Western Railroad Discussion > April's CN Iron Range Trip Day 2 - Cold + Wet = SNOW

Click here for day 1

Sorry for the delay in posting day 1 to day 2, July got busy quickly, and quite frankly, I completely forgot about it! Anywho, on to day 2!

We awoke in the hotel on April 27th to a cold day, as looking at the current weather for Eveleth (where we were staying), it was 39 degrees with a rain/snow mix! After getting breakfast, we made our way in what was now a light rain to Iron Junction to sit and let whatever action happen. Not long after our arrival, we heard the northbound empty T-Bird coming, so we got that first.

Photo 1:
CN 2131 and CN 2112 lead the T-Bird back to the Thunderbird Mine at Largo for another load of raw ore, seen here at the closed crossing in town.
CN 2131 is the ex-UP 9096, and was built as CNW 8548, while CN 2112 is ex-UP 9077, originally CNW 8565.

After that went by we waited a little longer at Iron Junction before hearing DMIR 409 south on the radio. Not knowing what it was or where it was, we decided to head to Wolf where we could see all sets of signals, however we didn't make it that far. Upon arrival at the Kane Road/Highway 7 interchange, there the train was!

Photo 2:
DMIR 409 leads BLE 904 and BLE 900 head through the Kane Road/Highway 7 interchange on their way south to Proctor and Duluth with a limestone empty from Minorca mine.

Photo 3:
DMIR 409 passes IC 2699 south, which is still tied down without a crew from the previous day. Here we were only in a light sprinkle.

That will change, though. Soon.
~wko

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Photo 4:
DMIR 409 south passes the location of Zim, starting to parallel the Sax-Zim Bog. The smoke you can see on the right is the exhaust from United Taconite, where the trains for Proctor load and where the T-Birds empty.

We were going to continue south the the 53-car limestone empty for awhile, as it was 3 tunnel motors and the further south it went, the better the weather was. However, while the train was going by, we heard DMIR 408 north clear a warrant at Allen Junction on the line from Two Harbors. Knowing we had that and potentially a taconite load going that way, we decided to abandon the limestone for another train led by tunnel motors.

Not long after we started over that way, we heard the dispatcher tell them they were going to meet a load on the running track between CN Jones and CN Sparta, so we decided on the Highway bridge near the town of Gilbert. Shortly after going through Eveleth, our light rain turned to snow. Heavy snow. Heavy, wet snow. And not long after we arrived there, so did DMIR 408.

Photo 5:
DMIR 408, DMIR 402, IC 6253, and BLE 903 lead 145 empty taconite cars for Minntac. This is the same consist, but turned around, from the day before.

After getting that there, we figured the taconite load would be fairly close by, so we went a little further east to the road to McKinley. At this point, it was snowing so hard, my dad's Accord was spinning out on the flat, paved road! While waiting, I threw on my snowboots, and not much longer we saw a headlight we didn't quite expect.

Photo 6:
CN 9671 and IC 9622 blast by MP 63 with 3 cars on their way to Aurora, MN, or some work.

Not much longer after this, we heard CN 2010 having problems near Wolf on the radio. Back west we go!
~wko

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We got back to Nomi Junction/Wolf in time to see 3 crew members, the conductor and 2 maintanence guys messing with the 2nd-to-last car of a taconite load. Continuing south a little bit, we would see that the power was CN 2010, CN 2013, and CN 2039, our first taconite train of all GEs in this area.

It turns out this train had a kicker right at the rear of the train, and that was dumping the air on them. We went and waited at the diamond at Ramshaw, as that was the only place that wasn't blocked where we could see something. After we got some very timely info, from someone we found out we were going to see later in the day, we heard CN 2010 was on the move.

Photo 7:
CN 2010 passes a searchlight signal on the approach to the old T-Bird south near Spruce. We found the crew member hanging out the window fun in the heavy snow!

Photo 8:
CN 2010 pulls forward to a stop at Allen Junction.

We heard them say they were going to swap crews here, as these guys were approaching their 12 hours. In fact, they hit that while waiting here, and we chatted for a little bit while waiting for the new crew to arrive. Once they did, the train left, and we went on with the train. We got the train at Fairbanks, which was the subject of this thread here.

Photo 9:
The train now climbs the hill out of Brimson and closes in on Wales. Once they top this hill, they will kick the straight air on for the almost 19 miles of steep downhill into Two Harbors. Until that kicker gets them, that is.

However, we're staying near Wales.
~wko

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Not long after getting the load at Wales, we heard a meet taking place at Highland (that's where their track warrant was to), so we waited at Wales.

Photo 10:
IC 6264, BLE 909, IC 6251, and DMIR 406 blast north past the North Wales station sign. This is what we were up here for!

Shortly behind that was the Misc Road Freight (MRF) with our info source as the engineer, so that was cool! And at this point, the snow has stopped, so now everything is just wet.

Photo 11:
BLE 907 pulls up to a stop at the CN Wales sign so they could throw the switch and head to the small yard at Wales, and eventually up the Wales branch to interchange with the Northshore Mining RR.

Photo 12:
Hauling 2 cars at every bit of 10 mph, BLE 907 and BLE 901 head north on the Wales branch to interchange these 2 cars with NSM. There's only 3 crossings on the entire branch, 1 of which was a sloppy, muddy mess that my dad's 2WD, low clearance Accord wouldn't have made it through, this highway crossing, and another crossing at the very end of track. So I guess we're staying here!

What goes up must come down.
~wko

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We decided to go back to Wales and wait for 20-25 minutes in case DMIR 408 was on the way back, but we were a little early for it, as it showed up there near the time we were getting the MRF coming back south.

Photo 13:
This is a screengrab of my video, as when we saw them coming back from their interchange, it was raining really hard, and I was unable to get a photo, as that was the hand that was holding the umbrella (gotta protect the video camera!).

Photo 14:
BLE 901 is leading now, and our engineer has dimmed the headlight as they were coming to a stop at the crossing. He got down and we chatted for awhile, as "there's a mess ahead, so we're not in a hurry." Remember that kicker on CN 2010? It had nailed the relief crew 3 times between Wales and Two Harbors! After probably 20 minutes, the conductor finished talking to the dispatcher, our engineer hopped back up, and we all headed back towards Wales.

Photo 15:
After leaving all cars possible at the yard at Wales for the next day's run, BLE 901 and 907 are now ready to head back to Two Harbors to tie up for the night. While the conductor is off to throw the switches, the power sits nicely next to an old DMIR building in the middle of the wye at Wales.

After they impressively took off down the hill, we headed back to the hotel for the night, as it was late enough we weren't going to get back with light in the sky. Despite the weather, it was a great day, which included meeting some good people in a great area, one that we plan on returning to soon!

Day 3 will be posted in the coming days, and will not be a month from now like this one was. Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed!
~wko

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Very cool report! Still a unique operation even in it's current CN form.  I for one am still a big fan of the Iron Range!

Nice pics!!

Great series and story, very enjoyable.

SuperChiefDon