DM&E SD40-3s 6076 and 6201 are in charge of train 477 (Davenport-Mason City, Iowa) as it passes the distant signal for the Iowa Northern diamond at Nora Springs. The train is now on the home stretch into Mason City.

Steaming pellets from the Minorca mine head down to Two Harbors behind two Missabe SD40-3s and a trio of Dash 8s pulling 145 ore cars.

From back in June of this year, a duo of IC SD40-3s shove a manifest up Byron Hill during some near-sunset conditions. The drone hasn’t seen much use since- the hassle of setting everything up and dealing with the very low maximum flight time of 10 minutes, amongst other things, have collectively led me away from the art of aerial photography. If the right time calls for it, I may get back up into the air, perhaps for non-railroad stuff. The future remains to be seen.

A pair of GTW SD40-3s work the hump at Harrison Yard in Memphis, TN. GTW 5947 still wears a coat of KCS gray paint, while 5941 has been repainted. Both units have come full circle, being built for CN in 1970 as SD40s. These units spent only a few short years on KCS before returning to the CN fold.

GTW 5947 SD40-3 (ex-CN 5131 SD40, KCS 6630 SD40-3)

CP 5101 and 5109, a pair of RCL SD40-3s, work the hump at CPKC's St Paul yard on a nice fall morning.

While heading west this summer I was meandering along Highway 2 across Minnesota following BNSF. I had a vague recollection that Crookston was a railway town and as I approached the multiple tracks showing up on the GPS confirmed that. I could also hear someone switching on the scanner so I poked around town until I found some action on Minnesota Northern.

ILSX 1340 started life as CN 5085, the low mounted headlight and the bell between the numberboards being big clues as to its origin. It was one of the batch of CN SD40s that were rebuilt as SD40-3s for KCS and it eventually ended up in the ILSX fleet.

Rapid City, Pierre and Eastern SD40-3s 3426 with 3458, 3435 and 3437 are seen leading the Belle Fourche Local north at Whitewood, South Dakota - 14/05/2018

The rest of the photos from the trip now @ www.milepost39.co.uk/mp39.asp?do=trip&id=26

These SD40-3s were SD45 killers when I, and they, worked for the Wisconsin Central. They were in the hideous Alstom gray paint scheme. But they look much better now in the employ of the Aberdeen, Carolina & Western Railway. Here a pair of them lead train 200 back to Candor after interchanging cars with CSX at Aberdeen.

Thundering along the Missabe Subdivision on a big blue October afternoon, three CN family SD40-3s handle a loaded train from Fairlane along the seemingly vast expanse of the Sax-Zim bog.

Two freshly rebuilt CP SD40-2s, now SD40-3s, lead the River Sub way freight towards Saint Paul as they roar through Red Wing in perfect evening sun. The bluffs loom over the power, and the former Milwaukee Road depot sits in the distance as well. This not only looked good, but sounded great as well! These two units were getting a workout. Huge thanks to Josh Dulak for the heads up on this.

Video: youtu.be/X1AgTroVRo4

Tuesday October 3rd, 2023. As we drove north on Hwy 7 we caught up with a limestone train with three SD40-3s up front. The leader was BLE 909 that had not yet seen the CN paint booth. We caught it just south of Iron Jct in some nice fall foliage.

The pair of SD40-3s, ILSX 1340 and 1339, start back for Thief River Falls after delivering and spotting a single hopper in Saint Hilaire at the southern end of the Minnesota Northern Warroad Subdivision. The Northwest Grain elevator is closed for rail service, so there is only a single customer remaining in Saint Hilaire.

Dropping down grade amongst the rolling hills of Northwest South Dakota, a trio of Rapid City, Pierre & Eastern SD40-3s guide LBFRC north towards Belle Fourche.

A pair of nicely painted SD40-3s make a quick run from Star to Candor with 9 cars in tow and pass a nice flowering stand of trees in the process. This track is the original NSRy branch to Aberdeen that was taken over by the Southern Ry in 1974.

One segment of the Minnesota Northern's duties along the Warroad Subdivision includes switching Star of the West Milling in Saint Hilaire - the only rail customer in town. MNN's pair of SD40-3s bring a single carload to town for delivery.

My last train picture of 2020 is Delmarva Central's S/B train HA-1, with SD40-3s 3502 & 3506 on the point. Here, after stopping to do some switching, its rolling out of DCR's Jello Yard as seen from the shoulder of the P.O.W. - M.I.A. Parkway.

Q326 is stopped in the siding at Sawyer for a meet with Amtrak P371 on the Grand Rapids Sub. Our power on this day was SD50-3 #8609 and leased CITX SD40M-2 #2800. This was the only time I had an SD50-3 as a leader, which had new Dash 3 electronics and a modern control stand like CSX's SD40-3s. Only around 15 of these were rebuilt this way and, as of 2025, are the only SD50s left on CSX. Also, it appears we lost a ditch light on the way up!

On August 21st, 2005 a pair of 6900 series CN/WC SD40-3s is cruising through Slinger Junction with a CN northbound.

