The latest pair to the CN ore pool are these two ES44AC units replacing a pair of Dash 8's. Here they are after a crew change waiting for the mine to green light them allowing them to shove back u... (more)

A CN crude ore train using two BNSF horsepower payback units pulls 118 cars south towards the Fairlane plant and meets it's empty counterpart with two CN Dash 8's heading back to the mine at the h... (more)

BNSF 6320 waits for a green light from the mine control room before shoving under the coarse crusher to load.

A CN crude ore train using two BNSF horsepower payback units pulls 118 cars south towards the Fairlane plant on a nice spring afternoon.

BNSF locomotives working on CN for horsepower payback handle an ore train at United Taconite while the plant's contract switcher moves a car.

CN is temporarily receiving a number of Union Pacific and BNSF locomotives for horsepower payback and two of those BNSF units have found their way to northern Minnesota to be used for the T-Bird s... (more)

CN is temporarily receiving a number of Union Pacific and BNSF AC locomotives for horsepower payback and two of those BNSF units have found their way to northern Minnesota to be used on T-Bird ser... (more)

CN is temporarily receiving a number of Union Pacific and BNSF AC locomotives for horsepower payback and two of those BNSF units have found their way to northern Minnesota to be used on T-Bird ser... (more)

CN is temporarily receiving a number of Union Pacific and BNSF AC locomotives for horsepower payback and two of those units have found their way to northern Minnesota to be used on T-Bird service.... (more)

CN had been using sets of EMD power on the Thunderbird crude ore trains this past winter/early spring while the C40-8s usually marked for this job received PTC equipment. That equipment has been ... (more)

After waiting for a pellet train to depart and now having favorable signals themselves, IC 6252 with 118 X 2 departs the Fairlane plant and heads back to the mine at Thunderbird north to load more... (more)

DMIR 404, BLE 904 and CN 2119 pass under northeastern Minnesota's version of the famous barn shot at Two Medicine Bridge at East Glacier, Montana.

Departing the mine, headed to the plant. With a little dust off the top of the freshly mined and course crushed rock.

Always nice to see trains being led by DMIR engines pulling DMIR ore cars on the Missabe Sub in NE Minnesota. Never mind the CN paint or the trailing Dash 8, that SD40-3 still sounded good as it ... (more)

A trio of EMD tunnel motors ( DMIR 408, BLE 903, DMIR 400) round the curve at Iron Jct. and split the signals heading south on the Missabe Sub with taconite rock from the mine for the plant.