Eastern Railroad Discussion > Over Sandusky Way - Lake Erie Land

Sunday July 27, 2025
Sandusky, OH
Temps in the mid 80's, not too bad

1. Today we went over to Sandusky for lunch at the Dockside Cafe. It is right on the water of Sandusky Bay and a great place to hang out and watch the little boats and even to get a view of the big boats in at the NS coal dock. Today the "Lee A. Tregurtha" was there taking on a load of coal for Zug Island up in Detroit. I'm not sure what they do there anymore, does anyone know ? The food was great (fish tacos today) and the views spectacular such as this one. The "Lee A. Tregurtha" was built at Sparrows Point Baltimore in 1942 as the tanker "Chiwawa" which was present in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, the day of the Japanese surrender ending WWII. Later it became the "William Clay Ford II. Today it is operated by Interlake Steamship Lines and is Rolls-Royce powered. A nice historical boat to view while eating lunch.

2. & 3. After lunch we checked out the former PRR yard in Sandusky. We found intermodal train 276 on the run from Landers Yard (ex-Wabash) in ChicagoLand to Norfolk, VA. This train works here, coming in off the Lake Shore line, then goes to Bellevue and south down the former Pennsy Sandusky District. Power is NS 4886 and 4390. Image 3 looks up the yard to the north towards the Chicago Line and the coal docks. We are just north of the Bogart Road crossing.

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4. A 1957 map of the PRR Yard. Bogart Road is shown on it along with the Bayside block station. So a question to those who might know; was this officially called Bayside Yard by the Pennsy?

5. An image found on the internet of the Bayside block station.

6. Pulling out of the yard was the 269, Port Newark, NJ to Landers Yard Chicago intermodal. He's at a location called Weyers just south (railroad east) of the yard, bound for Bellevue and moving at walking speed. Power is NS 4595 and 4146.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/25 19:02 by train1275.

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7. The train is moving so slow I have plenty of time to cross over to the other side for a view long before the gates at Bradshar Road go down. This was a mistake as before the train cleared it stopped. My wife was on the other side of the tracks with the car. Luckily it restarted and cleared before too much time passed.

8. There is a cute little cottage here I think would make a nice railfan hangout.

9. And there he goes  ....   sort of .....  past MP 104. Bellevue is about five miles ahead.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/25 19:00 by train1275.

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train1275 Wrote:
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> Today the
> "Lee A. Tregurtha" was there taking on a load of
> coal for Zug Island up in Detroit. I'm not sure
> what they do there anymore, does anyone know ? 

Great bunch, love that first shot with the Tregurtha. I remember seeing it in it's former life, including several times at the Rouge or on the Rouge River. As for Zug Island, DTE Energy has a newer coke battery still in operation. Instead of using the coke right there, I believe they sell mainly to Cliffs and ship it over the DT&I to Dearborn or if needed to Burns Harbor, and maybe some stuff on the open market like to USS to supplement coke supply at Gary (which has no coke plant)...

JG

jgilmore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> train1275 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Today the
> > "Lee A. Tregurtha" was there taking on a load
> of
> > coal for Zug Island up in Detroit. I'm not sure
> > what they do there anymore, does anyone know
> ? 
>
> Great bunch, love that first shot with the
> Tregurtha. I remember seeing it in it's former
> life, including several times at the Rouge or on
> the Rouge River. As for Zug Island, DTE Energy has
> a newer coke battery still in operation. Instead
> of using the coke right there, I believe they sell
> mainly to Cliffs and ship it over the DT&I to
> Dearborn or if needed to Burns Harbor, and maybe
> some stuff on the open market like to USS to
> supplement coke supply at Gary (which has no coke
> plant)...
>
> JG

Thanks JG, I lost track of the goings on at Zug Island after Great Lakes Works closed in 2020.

Three things:
1) Excellent photos
2) Fish Tacos sound tasty
3) Regarding the Lee A. Tregurtha, my wife’s grandfather was also on a ship in Tokyo Bay for the Japanese surrender. He served in WWII on the USS Hale which was a destroyer. I had a few chances to talk with him, but he didn’t tell many stories about his service before then end of the war. He told me he witnessed the Japanese surrender, and that after the war his ship sales up a river somewhere on the west coast and was docked for months before he ended his enlistment. After that he went on to work for the Southern Pacific for 45+ years in the Houston, TX area and had three sons all of who worked for the SP and eventually the UP. Two of the three are retired and as far as I know the oldest one is still working.

Dan

Posted from iPhone

It's surprising that it's cheaper to unload railcars with coal into a ship, travel less than 100 miles to Zug Island to then unload the coal.

mapboy

mapboy Wrote:
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> It's surprising that it's cheaper to unload
> railcars with coal into a ship, travel less than
> 100 miles to Zug Island to then unload the coal.
>
> mapboy

I think it may be more of a logistics issue related to the unload at Zug Island where space is limited to find a way to economically unload a unit train of coal. The boat consolidates about three and a half trainloads, and then the boat parks at the dock for direct unload. Others may have better info, but that's my take on it.

I thought I'd highlight the Lee A. Tregurtha's WWII service.

Attached from wikipedia is the info on the battle stars and campaign medals.

A snip from image #1 showing where these are displayed.

A true WWII vet. for more info look up the USS Chiwawa AO-68.

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