After switching the Minntac commercial yard, the R901 crew is running back to their namesake yard at Keenan.
The R901 job based out of CN's Keenan yard is retrieving the Plasser & Theurer RM802 High-Production Ballast Undercutting/Cleaning Machine that has been stored since fall when rehabilitation work ... (more)
And then sometimes the train comes into view long hood forward. Oh well. They were pulling five DME hoppers though.
The Keenan switch job bringing back a healthy cut of sand cars from out of storage on the former Erie Mining Co. property.
On this day the R901 job based out of CN's Keenan yard was tasked with going up to the Mountain Iron yard and retrieving the Plasser & Theurer RM802 High-Production Ballast Undercutting/Cleaning M... (more)
After working the rod and ball track at United Taconite it was then a straight shot up to work the commercial yard at the Minntac taconite plant and now it's time to head back to Keenan yard.
Heading over the Ramshaw diamond, DMIR 402 and DMIR 404 have 181 cars behind them and are about to tie up traffic for a while as they come of the CN Iron Range Sub and cross Highway 7.
The R901 job out of Keenan usually has about 5 or 6 cars when they come back and usually come back much earlier in the day but today they have 181 cars total and 7500 feet behind them with 174 san... (more)
Along with their normal task of switching the Dyno Nobel facility outside Biwabik, today's R901 Keenan job also had the project of retrieving 174 sand empties from storage on the former Erie Minin... (more)
The last slivers of light illuminate the R901 with it's 732 total axels that are coming off the CN Iron Range Sub and heading south on the CN Missabe Sub at Iron Jct. with sand empties from storag... (more)
After switching the Minntac commercial yard, it's back to Keenan yard for the R901 crew and these empty bentonite hoppers.
Heading back to their yard after picking up rock loads from Laurentian Aggregates.
The Keenan Switch job pulls loads of stone south down the Missabe sub heading back to their yard which is up ahead a short distance.
After picking up BFT (crushed taconite rock) loads from Laurentian Aggregates (Gross Nelson) and shoving out of the siding and down where the T-Birds usually roam at United Taconite's north coars... (more)
An all-rail taconite train departing the U.S. Steel Minntac plant located near Mountain Iron, MN the taconite capital of the world.