Early morning thick fog blankets the area as a crew readies their train of ballast cars for departure out of the yard at Virginia for points elsewhere on the CN system.

Early morning and the fog is thickening as a crew readies their train of ballast cars for departure. Lighting provided by CN 2882, a new ES44AC, leading M344 southbound down the CN Rainy Sub.

IC 1001 holds the main at Virginia with it's short train in tow waiting for a lengthy southbound freight that's dropping down the south side of the Laurentian Divide and will take the siding.

Looking south east from above the Laurentian Divide at Arcelor Mittal’s Minorca Mine processing plant. Right side is the rail line into the facility. Upper right is the tailings pond, upper cen... (more)

My first view of Minorca.

A pair of SD60F Cowls and crew position limestone cars for dumping at the Minorca mine just north of Virginia, MN. The train pulls into the plant site on a loop and the crew then cuts the train i... (more)

It's 0230 on a quiet very early Sunday morning and the only things moving are the full moon and some clouds above the CN Virginia yard.

Illinois Central 6251, which is usually in the ore pool service on Minnesota's Iron Range, holds a siding in the CN Virginia yard in charge of a rail train. The irony here may be that the 6251 pr... (more)

CN 6020 holds the point on a Herzog unit ballast train tied down in the siding in the former DW&P yard at Virginia, MN

You call, we haul. Wonder if that's what the crew was thinking when CN ran a business train filled with CN top brass that operated from Winnipeg to Superior on a cold and gloomy Minnesota spring ... (more)

A BNSF oil train ( U-733) rumbles up the CN Rainy Sub passing through the Virginia yard heading to Canada. While not rare, it is different and fairly uncommon to see a BNSF led train passing thro... (more)

We'll leave the light on. Loram's RG 314 is tied down for the night in the yard at Virginia.

It's a cold morning as crew members prepare their rail grinder for a day of grinding rails for CN.

With 144 loads of taconite pellets in tow, IC 6255 takes the siding at Virginia, MN to let two northbounds keep rolling towards the Canadian border. This is the former DW&P yard.

Back in the second half of 2009, the CN power desk cycled through a few EJ&E units to work on the former Missabe in northern Minnesota. It was definitely different and brought photographers out o... (more)