Union Pacific’s MRONY, a Roper Yard in Salt Lake City to North Yard in Denver manifest freight, curves eastbound through Rocky, Colorado, on a snowy April 23, 2001.
Tags: Union Pacific UP train snow railroad locomotive freight train freight EMD curve Colorado CO MRONY UP MRONY Rocky UP Moffat Tunnel Sub SD70M
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E&N on a propane run to Superior with 6 loads seen passing through the Coastland Plywood plant.
December 31, 2018
Tags: train railway railroad shortline spur industry propane mill forestry SRY SVI ICF MRL GP9 Nanaimo
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After wrapping up my chase of the Union Pacific at Itasca then catching CN L564 I headed off in search of BNSF action for the afternoon and boy did they deliver flushing 4 westbound trains out of Superior on the Lakes Sub in the span of an hour. Throw in a work train and an opposing westbound coal train and I just couldn't get them all!
The BNSF is the other behemoth in the Twin Ports owing to it's Great Northern and Northern Pacific legacy. In addition to countless unit coal and grain trains and a healthy manifest business the BNSF also serves the Iron Ore trade through its ex GN ore dock at Allouez. They generally run 2 to 3 trains in a 24 hr period serving Cleveland-Cliffs Hibbing Taconite plant (Hibtac) and US Steel's Keewatin Taconite plant (Keetac) each of which ship out around 6 million tons of iron ore pellets a year.
Not as busy and nowhere near as popular as CN's ex Missabe ore operations, most visiting fans eschew BNSF's ore trains. Though they use run of the mill power they are still a unique operation by Class 1 standards with their captive fleet of ore gons many of which are still adorned with large Burlington Northern logos. Here is one such train, UALLBRM2 25T with 180 empties for Hibtac holding on Main 1 at the end of double track at MP 15.9 on the Lakes Sub just east of the Irondale Road crossing. Sharp eyes will note a headlight in the distance which is the UALLKEE2 03T (another 180 empties from Allouez to Keetac) pulled up right behind them. Once the work train clears up in Carlton Yard these two will fleet west to Brookston then hang a right onto the Casco Sub to head up to Kelly Lake Yard in the Iron Range.
Historically the trackage through here was former Great Northern dating to 1898 when predecessor Duluth, Superior and Western built from Cloquet to Superior and abandoned their original line from the former to Duluth. In days of old the Soo Line's 4th Sub mainline west toward Moose Lake and Bemidji was immediately parallel to the left. At Moose Lake the 5th Sub continued toward Brooten and by the mid 1980s this was the Brooten Sub mainline from Glenwood Yard to Stinson yard and per a 1987 timetable was still a 40 MPH railroad. But it was shuttered through here around 1990 and by 1996 all the rails and ties were removed leaving the ex GN to stand alone.
Unincorporated Borea
Town of Superior, Wisconsin
Thursday September 12, 2024
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Navigating their way towards Noranda, Qc ONR train 211 slices through the famous Boston Creek rock cut in the fall colours of late October.
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Iowa Interstate SICB-31 is curving west through Marengo, Iowa on a beautiful September afternoon. 9/1/2024
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