road in my favorite Suburban. I am a bird hunter and that is about the only moose hunting story I have in my quiver. For Tom Flanigan's information, my rifle for that trip was my old reliable Ruger Model 77 in 7MM Remington Magnum, a gun I will not carry again because I will never again pursue any game that requires it. I own a small battery of wonderful early custom Springfields and Krags that will do anything I will ever need to do with a center fire rifle.
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Dean Romig
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Posted: Tue Mar 4th, 2008 01:46 am |
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| Before we move back to L.L. Bean I would like to introduce you to Kathy's grandfather who was born in 1901. This wonderful photograph was taken in 1916 when "gramps" was only fifteen. He worked as an oiler at the Boston & Maine roundhouse somewhere in the North of Boston area. Gramps (Charles Damory) is the fifteen-year-old seated in the light colored jacket between the two onward-facing engines to the left of center. He stood about five foot even and was a HOT-**** all the years I knew him. He would always greet me with "How's the huntin', Deanie?" Attached Image (viewed 221 times):
 Last edited on Tue Mar 4th, 2008 10:19 am by Dean Romig
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Dean Romig
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Posted: Tue Mar 4th, 2008 01:48 am |
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| Gramps, seated between the two engines again. Attached Image (viewed 226 times):
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Tom Flanigan
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Posted: Tue Mar 4th, 2008 03:34 am |
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Those are great pictures Dean. I love the old steam engines although they were gone by the time I became acquainted with trains.
When I was a boy, the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad tracks were a couple of hundred yards in back of the house in the woods. The trains always blew their whistle at the West Pawling crossing about a mile away. I used to lay in bed at night and listen to the west bound trains whistle in the distance and then hear the train rumbling louder and louder as it got closer. Those freights consisted of one hundred or more cars and always had five engines which created quite a noise but I loved it. The west bound trains were going down grade and hit close to 50 MPH and really made a lot of noise. The east bound trains (the ones we hopped) started the long steep up hill grade through the mountains at Hopewell Junction about 10 miles away. It seems you could hear them coming forever as they wound their way up grade, engines in full throttle and straining, around the mountain at from 10 to 15 MPH. In addition to the five engines, the east bound trains always had a pusher engine put on the end of the train at Hopewell Junction so the train could make it up the long 12 mile grade. The pusher engine was backed off at the end of the uphill grade at Whaley Lake (a couple of miles east of my house) and returned to Hopewell Junction to await the next east bound freight (which eventually went past the Parker factory in Meriden) enroute to New Haven. This line always had heavy traffic in those days and was referred to as the "Gateway to the West" in turn of the century advertising.
The tracks were my "gateway' to great hunting and I walked the tracks to get to some of the best partridge coverts that I have ever hunted. Often, while hunting when I heard a train coming in the distance I would run out to the tracks with my dog Rusty and take my birds out of the game pouch and carry them by the legs nonchalantly walking along side the tracks with Rusty. I liked to show off for the engineers who had no idea that I was one of the errant boys who used to hop the trains. Often I would get a big wave and some would give a couple of taps on the whistle. I would always hold the birds high in the air for them to see when they blew the whistle. I loved it.
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Dean Romig
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Posted: Tue Mar 4th, 2008 10:12 am |
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Tom, I had very similar experiences when I was a kid. The tracks ran along the border of my family's acreage and we too, my brothers, friends and I would hop the train to get somewhere else (it didn't matter where, we did it just for the fun.)
When my Dad worked in Boston back in the fifties he would run, in his business suit, through the field behind our house, into the woodlot, across the springy plank bridge spanning the swampy creek and up the embankment to the train, pulled by a steam engine, which would always slow for him, but never stop. One frosty early November morning as he was sprinting across that bridge (which had become entirely covered in frost) in the near dark his feet went right out from under him and he landed splat in the middle of that muddy creek. The engineer saw the whole thing and tooted his whistle all the way to the next crossing "toot-toot-toot-toot, toot-toot-toot-toot, toot-toot-toot" We heard it from the house. Dad finally came back into the kitchen soaked and mad as a wet cat. "Did you hear that?" he demanded. "He was laughing at me, I know he was!"
