Woah.

This is going to be impressive - particularly since it will be almost the full length of one side of my layout. 

Document heavily please - I can see a "How to build a large ore dock" article in the distance... 

Excited

excited to follow this build, great subject matter!

with taconite, coke, and coal dust in my lungs this is a topic I enjoy...

Quite a grade!

It appears to have quite a downhill grade leading to the docks!  Interesting to say the least.

It is actually an up hill

It is actually an up hill grade to the dock it is just looks like it is a downhill because of this photo

I can't wait...

I look forward to your progress, modeling it at scale is pretty impressive!

Are you modeling the CNW or

Are you modeling the CNW or Soo dock? 

If the Soo you would need a 2-10-0, #950 for steam or SD-7/9, # 2381 if diesel as they were the dock pusher locomotives.

Barry 

That got knocked down? When I

That got knocked down? When I was up there 1995ish, the timber approaches were gone but the concrete and steel wasn't going anywhere. That was some stout construction. Demolition couldn't been easy.

Clarence

This is the Soo Line dock and

This is the Soo Line dock and I plane on modeling 950 and having a couple of sd7/9s

Sounds, good. The Soo's

Sounds, good.

The Soo's Ashland dock had quite a grade going up to it and the Ore yard was one of the few, rural places with a "puzzle" switch (resembling but not like a double slip switch). We used to bring in coal, fuel oil, building products and groceries hauling out paper products and pulpwood in the 60-80s...but it's all tourist business now and any freight handled by trucks. 

CN/WC/SOO track still comes up the Prentice line into the ore yard but because of extensive wash outs north of Park Falls and no proftiable rail customers north to Ashland it's likely, CN will try to abandon the line. No matter as the snowmobilers  and small town taverns will be happy to have another, potential trail.  

We always thought any rail business could go away in Wisconsin and we would still have all the paper mill traffic. But because of the internet few read newspapers and few use paper products outside of toilet paper which does not move in boxcars so many lines are drying up.

Changes in the railroad business.

Barry

If Gogebic Taconite had

If Gogebic Taconite had gotten the permits to mine the one billion ton iron ore body east of Ashland near the former CNW and SOO  abandoned ROW, the dock and railroads would still be viable. This ore body is the largest untapped iron ore reserve left in the US.

Thanks, for the info.

Thanks, for the info. Hans. 

Some folks in some parts of this country try to get new business and industry while others try to shut it out. I never could understand why this was. Not everybody can be in the instant gratification business...some actually have to get their hands dirty and work for a living. Opps...likely getting a bit political here.

I'll sign off.

Barry 

Remember

My 1st business trip to Northern Wisconsin, the UP, Duluth and Superior was a huge eye opener to this Chicago born and raised city boy in 1978.  I saw my 1st ore docks and lake boats. They seemed so massive and they were. Ashland was visited quite a bit as the kids traveled there for hockey in the late 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s and I watched the shuttering of these monsters. I took many pictures and lost the external storage hard drive in 2014 that they were stored on. This Ashland build will be interesting to watch.

Tom

C&NW #6 Dock Escanaba, MI

The late Don Steffen from the UP scratchbuilt a model of the C&NW #6 dock in Escanaba. The Nov. 1992 issue of MR had a nice article about his layout and other iron ore related articles. It is almost entirely made of wood and took 10,000 hours to build. After his passing, the model was moved to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc where it is now displayed.

Since the Ashland dock was concrete, it should lend itself to replicating the pockets using a mold and casting them in plaster. The trestle was quite long and massive. I took photos of it in the 1990s. I look forward to updates on your project.

My friend and I contacted the

My friend and I contacted the Ashland historical society and got 194 blueprints of the Dock (digital) and we were able to print some off.[attach:fileid=413322_29_QKA+AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC]sorry for the poor image quality I took this photo late at night

When did Northern Pacific get to Ashland

I have started working on the

I have started working on the approach to the Ore Dock and I will hopefully get some photos later today.

Update

Not much progress has been made on the ore dock but I have started to modify some Athearn ore cars. I am shortening the coupler boxes so then the ore cars are closer together and at the correct distance apart. I know they are not the correct ore cars but I don't feel like scratch building 150+ ore cars.

This is the correct type of ore car

This is the type of ore car I am using. I know its not correct but its good enough for me,

Update

I know that I have not updated this in a while but My friend and I have made the decision to scratch build a model of the Soo Line 950 decapod. We look at using the Bachmann decapod but it is completley wrong so we decided to completely scratch build. We have already finished building the tender and the drivers are going to be coming in the mail in the coming days. 

Update

Progress has been slow but the approach is starting to take shape, and we are starting to 3D design the ore chutes for 3D printing.

MILW155, are there drawings of the car in the photo?

Just curious if there are any drawings available of the Soo 50 ton ore car? Where is the car that is on display?    I'd like to go on a road trip. 

Regards,

Jerry

There are no drawings of the

There are no drawings of the SOO ore cars that I know of, But I plan on taking measurements of the one that is down at the Mid-continent Railroad Museum which is the same one that is in the photo.

Soo 50 Ton Ore Car

In case you're not aware, there is a basic drawing of the Soo Line 50 ton slant end ore car in Patrick Dorin's "Great Lakes Ore Docks and Ore Cars" book on page 61. There is also and article in "The SOO" Volume 23, Issue 4, Fall 2001, of how to convert an MDC ore car to the slant end 50 ton variety. I'm sure making your own measurements of the real thing is a lot more useful though!

-Peter

Ore Car

A few days ago one of my friends and I went down to the Mid-continental Railroad Museum and took some measurements of their Soo line ore car so I can 3d print it. Depending on how it goes I may be able to do a test print sometime next week.

Did you ever make a test

Did you ever make a test print of the 50 ton ore car? If you make several I would be interested in acquiring some.

The only other 50 ton ore car that I know of is located in Plymouth, WI at the yard of a private business.

https://goo.gl/maps/zLTnpPMKJyFRmxmLA