Using only the light available at 2300, here is a T-Bird raw taconite rock train after loading under the coarse crusher at United Taconite. The CN 2112 and 2111 are loaded out and ready to depart... (more)

These signals came online in 1976 with the expansion of mining at the Thunderbird South pit of what was then called Eveleth Mines (now United taconite). The signals went dark when the pit ceased ... (more)

DM&IR 403 leads the 145 empties northbound through Fayal on the way to the Minorca mine for loading.

The new ore cars CN has been ordering to replace their aging fleet of former DM&IR ore cars sure do glow in the low winter sun on the shortest day of the year as the haul more steaming taconite pe... (more)

The last raw ore train to load at Evtac's Thunderbird North mine before the operation closed. Fortunately it would reopen at the end of 2003 under new ownership and continues to be a big shipper f... (more)

CN 6024, IC 6264 and IC 6256 roll south from the Minorca mine with 140 loads of steaming taconite pellets on a sunny but cold winter day. They are aiming for Two Harbors, MN but this crew will fa... (more)

You can see the curvature of the earth from up here. A short T-Bird train comes into the United Taconite coarse crusher for loading. CN and the mine were doing a test to see whether three shorter ... (more)

The engineer on board IC 6251 handles the controls while the conductor sits in his little shack keeping tabs on the action and looking for problems trackside as the mine employees working the crus... (more)

So who can tell me whats missing?

The power for an afternoon T-Bird has just ran around it's empties after arriving from Fairlane. They'll now pull them down to Largo before shoving into the Thunderbird Mine for loading.

An empty crude ore train prepares to shove into the Thunderbird Mine for loading.

A pair of CN C40-8s assigned to the former Missabe haul a loaded train of crude ore towards Fairlane for processing.

After a long winter of rock build-up that falls off the ore cars when loading and transporting the stuff lands between the rails and CN calls in the Loram RailVac to take care of the situation and... (more)

Stacks all the way back. CN 2525 leads a colorful array of containers south through the woods of northern Minnesota and down the CN Rainy Subdivision.

These are quickly growing on me as some of my favorite units. They sound, look, and pull great!