Harry Coulby Loading Dock

KH · Post by KH » Sun Jul 04, 2021 3:19 pm

I'm a few days behind, but the Today in History page from July 1st had a spectacular picture by Tom Manse of the Harry Coulby loading at an ore dock (great new feature by the way). I don't have my copy of the Great Lakes Ore Docks and Ore Cars book handy, but judging by the timber dock and the background, is the Coulby loading at one of the C & NW timber ore docks in Escanaba? It also looks like the railcars on the dock have the C & NW lettering on them as well.

Brian Bernard · Post by **Brian Bernard** » Sun Jul 04, 2021 9:30 pm

I believe that the photo shows the Harry Coulby at the Number 3 Ore Dock at Ashland, Wisconsin. C&NW operated three wooden ore docks at Ashland, with the last (Number 3) operating until 1957 when a planned rebuild of that dock was cancelled. C&NW then moved some of their operations to the Soo Line ore dock in Ashland and the rest to Escanaba.

Chris M · Post by **Chris M** » Mon Jul 05, 2021 9:48 pm

That is the C&NW dock in Escanaba.

Brian Bernard · Post by **Brian Bernard** » Mon Jul 05, 2021 11:43 pm

I'm not so sure, Chris. The light standards atop the dock have horizontal arms extending above the tracks, which is very similar to the light standards atop CNW's ore docks in Ashland. The CNW Escanaba ore docks had vertical light standards that didn't extend over the tracks, at least as far as photos I've seen in books and online.

Chris M · Post by **Chris M** » Tue Jul 06, 2021 10:16 am

The pilings on the east side of the photo give it away. There was no dock just to the east of 3 in ashland.