Mini-Quads

Two Harbors, Minnesota; August 1990.

Another broad view of the Missabe Road's Two Harbors yard. DMIR's ore jennies were (are?--most likely) lashed together in sets of four (called "mini-quads"), which makes it easier to manage them operationally; effectively, what looks like a four-car set is actually one car with sixteen trucks (& four hoppers for carrying ore). Yellow stripes make the divisions obvious.

That pile of "dirt" is actually a pile of taconite pellets. The railroad likes to have a stockpile on hand at all times; one reason is that winter's weather makes the railroading and mining difficult long before the shippers quit running ore carriers on the Lakes. Odd, but true; not so true that either completely stops, though.

In the distance, the ore docks (One, Two, and the remains of Six) extend far into Lake Superior.

Camera: Minolta Freedom 100