In the years following the Canadian Nationals takeover of the Wisconsin Central, these GCFX/Alstom remanufactured SD40s were responsible for ending the careers of quite a few WC SD45s. ~~ A Jeff Hampton Photograph ©

There is no mistaking that power profile. IC SD40-3s 6263 and 6251 work a Proctor Roadswitch spotting cars on the approach to Dock 6 in West Duluth.

After shooting the loaded sounthbound ore train we drove around Silver Bay for a bit exploring the overlook above the rail yard, taconite plant, and docks. Once we saw the empty train get ready to depart we headed back here and watched it climb west then waited for the empty tailings train. This is the only other regular train on the line and generally follows an our or so behind the road train making a cycle from Silver Bay to the massive tailings pond accessed via a wye and spur that branches off about a mile and a half north of here.

The tailings train operates with a locomotive on each end (set up for DP) bracketing a string of side dumps making it nice to shoot coming or going. So once again we positioned ourselves on the famous 'railfan rock' along airport road outside of Silver Bay at about MP 5 for this going away view of rebuilt SD40-3s NSMX 653 (built as an SD40-2 in Mar. 1979 as Union Pacific 3545) and 650 (built as a straight SD40 in Oct. 1971 as Clinchfield 3024) bracketing 30 loaded cars headed up the hill.

After being shuttered for just about a year Cleveland-Cliffs just weeks ago reopened their mine at Babbitt and their taconite plant and dock at Silver Bay and their 47 mile private line haul railroad connecting the two. The non common carrier Northshore Mining Railroad as been operating since 1955 when built by the Reserve Mining Company to haul raw magnetite ore to plant which when opened was the first taconite pellet production facility in the nation.

To learn a bit more about the shut down and reopening check out these links.

railfan.com/northshore-mining-railroad-facing-shutdown/

startribune.com/northshore-mining-on-iron-range-open-agai...

Near Silver Bay

Lake County, Minnesota

Friday May 12, 2023

A loaded train behind a traditional trio of SD38s meets an empty behind two new SD40-3s. Soon all trains on the Iron Range Division would be powered by pairs of tunnel motors. Today CN uses four units to get ore trains over the Iron Range Sub, although train length has increased from 116 cars to around 145.

SD40-3s in Brewster, Ohio.

CSX #4600, an EMD SD80MAC, leads train L326 east near Clarksville on a cloudy fall day in 2010. CSX inherited 13 SD80MACs from Conrail, with the balance of the original 30 going to Norfolk Southern. Though Conrail enjoyed high reliability from the 80MACs, they were orphans on CSX, and they were definitely shop queens due to lack of maintenance. In 2015, CSX would trade all of their SD80MACs to NS in exchange for a dozen SD40-2s to be rebuilt into SD40-3s. At the end, all but 1 or 2 of the CSX 80MACs were in storage with various mechanical failures.

Interested in purchasing a high-quality digital download of this photo, suitable for printing and framing? Let me know and I will add it to my Etsy Shop, MittenRailandMarine! Follow this link to see what images are currently listed for sale: www.etsy.com/shop/MittenRailandMarine

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Three IC SD40-3s make easy work of a U720 running from Fairlane to Proctor on April 7, 2018. The three EMDs and 56 empty DMIR ore cars have just weaved away from Culver and have clear signals the last 20 miles into Proctor, after meeting a northbound at Alborn.

These seasonal moves between Duluth and Utac just started back up again for their second year. The limestone is used to make Utac's Mustang Pellet that they began to produce after the Empire Mine shut down in Michigan.

Its early on July 12th, 2015 where Canadian National train L510 has just completed their switching duties down at Waukesha and are now heading back north across the Canadian Pacific diamonds at Duplainville.

There was a stretch of quite a few years where the IC 6202 and IC 6204 were what you would call “regulars” on this daily job. – Both were built in November of 1976 under the same EMD order number for the Burlington Northern, and eventually became the property of the Illinois Central Railroad where they carried a few different road numbers before being rebuilt and designated as SD40-3s.

Although it’s been quite some time since they have made an appearance together on train L510 (which has gone to an SD60 pair), as of this July 2023 posting they both show as active on the Canadian National locomotive roster, and I bet they are still wearing this same black Illinois Central “Operation Lifesaver” paint scheme. ~~ A Jeff Hampton Photograph ©

After meeting a few at Mississippi St, the BNCP is given the light to head into St. Paul Yard. With the (arguably) correct leader on point, two SD40-3s and an SD60-3 trail in this old-school lashup.

After finishing the morning switch job a pair of CSXT SD40-3s sit along side a pack of Ex KCS SD70s and Fresh QNSL locomotives.

The conductor strikes a pose as his pair of IC SD40-3s and empty quads ease onto BNSF track prior to spotting the cars at Lakehead for loading of Minorca limestone.

Missabe power at the Proctor, Minnesota diesel ramp – SD38ACs, SD-Ms & SD40-3s, and all in the colors of the DM&IR. - Of course the locomotive paint scheme commonly found here today has changed since this shot was taken the morning of October 2nd, 1999. – But it sure doesn’t seem that long ago that Proctor was 100% Missabe maroon. ~~ A Jeff Hampton Photograph ©

Two longhood forward SD40-3s drag a good-size 262 south past Wingfoot Lake between Mogadore and Hartville on the evening of Nov. 21, 2017.

