Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: two harbors

The Missabe (now CN) Two Harbors ore docks, from across the harbor. With a gull. I wasn't happy with this photio, so I made it look old.

Dock One, on the right, is a pure gravity dock, where trains drop the ore (Taconite pellets, nowadays) into big containers (pockets) and the ships are loaded by opening chutes and letting gravity pull the ore into the boat. Dock Two is a gravity dock on the near side, but a conveyor-driven shiploader on the far side. The thousand foot ships necessarily load at the shiploader, as the gravity docks aren't able to properly balance the loads on the wider vessels. Taken from the lighthouse parking lot. ====================== Although this photograph's fairly sharp, it's unexpectedly grainy, perhaps because of the weather. Looks kinda like I scanned a postcard....

Except for the big boats which come calling at the Missabe docks, Two Harbors, Minnesota, would just be a pretty little town nestled against Agate Bay. The light flashed just as I released the shutter....

One last Two Harbors photograph, for now. I have many more from this visit, and will post them at a later date. This is the usual view of the harbor at Two Harbors, Minnesota. The Duluth, Missabe, and Iron Range docks dominate the view. Camera: Minolta Freedom 100. 1990.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

312 was originally DMIR 181, an SD-18 built by GM's Electromotive Division in 1960; she was rebuilt in 1989 into what the Missabe Road called an SD-M and renumbered at that time. The most obvious mark of an SD-M conversion was the low nose; all SD-9s & SD-18s arrived online as high nose locomotives. The other identifiable locomotives in this photo are 314--a similar backstory, and you'll see more of her--and 203, an SD38AC. The 312 was scrapped in 2002. Yeah, I know this set of notes jargon-infested. It's that railfan thing . --------------------- I plan to show a couple more photos of this loco before we do some more exploring around Two Harbors Yard.... Shot with my Minolta Freedom 100 in 1990; outing with the Missabe Railroad Historical Society.

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

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

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

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.