Western Railroad Discussion > Two Harbors, Duluth and Twin Cities spots for a Monday

I'm driving back from fishing in the boundary waters tomorrow morning (Monday the 5th). I'll be heading down the shore of Lake Superior, through twin harbors, Duluth, and then down to the twin cities before flying back. I'll have an extra hour or two on the way. Anyone have recommendations for the occasional trackside scenic route or spots to grab lunch by the tracks?

If you only have a few hours, check out the pusher ops in West Duluth on the CN main between Chicago and Winnipeg.  There is a good place to park on 123rd Ave West off of Becks Road (blue circle on map) where you can walk out onto the pedestrian bridge (circled in red) on the Munger State Trail.  If you have time, are more adventurous, you can hike up to the abandoned DWP tunnel (circled in yellow) at "Short Line Park".  

Just a few miles down the hill is the dual level (trains above, highway below) bridge over the Saint Louis river at Oliver- which is fairly unique.

You can spend days railfanning Duluth/Superior. Good luck!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/23 17:21 by mpe383.

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Duluth isnt Berea, or Santa Fe Jct, LOL.

Im not one to get too excoted about museums, but the Lake superior Railroad museum in downtown Duluth has quite a bit of cool operating equipment, including a GN NW-5 and a DMIR SD-M (upgraded SD-18), both if which are fairly rare pieces to see in operatring condition, Also al lot of cool passenger equipment and a few steam engines, and i thonk they have operting SOO F-units  Every time ive been there, there's been one of the units switching around their yard.

If your not into that sort of thing, I'd head up the road going toward Proctor . The road kind of parallels the DMIR (now CN) line from the ore loaders up toward proctor.  Its an amazing piece of heavy grade trackage.   If you;re there for an hour, chances are u wont see anything moving, but u could get lucky.
 

Thanks for the recommendations. Any idea what time north shore operates as well? I'm also going through silver bay.

zorz Wrote:
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> Thanks for the recommendations. Any idea what time
> north shore operates as well? I'm also going
> through silver bay.

Pick a day..
https://www.dynamicticketsolutions.com/nssr/index-responsive.cfm

Looks like 2 trains a day  on weekdays and lots of trains on weekends.

Moght be a good spot for lunch and some trains. 

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,5672237

pdt Wrote:
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> zorz Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Thanks for the recommendations. Any idea what
> time
> > north shore operates as well? I'm also going
> > through silver bay.
>
> Pick a day..
> https://www.dynamicticketsolutions.com/nssr/index-
> responsive.cfm
>
> Looks like 2 trains a day  on weekdays and lots
> of trains on weekends.

I saw the north shore scenic running with the Soo GP30 on my way up. I was actually referring to north shore mining, but I'll probably pass because the line doesn't seem very accessible next to the highway.

I ended up catching the CN pusher ops along Becks road. I caught two trains: a grainer and a manifest, with the pushers drifting downgrade to Gary between.

Very interesting to see such a fast turnaround on a manner helped district. The first uphill train had the helpers cut off in 10 minutes after reaching the top, before heading back down and assisting the manifest next. The 3 C44-9W’s sounded fantastic roaring upgrade.

I’ll post the videos later.

Posted from iPhone

Great!  Wish I could have been there!  Looking forward to your videos!

mpe383 Wrote:
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> Great!  Wish I could have been there!  Looking
> forward to your videos!

It's not much, but here you go! I do have to say that the CN -9's sounded pretty damn good roaring upgrade...

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