Burlington Northern Railroad — Delivering Bentonite Clay — National Taconite — Keewatin, MN
The most imposing structures remaining on today's Mesabi Iron Range are the taconite plants. This is one of the two original taconite plants that served the Great Northern Railway. Making taconite pellets requires that the taconite rock be ground into a fine powder. Magnetic separation then pulls the iron bearing part of the rock away from the waste rock. A binder is added to the iron particles which are then heated and rolled to form the small taconite pellets. That binder is bentonite clay that is delivered in 100-ton capacity covered hoppers. The train we see here is the Kelly Lake Local that ran from Kelly Lake to Gunn and return on Mon-Weds-Fri and from Kelly Lake to Hibbing and return on Tues-Thurs. On the days the job switched Hibbing it would usually run west to National Taconite first, then return to Kelly Lake, grab eastbound cars, and head for Hibbing. Such was the case the day I rode this train. We shoved our train caboose first from Kelly Lake to the taconite plant, cut off our train under the pellet loading tipple, then shoved into the plant itself to pick up MTY hoppers and spot the loads over the hopper pits. But as is usually the case at industries, there's gonna be a snag somewhere along the way. Note the farthest BN green covered hopper. It's derailed. Once the loads are spotted the industry moves the cars one at a time to re-position them over the unloading pit. Sometimes they forget to leave the brake on and the cars roll off the end of the track. We spent the first hour here re-railing that car with the help of a handful of guys who thankfully, knew how to do that with block and tackle, and a friendly tug from our locomotives, BN 6108 and BN 6115. This was a fun day on the Range for me. I'll never forget it.
Burlington Northern Railroad — Delivering Bentonite Clay — National Taconite — Keewatin, MN
The most imposing structures remaining on today's Mesabi Iron Range are the taconite plants. This is one of the two original taconite plants that served the Great Northern Railway. Making taconite pellets requires that the taconite rock be ground into a fine powder. Magnetic separation then pulls the iron bearing part of the rock away from the waste rock. A binder is added to the iron particles which are then heated and rolled to form the small taconite pellets. That binder is bentonite clay that is delivered in 100-ton capacity covered hoppers. The train we see here is the Kelly Lake Local that ran from Kelly Lake to Gunn and return on Mon-Weds-Fri and from Kelly Lake to Hibbing and return on Tues-Thurs. On the days the job switched Hibbing it would usually run west to National Taconite first, then return to Kelly Lake, grab eastbound cars, and head for Hibbing. Such was the case the day I rode this train. We shoved our train caboose first from Kelly Lake to the taconite plant, cut off our train under the pellet loading tipple, then shoved into the plant itself to pick up MTY hoppers and spot the loads over the hopper pits. But as is usually the case at industries, there's gonna be a snag somewhere along the way. Note the farthest BN green covered hopper. It's derailed. Once the loads are spotted the industry moves the cars one at a time to re-position them over the unloading pit. Sometimes they forget to leave the brake on and the cars roll off the end of the track. We spent the first hour here re-railing that car with the help of a handful of guys who thankfully, knew how to do that with block and tackle, and a friendly tug from our locomotives, BN 6108 and BN 6115. This was a fun day on the Range for me. I'll never forget it.