For the flavor of taking the train to favorite coverts you all should read "Falling Leaves" by Phillip Babcock, Derrydale Press, 1937, wherein he describes taking the train, along with other bird hunters, from the urban Boston area west to some of the outlying suburbs to hunt for the day, returning by train in the evening. I remember Massachusetts when game was plentiful enough and the catch-phrase "urban sprawl" had not been invented. 
Last edited on Tue Mar 4th, 2008 10:21 am by Dean Romig
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Destry Hoffard
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Posted: Thu Mar 6th, 2008 07:45 pm |
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Just thought this would interest you boys. I was looking into a possible train travel hunting trip and called Amtrak today. Used to you could travel with guns on there without even checking them, you just kept your mouth shut pretty much. But they've started doing some passenger luggage screening so I figured there was probably some sort of firearm check in procedure now. According to the lady on the phone there are absolutely no firearms allowed on trains these days at all. There is no check in process, no prior approval, nothing. So the days of traveling by train on a hunting trip are officially over my friends.
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Richard Flanders
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Posted: Thu Mar 6th, 2008 08:00 pm |
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That REALLY sucks Destry. Phew..
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John Dallas
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Posted: Thu Mar 6th, 2008 09:28 pm |
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| Roger - Sorry to say, but Dill's is no more. Hampel's Gun and Lock Shop is still going strong, however
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Robin Lewis
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Posted: Thu Mar 6th, 2008 09:36 pm |
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OK, time to contact my US rep and bitch. This is just BS in my opinion! Here is the "rules" for train travel. Sounds like they(?) can "prohibit" anything they want, check it out.
Prohibited Items
The following kinds of items are prohibited as both checked and carry-on baggage:Any type of gun, firearm, ammunition, explosives, or weapon.Incendiaries, including flammable gases, liquids and fuels.Large, sharp objects such as axes, ice picks and swords.Corrosive or dangerous chemicals or materials, such as liquid bleach, tear gas, mace, radioactive and harmful bacteriological materials.Batteries with acid that can spill or leak (except those batteries used in motorized wheelchairs or similar devices for mobility-impaired passengers).Club-like items, such as billy clubs and nightsticks.Fragile and/or valuable items, including but not limited to electronic equipment. (Laptop computers and handheld devices may be carried onboard; however, Amtrak accepts no liability for damage.)Animals (except service animals).Oversized and/or overweight items. Please note: This is not an exhaustive list. Any item similar to those listed, even if not specifically mentioned here, is prohibited from being carried onboard or checked as baggage.
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Tom Flanigan
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Posted: Thu Mar 6th, 2008 10:21 pm |
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That is very sad information Destry. Another piece of our heritage is now gone for good. I guess I can almost understand it given potential terrorist activity and I well remember the idiot who carried a gun on a Long Island Railroad train a few years ago and killed a few people and injured a lot more. But its very depressing nonetheless. I understand the need for change in many areas but I don’t like it. I hate that Wal-Mart has put many family stores out of business, I hate the fact that Bass Pro Shops and the like have put the small sporting goods store on the endangered list, I hate that L.L. Bean wooden stairs are gone, etc, etc. I also hate the layoffs that I’ve had to do over the past few years while I’ve been given a quota to reach for the buildup of my staff in India. I hate it all but nevertheless have to move forward in a world that is changing in ways that I abhor. I wish I could turn the clock back. I would be much happier living in the early 20th century. If I didn’t have family and others who depended on me, I would be living right now in my little Saskatchewan town and in that environment could easily fool myself into believing that it was 1920. I would be content and happy to let the world continue on its path without me.
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Dean Romig
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Posted: Fri Mar 7th, 2008 01:25 am |
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| This great thread, which started off on a very positive and pleasant subject and which evolved into a great exchange of experiences has taken a sudden plunge from the heights of nostalgia to the depths of reality. Very depressing. . . I think I'll just jump from the precarious ledge of my lofty optimism
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Destry Hoffard
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Posted: Fri Mar 7th, 2008 12:24 pm |
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You have no idea how it pained me to report that little piece of news boys.
DLH
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