Soo Line 2719, North Shore Mining, and August Iron Range Trip.

[AlcoFanRS27]

Hello all,

The last weekend in August I went up to northern Minnesota again to get shots of North Shore Mining and the ex DM&IR ore operations as well as to chase the 2719 from Duluth to Two Harbors. These are some of my shots. More are on my Flickr page. Feel free to add me as a contact on Flickr.


5894_Soo Line #2719 by Alco 251, on Flickr
2719 working up the Pork City Hill grade.


5928_Soo Line #2719 by Alco 251, on Flickr
2719 is hustling to get back to Duluth to clear the track for North Shore Scenic Railroad’s last run of the day as it rolls across the French River Bridge.


6197_Soo Line #2719 by Alco 251, on Flickr
2719 waiting to depart Two Harbors.


6062_North Shore Mining's main to Silver Bay by Alco 251, on Flickr
North Shore Mining’s main line east to Silver Bay at dawn.


5813_NSM SD40-3 #654 by Alco 251, on Flickr
The next loaded mine train (called for 12:00) heads to Silver Bay at 1:30


6117_NSM SD40-3 #654 by Alco 251, on Flickr
The 5:00AM mine run’s three locomotive’s dynamic brakes are screaming to hold the train back as they descend into Silver Bay where the raw Taconite Ore will be processed into taconite pellets for shipment to steel mills.


5935_CN C40-8M #2449 by Alco 251, on Flickr
CN C40-8M #2449, IC SD40-3 #6256, CN C40-8M #2404 have their train of fresh Taconite train (U716) rolling at a good clip as they head south from the Uni-tac plants towards Proctor.


5941_U716 by Alco 251, on Flickr
U716


5974_BNSF SD40-2 #1993 by Alco 251, on Flickr
A matched set of BNSF SD40-2’s #1993 & #1964 still in BN Cascade Green are the power for this short BNSF switch job on the line going to Minorca.


5992_DMIR SD40T-3 #408 by Alco 251, on Flickr
Two “tunnel motors” with a DMIR SD38-2 #211 power a Minntac to Two Harbors taconite train around the north leg of the wye at Iron Junction.


6042_CN C40-8 #2131 by Alco 251, on Flickr
Returning from Unitac this empty T-bird rolls to Largo along side the north bound CN freight. I was talking to another railfan and the crew actually blew the horn to get our attention and “wagged his finger” at us for being un-attentive railfans as this T-bird kind of snuck up on us.

Thanks for viewing, hope you all enjoyed.

 

[stlgevo51]

Nice shots! You caught many rare and interesting things!

 

[brad_in_omaha]

Awesome Shots! Looks like some great railfanning up there!

 

[papio]

I'll echo Brad's comments, excellent shots!

 

[AlcoFanRS27]

Thanks guys! Yes it is awesome up there. Almost every train around Iron Junction a person can catch at least twice with out being Mario Andriette plus trains come at you at all directions. Another sweet thing is that, there is a lot of older power. The people up there are friendly too, and I always seem to bump into another railfan up there and become friends. haha One kinda sad thing however, is that there is a rumor that CN is planning on getting rid of the older power up there due to high failure rates, possibly as soon as the end of the year. Hopefully its just a rumor!

 

[brad_in_omaha]

CN has so much old power, I am not sure where they would start ;-)

Some of their "New power" would be old to me and and would be happy to see it running around here again!

 

[AlcoFanRS27]

CN has so much old power, I am not sure where they would start ;-)

Some of their "New power" would be old to me and and would be happy to see it running around here again!

Haha yeah, not to mention some hefty locomotive orders from EMD and GE or at least picking up "new to them" models from other railroads.. I believe they were referencing SD40-2/3, SD38-2's and maybe those SD60F's or C40-8M's. They just picked up some ex CNW/UP C40-8's (that's old to me) and I doubt they would be dumping them already.