It's a cold morning as crew members prepare their rail grinder for a day of grinding rails for CN.

With 144 loads of taconite pellets in tow, IC 6255 takes the siding at Virginia, MN to let two northbounds keep rolling towards the Canadian border. This is the former DW&P yard.

Back in the second half of 2009, the CN power desk cycled through a few EJ&E units to work on the former Missabe in northern Minnesota. It was definitely different and brought photographers out o... (more)

The former DW&P railroad depot near the end of Chestnut Street in Virginia, MN is in the fog from the yet unfrozen Silver Lake on a cold December evening. A nearby detector from a northbound CN f... (more)

As the sun comes up on a cool summer morning, the fog is starting to burn off revealing a Minorca limestone train and a single unit holding over waiting for the ballast cars it delivered to be lo... (more)

Fog has cleared and the sun illuminates a U-719 limestone train and single engine while a M-568 CN land barge rumbles into the siding at Virginia while waiting for another CN northbound to meet th... (more)

A Herzog ballast train gets favorable signals to proceed out of the former DW&P yard and head north on the CN Rainy Sub.

After a long day of testing rail, the CN Track Evaluation RDC Budd car is tied down and resting for the night in the yard at Virginia along the CN Rainy Sub.

As the final minutes of the "blue hour" turn to night, a pair of still in service GTW SD40-2's in somewhat fresh CN paint idle away Cinco de Mayo in the CN Virginia yard waiting for tomorrow, the... (more)

CN has stored or scraped alot of their SD40's of different heritages. Last year traffic levels pushed some of the stored SD40's back into local and work train service. The GTW SD40's were some of ... (more)

Minorca loads blast down the hill with ballast cars from Prindle lurking in the background. Quite the hill here! Neat contrast between old and new cars!

A pair of IC units (2708 and 1019) speed north on CN's Rainy Sub, passing through the town of Virginia, MN with M341's freight.

CN 341 rolls through downtown Virginia

Loading crude ore at Largo

For years mining has taken place in northeastern Minnesota and the DM&IR has served those mines by moving the finished taconite pellet product to the docks of Duluth and Two Harbors, MN where it i... (more)