Chasing a Daydream
May 2017Story and Photos by Michael Koprowicz |
 ELS 300 outside the Wells Roundhouse. |
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In 2017 there is much to be thankful for in the ways of railroad preservation. Many beautiful locomotives have been restored by museums and railroads even honor their heritage with specially painted locomotives. Despite these wonderful things, nothing can take the place of living out a daydream. Having been born and raised in the suburbs of Detroit, northern Michigan has always been for me, a place of retreat. A quiet place where time moves slowly and one can get back to basics. I grew up in a middle class family and while I had it better than many, we didn't do fancy things like Disney vacations or traveling the country to big landmark destinations. Vacation was up north and that was it. Now being a railfan as a child I didn't care what color or model a train was. On trips up north we would often parallel train tracks for miles and never see a train, but the excitement was always there for me. Upon reaching teenage years I had acquired several books about Michigan Railroads and only then did the heartache set in as I saw pictures of the Ann Arbor and C&O loading car ferries on Lake Michigan's shore, high nose CNW Alcos hauling ore to Escanaba, and the beautiful Omaha orange and Pullman green Baldwin pulling a hunters special on the old Escanaba and Lake Superior. What got to me the most was the fact that this was all happening in my lifetime, but I had been too young to know where to find these gems or even get to see them. And so began the daydreams of someday becoming an adult and driving to see these things. Of course as I grew up most of these old trains and the dreams of seeing them died off. Enter 2017. |
It was May when I just happened to check an old email account of mine that was suscribed to an old yahoo group mailing list. I happend upon an email that was labled "ELS passenger special". Mildly intrigued I opened up the message to find very little information stating that May 24th or 25th there would be a passenger special on the Escanaba and Lake Superior with no further information. A few other posts speculated on the details and one even read that the special would consist of a GP38 and 3 cars. Now I had thought this over for a minute and had nearly dismissed all interest when the thought popped into my head, if that Baldwin still runs, I would be willing to bet Mr.Larkin would want that leading his special train. Of course that would be too good to be true as the ELS 300 which is kept behind locked doors in Wells rarely ventures out to daylight and it had easily been 20 years since it pulled any kind of passenger special or ventured out onto the Manistique Sub. I took my chances.  ELS 300 pulls the ELS 400 out of the Wells, MI roundhouse. |
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