Steam from freshly baked taconite pellets has coated the frames on these ore cars as this Minntac train heads towards Proctor in -21F weather.

Just after the train passed me the engineer called Proctor to tell them that the 405 had just ran out of fuel and that B&LE 903 was doing all the work. They had a fuel truck waiting at the yard. ... (more)

Missabe 400 is about to roll over a repaired broken rail that occurred during a bitter cold snap this past Sunday. Breaks are all too common when temps fall below zero and cars with flat spots po... (more)

DMIR 405, one of the ex-Missabe CN repaints, leads the empty limestone through Munger, with one maroon DM&IR unit (210) in the consist.

DMIR 412 heads north towards the Iron Range with an train of empty ore cars. With the ongoing retirement of the Missabe maroon units, the chances of catching one leading a train on the main line... (more)

Nice cold and sunny day to get Missabe maroon leading the afternoon limestone to Minntac.

B&LE 909 and DM&IR 308 work a loaded ore train south towards Proctor during a nice old fashioned Minnesota blizzard.

Blizzard! Three units lead a Minntac limestone north in near white-out conditions that were keeping MOW and signal crews very busy today, but the trains kept running.

B&LE 903 leads a repainted Missabe sister north on ore empties for United Taconite. The Twin Ports area has over two feet of snow on the ground, a far cry from last year when we had a brown Chri... (more)

B&LE 903 and 909, assigned to the former DM&IR, power an empty 132-car ore train through fresh snow en route to U.S. Steel's Minntac plant.

Nice sound as three non-turbo SD38 models move a loaded Minntac train towards Proctor. Just enough moisture in the air to make steam off the taconite pellets.

Fresh from the paint booth, 408 leads a sister (400) and an SD38 (202) north with limestone looads for Minntac. There are now 5 former Missabe units repainted (400-402, 404, 408).

M-345 heads north over the Missabe.

Side-dump cars with limestone heads up to the range.

Two SD38-2s, 210 and 213, (built 3/75), and SD-M 316 (ex-SD18 186, built 4/60) pull hard on limestone loads bound for Minorca at 1527, just as the sun FINALLY popped out on the engines and the fal... (more)