#trainz

The big station was buzzing. Dowager Hatt was coming so both Duck & Toby had been drafted in from the branchline's to help clear the yard & make sure everything was in its proper place.

~~ Something, Everything Is Wrong. ~~

I repainted Thomas, Annie and Clarabel into BR Corporate Blue.

"We are holding our own." - Captain McSorley's final transmission to Captain Cooper.

The Great Lakes, the world's largest freshwater system by surface area. A natural wonder that provides a crucial source of drinking water for many people, a major transportation and trade route, and an important part of the American and Canadian economies. However, these lakes have also been the home to numerous shipwrecks since the 17th Century, but the most well-known of them all is the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

On Sunday November 9th, 1975 at 2:15 PM, the Great Lakes Freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald departed Superior, Wisconsin loaded with taconite pellets bound for the Zug Island steel mill near Detroit, Michigan while under the command of Captain Ernest M. McSorley and 28 additional men. When launched in 1958, she was the largest ship on the lakes boasting a length of 729 ft, a width of 75 ft, and a height of 39 ft. The ship started out life as any other Great Lakes Freighter sailing between the ore docks and the steel mills of the lake shores logging 748 round trip voyages in total, some of these earned her seasonal haul records while also earning some nicknames such as the “Pride of the American Side”, "Toledo Express”, “Mighty Fitz”, “Big Fitz”, and just simply “Fitz”.

But the Edmund Fitzgerald wouldn't be alone on her ill-fated 749th voyage, for she would be accompanied by another Lake Freighter, the SS Arthur M. Anderson that's sailing from Two Harbors, Minnesota to Gary, Indiana under the command of Captain Jesse B. "Bernie" Cooper. On the same day the ship began her voyage, the National Weather Service predicted a storm would make its way over the lake in the morning of Monday November 10th. But autumn storms on the Great Lakes are far from being ordinary storms, for they are the infamous Gales of November that have sunk ships and claimed lives in years past with winds comparable to category 1 and 2 hurricanes.

Following a gale warning from the NWS, the Edmund Fitzgerald and the Arthur M. Anderson altered their courses northward along the Ontario shore only to be confronted by a winter storm at 1:00 AM on November 10th. Conditions would get even worse as the storm center began to pass over the ships before snowfall at 2:45 PM. The worsening conditions would result in the Arthur M. Anderson to lose sight of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

After 3:30 PM, McSorley then reported to Cooper that his ship was taking on water as two vent covers and a fence railing were torn off by the waves, the ship's pumps were running continuously to discharge water. After McSorley told Cooper that he is slowing his ship down to close a gap, the United States Coast Guard broadcasted that all ships are to seek safe anchorage and that the Soo Locks had been closed due to the weather. McSorley's best bet on surviving the storm was to head toward the safety of Whitefish Bay as he made contact with the Grand Marais, Michigan USCG station asking if the Whitefish Point light and navigation beacon were operational.

The USCG then replied that their monitoring equipment indicated both instruments were inactive, McSorley then had to make contact with any ships in the Whitefish Point area to see if the navigational aids were functioning. Captain Cedric Woodard of the Swedish ship Avafors replied that the Whitefish Point light was on but not the radio beacon. With winds reaching 86 Miles Per Hour and rouge waves as high as 35ft, the Arthur M. Anderson made contact with the Edmund Fitzgerald at 7:10 PM about an upbound ship, this was the final time that the two ships would ever make contact.

Ten minutes later, the Edmund Fitzgerald vanished from the Arthur M. Anderson's radar. Approximately 19 minutes later, Cooper called the USCG to locate the Edmund Fitzgarald whom of which told him to find any survivors, a three-day effort soon to be followed by two more freighters, the SS William Clay Ford and the SS Hilda Marjanne, the buoy tender USCGS Woodrush, and two USGC aircraft: an HU-16 Albatross and an HH-52 Seaguard. While none of the crew members were found, bits of debris such as lifeboats and rafts have been recovered.

Four days later on November 14th, a U.S. Navy P-3 Orion was using its Magnetic Anomaly Detector while flying over Canadian waters when it had located the wreck lying 530 ft below Lake Superior. Since then, diving expeditions have gone down to the wreck with some of the first revealing that the ship split in half when she sank. Further evidence shows that the Fitz sank when several of her hatches came loose combined with the huge, violent waves plowing into her and the weight of the taconite pellets pulling her down, a domino effect that would seal the fate of the crew and their ship.

While none of the bodies have been found, one of the diving expeditions in 1994 revealed a body was found near the wreck but was left there at the family's request. Today, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald still remains as the last major ship, and the largest, to sink in the Great Lakes; her reputation combined with her catastrophic sinking and cultural impact thanks to Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 song would earn the ship a new nickname: "Titanic of the Great Lakes" . This tribute was made in honor of the 29 men who lost their lives on that fateful night.

Carson released the first installment of Forgotten Engines last night, written by Mike (The Buried Truck) - the first in a series that has been in production for 5 years. I was invited to join the Video Workshop in 2021 directly because of this project, and I ended up writing the following 6 stories of the arc as Mike was busy - with help from him, Carson, Luke Ryan and Dan (TardisRescue). I am so honoured to be involved in the project, and so happy to be able to talk about it publicly (no spoilers though!)

Please check Patchwork out, and keep an eye out for the rest of the stories when they're finished :)