Several miles southeast of Loomis, a tiny crossroads in northeastern Wisconsin, we find E&LS Baldwin #202 slowly burbling eastward at 5 m.p.h. towards Marinette, Wis., and Menominee, Mich. This engine worked its final days at the Smurfit-Stone container mill in Ontonagon, Mich., far from public property and hence far from public view. However, once a year, it ventured south to fill in for the regular EMD switcher that served the branch from Crivitz to Marinette & Menominee (known as the "M&M" after those latter cities). The former Milwaukee Road line was home to some of the oldest rail I've ever seen in service — some of it dated back to the 1800s, if memory serves correctly. A few years after I took this photo, the M&M line was embargoed due to poor track conditions. This Baldwin is now in Escanaba, Mich., sitting in the E&LS dead line. The typical Wisconsin gloomy spring weather — much of it fog off of Lake Michigan, which is a few miles to the east — foreshadowed the end, which I sensed was imminent when I snapped the shutter. Scanned from Kodachrome 200 slide film. (N.B. - Spur Road and East Spur Road were interesting names for a crossroads. Nearby is more than one "Right of Way Road" and at least one "Old Rail Road." Some referred to the old Wisconsin & Michigan's right of way; did the others refer to an old logging road?)
