Western Railroad Discussion > Last Fall's Missabe Trip

Last fall/autum, my dad and I took a trip up to northern Minnesota for a few days of railfanning the CN along the former DM&IR. The trip turned out to be a huge success, seeing almost everything we wanted to see, the one exception being DMIR 403, the last maroon tunnel motor, had just gone into the shop and didn't run the whole time we were there. That said, it was still great!

Day 1 we arrived to Proctor yard in the morning, chased a taconite load down the hill with a SD40u and a SD40-2W to the docks in Duluth, then went back up to Proctor where a limestone empty had arrived with a SD40-2W and BLE 902 (CN paint).

Photo 1:
While we were waiting to get that, we saw DMIR 215 pulling a long cut of cars out of the yard, so we scurried to the bridge at the north/west end of the yard for some shots.

While we were there, IC 6251, IC 6252, and DMIR 409 (CN paint) came out and coupled onto some ore empties, ready to head north, so we followed them!

Photo 2:
After 6 shots of the train, we finally get the train arrived into Fairlane and the United Taconite plant near Forbes, MN. This was only the 2nd shot we had gotten of the train in the sun, as the clouds were hanging out to the south near Lake Superior.

Once that cleared, we got a couple manifests, then while checking out Wolf Junction, we heard a southbound leaving Minntac bound for Two Harbors, so off we went with that! It was 145 cars led by IC 6253 (CN paint), DMIR 402 (CN paint), BLE 909, and BLE 906. We got that train 4 times before running into the Miscellaneous Road Freight (MRF) working at Wales.

Photo 3:
BLE 907 and BLE 901 have been the staple on this train for many months now, so we decided to head back west into the afternoon light with the two tunnel motors leading. The train was about 15 cars, and they were bringing a SD40u and IC 6256 (CN paint) towards the shops at Proctor. Here the train is seen heading out onto the main after the taconite load has passed.

We got the MRF 4 times before the sun finally went down. We waited after sunset for a meet at Sparta siding between a load with 3 SD40-2W's and an empty with IC 6263 (CN paint), BLE 903 (CN paint), a SD40u, and BLE 900 (CN paint), but we just enjoyed that with our eyes and ears, no light for pix or video.

Let's get busy!
~wko

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We awoke day 2 to a little problem: one of our tires was flat as a pancake! Luckily, we were only a mile or so from the only tire shop in Virginia, MN, that was open at 7 and not 8, so we headed there for a quick fix (it was a screw) While waiting at Pomp's Tire, we heard a taconite load was getting close to leaving Minntac, so we knew we had something to chase south fairly soon. However, while we were waiting for that, we heard BLE 902 south on the radio say they were ready to head south towards Proctor. We decided it was worth it to go south and get a couple shots before turning back north to intercept the taconite load, which had now departed for Two Harbors.

Photo 4:
BLE 902 and CN 5317 head south near Sax with 59 empty limestone cars to be re-filled in Duluth.

After that shot we headed back north, and went under the power of the load at HWY 53. We caught up to it near Biwabik, and got it 3 times before turning around to chase the empty it met at Brimson. The load had CN SD40u 6024, DMIR 408 (CN paint), DMIR 407 (CN paint), and BLE 904, while the empty was BLE 900, CN 6013, BLE 903, and IC 6263, all in CN paint.

After getting the empty 4 times, we headed south because we heard the MRF leaving Keenan yard for Proctor. The MRF on this side of the RR was running with CN 2670 and IC 1015. They had 2 locomotives that came in from International Falls and the 2 CN EMDs from the evening before. They were having problems, so we went to Fairlane and UTAC to see what was going on there.

Photo 5:
CN 6006 leads CN 5244 and CN 6021 out of United Taconite (UTAC) with 136 loads, while CN 2111 waits for all this action to ease before it can go north to Largo and the Thunderbird mine for another load of raw material.

Once the MRF got their problems cleared, 6006 departed to head south, and once 6006 departed to head south, 2111 departed to head north. At this same time, we heard the loaded T-Bird train was ready to depart Largo, so we went to a spot in between at Iron Junction. The 2 trains (empty and load) passed us within a couple minutes of each other.

After that we went to Wolf Junction to wait, where the next ore empty went north for Minntac, with our IC 6253-tunnel motor-BLE-BLE consist from the afternoon before. Not long after they passed heading north, BLE 900 south departed Minntac.

Photo 6:
After getting the train at Wolf, we got it here at Sparta, passing the searchlight signals that are seeing their finals days. I currently don't know the status of this switch-over.

We would get the train one more time near sunset before heading back to our hotel in Virginia, MN. We pulled off for a couple sunset pictures in Biwabik, and one of the locals said it was one of the best sunsets she'd seen in several years, so that was cool.

The next day? Holy business, Batman!
~wko

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Day 3 saw us in nearly the exact same situation as day 2, waking up at the hotel, hearing the T-Bird ready to depart the mine, and a taconite empty heading north, about 45 minutes out. We set out for Iron Junction to try to get another almost-meet of the T-Bird empty and load, but we got to the tracks as the empty was going by. So, we got the load there and again pulling into UTAC at Fairlane. We then went back to Wolf for our IC 6253 consist, only this time, the BLE's were leading! BLE 906, BLE 909, DMIR 402 (CN paint) and IC 6253 (CN paint), the consist we saw the most.

Photo 7:
After they went by, we heard some chatter on the radio near Keenan, so we went down there for the MRF departing Keenan yard to head south for Proctor. Today, IC 1015 was leading the train. Unfortunately, the light was worse the further north you went.

