After waiting for a pellet train to depart and now having favorable signals themselves, IC 6252 with 118 X 2 departs the Fairlane plant and heads back to the mine at Thunderbird north to load more... (more)

DMIR 404, BLE 904 and CN 2119 pass under northeastern Minnesota's version of the famous barn shot at Two Medicine Bridge at East Glacier, Montana.

Departing the mine, headed to the plant. With a little dust off the top of the freshly mined and course crushed rock.

Always nice to see trains being led by DMIR engines pulling DMIR ore cars on the Missabe Sub in NE Minnesota. Never mind the CN paint or the trailing Dash 8, that SD40-3 still sounded good as it ... (more)

A trio of EMD tunnel motors ( DMIR 408, BLE 903, DMIR 400) round the curve at Iron Jct. and split the signals heading south on the Missabe Sub with taconite rock from the mine for the plant.

Snow is tapering off on the tail end of another snow event across NE Minnesota as the T-Bird trains from the mine to the plant and the plant to the mine continue their mission. Here are two EMD's... (more)

IC 6260 rolls thru the S-curve at M.P. 65 on the CN Missabe sub as they travel south with rock from the mine heading to the United Taconite plant.

An empty T-Bird makes its way back north to the mine to reload after leaving the plant and meeting it's loaded counterpart along the CN Missabe Sub.

Shooting a Bird on Thanksgiving. A T-Bird runs south with 14,500 tons of taconite rock for the plant on Thanksgiving morning.

A southbound T-Bird train crosses over the fast flowing St. Louis river as they near the Fairlane plant with taconite rock. The detector indicated 25 degrees which explains the ice beginning to fo... (more)

A southbound T-Bird train prepares to cross Highway 7 arriving Fairlane with 118 loads of taconite rock for the plant to process.

Veteran 40's and veteran ore cars both still earning revenue.

Gliding along the CN Missabe Sub on a nice fall afternoon three veteran EMD's pull veteran Missabe/DMIR era ore cars southbound.

A nice change of pace were these three EMD's on a T-Bird train instead of a Dash 8 duo that's been the norm in recent years. DMIR 402, IC 6255 and DMIR 409 with 120 veteran DMIR ore cars in tow ha... (more)

A nice change of pace were these three EMD's on a T-Bird train instead of a Dash 8 duo that's been the norm in recent years. Here they are returning from the plant pulling up for head room to cle... (more)