Duluth, Superior, the Arrowhead, the Range

Missabe Railroad's Duluth Docks. Now Kaye E. Barker. (Thanks, NIN) I love Duluth. Camera: Minolta Freedom 100

A bunch of DMIR SD-9s and similar locomotives, all lined up at Proctor Yard (above Duluth) on an August day in 1990. Camera: Throwaway Kodak panoramic

S/S William Clay Ford--once Walter A. Sterling, now Lee A. Tregurtha--passes under the Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge on a grey August day in 1988. We were in Duluth to attend the annual convention of the Missabe Railroad Historical Society. The Ford had been loading at the DMIR docks earlier in the day--I have more photos--and we made a point of being at the Duluth Ship Canal when she left for points south. Notable: This is the second ship to bear William Clay Ford's name and is not the ship whose pilot house overlooks the Detroit River at the Dossin Museum on Belle Isle. Camera: Minolta Freedom 100

The Duluth docks of the Duluth, Missabe, & Iron Range Railroad. Dock #5 is on the right, and Dock #6 is on the left. I no longer recall what the ship was, though American Mariner or H. Lee White would be good guesses--as would a couple of their fleetmates. Each dock is extends about a half mile into the harbor. Dock 5 is your classic, gravity-driven iron ore dock, while Dock 6 has been converted into a massive, modern, conveyor-driven shiploader. The shiploader permits the dock to service the 1000-foot ships which now dominate the trade. (I commented on this , from another perspective, a few days back.) This photo was taken in 1990 from the viewing platform on the DMIR property. The camera was a throwaway panoramic point-n-shoot. (Since the date on this photo is certainly correct, my recent Soo & Marquette photos are dated incorrectly. I need to figure that out.)

Missabe Railroad's tug, Edna G, docked in retirement next to the ore dock she long helped service at Two Harbors, Minnesota. The Two Harbors Lighthouse is barely visible out near the end of the spit of land. Posted for Bulldog1 . Hi, Suzy! Taken in 1990 with my Minolta Freedom 100. Further proof that it's possible to take fine photographs with inexpensive cameras. This photo used to be on another site. New, far better, scan posted May 20, 2006.

Interlake 's thousand foot laker James R. Barker takes on a pelletized iron ore load at Taconite Harbor , Minnesota, August of 1996. The big structure's LTV's ore dock. The railroad runs in a big loop atop the trestle . The smokestacks behind Barker are atop a power plant. This photo reminds me that I haven't been in Minnesota since that vacation. Need to do something about that. Camera: Chinon Genesis III. Scanned from a grainy slide, which explains the peculiar sky.

Two Harbors, Minnesota; August 1990. Camera: Minolta Freedom 100

Duluth, Missabe, & Iron Range Railroad's yard at Two Harbors, Minnesota; early August, 1990. Better LARGE. Camera: Minolta Freedom 100

Duluth, Missabe, & Iron Range Railroad; Two Harbors, Minnesota, August, 1990.

The office building for the Duluth, Missabe, and Iron Range Railroad at Two Harbors, Minnesota. The Two Harbors ore docks are running off to the left.... Camera: Minolta Freedom 100

Best LARGE! DMIR 307, ready to push around a string of ore jennies at Two Harbors yard in August of 1990. She attracted a bunch of folks with cameras; I see seven, not counting m'self and anyone else who was up on the hill with me. Camera: Minolta Freedom 100

Missabe Railroad locomotives 215 and 312 at Two Harbors yard, August, 1990. Taken during the Missabe Railroad Historical Society convention that summer.

That's what Missabe did. Folks call the dirt "ore," but it's dirt all the same. Still what they haul, actually, but now they're a division of CN. Locomotive 312 , again; up close and personal. Shot with m' Freedom 100; 1990 at Two Harbors, Minnesota.

Duluth, Missabe, and Iron Range locomotive 215, an EMD SD-38-2 acquired from sister road Bessemer and Lake Erie in 1980. Apparently this locomotive ran around in the Bessemer's orange paint scheme for quite a while, since it was nicknamed "The Pumpkin." By 1990, when this photo was taken, it was in Missabe's standard livery. I just love that paint job. It takes a hefty locomotive to control a train of iron ore moving down the hill to Duluth or Two Harbors, so the DMIR employed EMD SDs. The details changed over time, though the SD-9s and SD-18s lasted pretty much forever. The six-wheel power trucks were an important part of the road's identity, back before they became common on modern motive power. That's our friend 312 on the left.

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

The North Shore Scenic Railroad's RDC (Rail Diesel Car, built by Budd) arrives at Two Harbors, Minnesota, in August of 1990. This was the road's first summer running its tourist operation between the Depot Museums in Duluth (Lake Superior Railroad Museum) and Two Harbors (Depot Museum of the Lake County Historical Society). The Lakefront Line was saved from potential abandonment in 1989 when the Lake Counties Transit Authority purchased it from the DMIR. The Two Harbors Depot is to the right, of course. The locomotive under the nearby shed is the "Three Spot," the first locomotive purchased by the Missabe Road's ancestor lines. The other shed protects DMIR 221, a Yellowstone (that's the model designation) or a Mallet (that describes its drive system; pronounced "Mallee.") All Mallet locomotives were huge; the Yellowstones were, by some measures, the largest ever made. (Personally, I'd go with the UP Big Boys. C&O's Alleghenys seem also to have a reasonable claim.) The Two Harbors docks are (barely) visible on the left of the picture.

This photo was doubtless intended to be of that crane. It really didn't turn out too well, even after I cropped out a couple distractions. But it gives some sense of the scale of the yard, and that set of railfans facing every-which-way illustrates something about the outing. Our day at Two Harbors yard was an activity of the Missabe Railroad Historical Society . There were about fifty of us, and I got some terrific photographs. Railfans all carry cameras, and we're all accustomed to sharing photographic opportunities. As a group, we're far more aware of other photographers than your average tourist, and make conscious efforts to stay out of other shooters' lines of fire. With such a large group in a relatively small area, that makes for an interesting dynamic.... August, 1990; Minolta Freedom 100.

DMIR SD-Ms 314 & 312, & SD-38AC 215, and a bunch of their siblings, all ready to work at Two Harbors Yard, in Minnesota's Arrowhead. 1990; taken with my Minolta Freedom 100. I was planning to model 314, and took several detail photos of her. We'll look at those next. Perhaps I'll build that model yet.