So, we chased the train south, got it 3 times before it had to go into the siding to meet 2. The 1st was the daily stack train that runs north on the line, and the 2nd was a limestone load with CN 5317 and BLE 902 (CN paint). We chased that back north, where the clouds had nicely cleared out. We then encountered a traffic jam between the junction at Largo and Iron Junction, as the intermodal train was waiting for a southbound to pass on the DWP, the freight that runs from Keenan to International falls was behind that, then the limestone train for Minnorca mine was behind both of them, plus there was rumblings of the T-Birds both ready to leave their respective places! The stack train (shot at Kelsey, MN) had CN 3094 and another tier-4 gevo, and the Keenan to I-Falls train had CN 2621 and a gevo leading.

We couldn't get the stack train again due to where they were sitting, so we set up at the intersection of HWY 7 and Kane Road and let the parade roll. The Keenan to I-Falls passed, then the limestone loads, then the empty T-Bird. Shortly after the T-Bird empty went by, we thought we heard EMD heavily working from a distance, so we ran over to the shoulder and watched a taconite empty roar over Kane Road from 1/2 mile away. It was our IC 6263 consist with the 2 re-painted tunnel motors and the SD40u.

Photo 8:
To finish off the madness, the dispatcher finally let the loaded T-Bird train depart Largo for Fairlane. Here, the train is about to cross through the intersection of Highway 7 and Kane Road. We would get this train one more time before hearing our taconite train from the morning was ready to depart.

After that we headed back up to Wolf, where we heard IC 6253 talking to customer service on the radio, giving their arrival time, their loading times, the time they took to swap out the power, and their departure time. Wait, what? Well, it turns out BLE 906 was having issues, and therefore was unfit to lead, so they turned the power on the balloon track! ARGH! So, we wound up with almost an identical chase in terms of light and power as day 1.

After getting the train at Wales, we headed back north, as the next train to Two Harbors with IC 6263 (CN paint), had departed and was making its way towards us. We got it at Allen Junction, Fairbanks, then finally, Photo 9, near sunset at Wales. We had a nice sunset to drive back to the hotel with, albeit a little unnerving due to the amount of deer we saw...and nearly hit.

We're getting ready to wrap it up, one more morning!
~wko

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Day 4 found ourselves in a situation we had dealt with before...a northbound taconite empty was approaching our location! Haha. For those wanting to make a trip to this region, read this: due to the mines' schedules, the trains run fairly on-schedule. This particular morning the consist was the BLE 900 (CN paint) leading the SD40u, BLE 903 (CN paint), and IC 6263 (CN paint), that we had seen the two previous days.

After they arrived at the mine, we went to Iron Junction to sit for awhile, but didn't have to wait long, as we then heard CN 2027 ready to depart Minntac to head back to Proctor. It was 63 cars worth of an empty limestone train.

Photo 10:
CN 2027, CN 2104, and CN 2038 head south through Iron Junction. The line off to the right is the line leaving for Two Harbors.

We went with this train all the way to Kelsey, where they were going into the siding to tie the train up, as the crew was hitting their hours. We got them 4 times in that span. After that was done, we went back north to figure something out, where we went to the gas station at HWY 7 and HWY 37 to use the facilities and grab a couple things. While my dad was in there (I guess there was a huge line and a family having problems, as it had been almost 20 minutes), I heard a horn, so I made the .3 mile trek over to the bridge and shot the daily stack train going north. When I turned around and headed back to the gas station, I could see my dad in the parking lot.

After I did what I needed to, we headed back to Wolf Junction, where we could hear BLE 900 talking on the radio ready to head back to Two Harbors, as well as CN 5349 north approaching Iron Junction.

Photo 11:
BLE 900 heads south through the new signals at Wolf. This is where the line goes to double track, which runs all the way south to Fairlane, and all of these signals were DMIR searchlights up until about last April.

Photo 12:
Only a couple minutes after the rear of BLE 900 south disappeared, CN 5349 leads a quartet of SD40-2W's and 145 empties north towards Minntac for loading. I guess this consist was pretty rare, as there were local people chasing it over the trains with the tunnel motors and standard SD40-2's.

With that, we were hitting the time we needed to be leaving to make our way towards St. Cloud and my grandpa's house for another nice visit. We would see another northbound stack train near Kelsey, and the limestone empties still crewless there, but that would be it.

Tomorrow (well, I guess today at this point!) we will be leaving for another few days on the Missabe, then this weekend we will be celebrating my grandpa's 90th birthday, as well as the other 3 April birthdays in the family (mine's in August if any of you wanna send a card)! It should be another great time!

If while reading you saw a consist or a location that you want to see a picture or two of, feel free to ask, I've got them all ready to go just in case! Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed!
~wko

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Awesome!

Really nice stuff. Looks like you had fairly good weather. Mix of sun and the classic northern Minnesota steel gray skies.

Nice shots Kirk! And interesting travelogue!

David Lehlbach

Great posting. CN has a fun selection of power in service.

Great shots and trip!

What a mix of power! I'll need to make my way up there soon. Great pictures and thanks for sharing.

PQM

Excellent series and pixel, beautiful!! Thanks for taking us along for your ride on the Taconite Trail!!!

PWM

fantastick bilder ... flott arbeid!

YY

Outstanding photos. I enjoyed viewing your trip.
John

GREAT trip!
JB

Posted from Android

Thanks for the kind words so far, everyone! T-minus 2 hours until we leave to do it all again!

MP90 Wrote:
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> Really nice stuff. Looks like you had fairly good
> weather. Mix of sun and the classic northern
> Minnesota steel gray skies.

Haha, every day we were up there either started gray and ended sunny, or started sunny and ended gray! It was a fairly good mix, but it all turned out great.
~wko

Great trip! Thanks for sharing!

NICE shots!! Thanks for posting.

Really great pics! Love the motive power variety in that region.

Great locations and photos. Good luck and have fun up there! === === = === JLH