Western Railroad Discussion > on the road again . .

. . . day two up in the Iron Range had me concerned as the local weather man quoted four days of seventy percent chance of precipitation in a row. This day would prove to be sunny and cloud free. Right off the bat on arrival Munger a southbound CN train on the ex DWP started over the bridge across both the Hwy and the ex DMIR. Missing the first train of the day had me wondering. The atcs showed a southbound coming out of Alborn which I ASSumed was a slow ore load so I took my time looking for a spot only to see it flying under the Hwy 37 underpass west of Coons. I had to go to the next exit, make a U turn then go to warp speed to catch up barely getting ahead it at East Coons (top). Turned out to be a short empty jennie train? Right behind was a southbound manifest caught at Munger (middle). Fortunately for me I decided to head for the north end of the old DMIR around Iron Junction and Virginia after these two, only three trains used this line all day until my last catch near sunset, including the first two shots. First catch in the Iron Junction area was this southbound CN powered 170 car manifest approaching Keenan Junction (bottom) . . . NINE more to come . . .



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/17 19:39 by 3rdswitch.

---

---

---

. . . chased the above train south to Forbes catching him once more (top) where I counted the cars, strange no DP? Later a loaded taconite train out of Minn Tac was headed toward Two Harbors passing an old search lite signal that once guarded the old siding of Spruce (middle and bottom) . . . SIX more to come . . .



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/17 18:39 by 3rdswitch.

---

---

---

. . . headed over the check out Keenan yard and just after arriving the yard job headed out the branch that goes west from the yard (top). Seeing a couple of trains lined out of Virginia on the ex DWP caught the first monster stack train west of Iron Junction about to cross Hwy 37 (middle) then later another very long stack train was approaching the crossing of the Two Harbors main at Ramshaw (bottom) . . . only THREE more to come . . .



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/17 18:43 by 3rdswitch.

---

---

---

. . . another pleasant surprise near the end of the day as a 145 car loaded taconite train for Two Harbors was approaching Iron Junction led by a nice DMIR unit (top). Once again, didn't know there were ANY left? Seeing little happening on the north end and signs a northbound was coming out of Proctor started the long drive back to the motel in Duluth. Following the northbounds progress CAREFULLY this time waited near the town of Burnett for this very long train of empty ore jennies heading into the sunset (middle and bottom) bringing an end to a great day in the range. Love the little jennies.
JB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/17 18:49 by 3rdswitch.

---

---

---

Great area fantastic photographs. Thanks for sharing.

PWM

Good stuff!

Thanks for the photos JB. Great stuff. Looks like you're having a productive trip.

Kim Heusel

Fantastic photos. Certainly nice to see the ore jennies since those are not common to our area. Great varieties of power during the day.
Brian Stevens

Thumbs up Joe!

Another Fantastic series JB! Love all the standard cabs, especially the DM&IR and the ex-KCS!

Great photos! And a great mix of RR traffic. The CN owns the entire DM&IR, right? Looks like it. So has the CN increased the diversity of RR traffic. I was in the area once some 30+ years ago and recall mostly ore trains. Are those the same ore jennies they have used for years?
Thanks for sharing, Steve Rippeteau

Great Series of Photos!

SouthWest RailCams
CA, NM, CO, TX, AZ
https://SouthWestRailCams.com

Great photos JB.

Ronda Thomas

Thank you for the ore train coverage. Some real nice photos.
John

GREAT stuff..!! Thanks for posting.