Loading crude ore at United Taconite.
A frost covered afternoon with a train ready to shove back under the coarse crusher to load crude ore at United Taconite's Thunderbird mine.
As the other T-Bird waits in the distance, the engineer starts ramping up speed as they pull away from Largo with crude ore from United Taconite.
A pair of Canadian National Dash 8's are on the point of T-Bird ore shuttle U731 as it departs from the Thunderbird Mine in Eveleth, Minnesota. Raw iron ore from the mine is loaded on to these shu... (more)
Nice and clean CN business/executive train heading down the Rainy sub. for points south on a summer afternoon.
With signals to head south, CN 3306 pulls out of Largo with 94 cars of crude ore crossing over the Shelton Jct. diamond on the Missabe Sub while the other T-Bird waits for them to clear before pul... (more)
Leaving Proctor, MN and a stop at Keenan yard complete, DMIR 400, DMIR 409 and DMIR 405 take the connecting track off the Missabe sub and lean into the curve onto the Rainy sub here at Shelton Jct... (more)
The R901 job is tasked with spotting cars on a section of track that is still vintage Missabe complete with DM&IR date nails from the 40's, 50, and 60's evident in the ties along with jointed rail... (more)
After leaving Ranier, MN a few hours earlier, CN 3309 leads the company's business/executive cars south along the Rainy Sub down to Pokegama yard where they will tie up for the evening.
On this Star Wars Day, a flashback to February when a Deathstar was leading a T-Bird seen finished up loading at the United Taconite coarse crusher and getting ready to depart for the plant.
DMIR 406 heads up one of the two sets of T-Birds which are both at the north end with the 406 currently loading while a GE set waits their turn.
A trio of IC's load taconite bearing rock at the United Taconite coarse crusher.
A T-Bird comes off the CN Rainy Sub at the T-Bird north switch and enters the loop track of United Taconite's coarse crusher.
A trio of EMDs are leaving the coarse crusher with 94 loads and are about to take the light departing Largo and begin the trip to the plant.
When one of the big GEs go down for maintenance, a call to the bullpen is made and in comes a couple veteran IC SD40-3s to temporarily fill in and move ore.