Fortunately enough, the SD40-3s are still holding the tailings trains. Here, a pair of them rolls by the searchlights at MP 5.8 on their way back to Silver Bay with empties.

On August 2, 2002 Northshore Mining ran a couple of passenger trips for employees. Here the Babbitt to Silver Bay leg of the trip runs east through MP 7 and the junction with the tailing basin. The NSM used two newer SD40-3s for the employee specials, along 7 passenger cars from the 261 group.

What was nice about NSM using the 652 and 650 is they had to round up some other power for the regular afternoon crude train.

NS 6403 will it's numberboards still not in yet. Getting last minute work done.

An empty ore train has just arrived in Proctor from Duluth after off loading 137 cars. The power, Bessemer and Lake Eire SD40T-3 number 904 and a pair of CN SD40-3s have just cut off from their train as pair of DMIR SD38-2s work Proctor yard.

BLE 904 started life as Cotton Belt (SSW) SD45T-2 number 9269 in February of 1973. It then became SP SD45T-2R number 6816 before finding it's way into Bessemer paint and being rebuilt into an SD40T-3.

CN 6021 was built in November of 1971 as CN 5226.

CN 6006 was built during 1970 as CN 5134.

DMIR 211 was built in March of 1975.

DMIR 212 was also built in March of 1975.

A handsome pair of Missabe tunnel motors shakes the tree leaves at Fairbanks, Minn., enroute to the Lake Superior ore docks at Two Harbors in the summer of 2004. CN has just taken over operation of the DM&IR, but nothing has changed yet. Pretty much every ore train on the IR Sub looked like this: back-to-back maroon and gold SD40-3s and 116 loads of ore.

The four SD40-3s from ACWR train 100 have just cut off from their train and enter the yard at Oakboro to assemble their pickup for the trip to Norfolk Southern's Liddell Yard in Charlotte. The caboose is an indicator of the rail heritage of the line as it was originally part of Norfolk Southern Railway's original Norfolk to Charlotte main line, which was later absorbed into the Southern Railway and present Norfolk Southern and sold to the Aberdeen, Carolina, and Western Railway.

An ore empty works up Proctor Hill on the afternoon of January, 28, 2018 behind a trip IC SD40-3s, the first two in black. 6251, 6260, and 6263 were the power.

Surprisingly when this empty cleared up its track authority, another CN train got on to run from Duluth to Proctor.

The morning of July 26th, 2015 northbound Canadian National local L510 is passing through North Rugby with a pair of black Illinois Central Operation Lifesaver EMD SD40-3s.

These two diesels, the IC 6202 & IC 6204, seemed to be the regular power on this job for about a three-year stretch during 2014, 2015 & 2016 and I never really did get tired of photographing them.

It seems fitting that they would spend so much time working together - Both were built in late 1976 under the same EMD production order for the Burlington Northern, then were sold together by the BN to the Illinois Central in 1993, converted to SD40-3s during the same rebuild program, and then stayed together after the IC was acquired by the CN in 1998 where they continued to log the miles, and still were as of 2025.

Not bad for nearly Fifty-year-old Sisters. ~~ A Jeff Hampton Photograph ©

Another from this little chase from Day 1 of my October return to the range and a fun train Chris, Erie, and I chased south with mixed success amidst the cloudy skies

CN train U7178104 has a string of vintage 70 plus year old DMIR ore hoppers loaded with taconite from Cleveland Cliffs UTAC facility at Fairlane headed to Proctor and ultimately CN Dock 6 in Duluth. Leading the way is a three pack of ex Southern Pacific tunnel motors now rebuilt as SD40-3s in the form of CN painted DMIR 408 and and BLE 903 bracketing orange BLE 906.

The aspen leaves are beginning to turn gold here as they roll south approaching the Jeffery Rd. crossing in Munger at about MP 13.7 on CN's North Division Missabe Sub mainline. Modern day CN's designation for the route pays homage to the historic former Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railroad which was incorporated in 1891, ran its first train in 1892 and built into Duluth proper in 1893. In 1938 the road was merged into the Duluth and Iron Range both long owned by US Steel to officially create the legendary Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway.

Sharp eyes will note a high rail boom truck passing overhead northbound at MP 18.9 on CN's Rainy Sub, the former Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific Railway mainline. Today the CN uses the two lines as a directional mainline for all their 'core' traffic which is how they refer to their non iron ore related thru trains to and from Canada. All southbound trains (manifest, grain, oil, internodal etc.) take the Rainy while all northbound counterpartsuse the Missabe for a distance of about 60 miles between Nopeming Jct. on the south and Shelton Jct. on the north. But with both north and southbound ore and limestone trains using this lower line it sees far more traffic than it's counterpart overhead.

Unincorporated Munger

Solway Township

St. Louis County, Minnesota

Wednesday October 4, 2023

A nice pair of high-hood Missabe units lead empty BN hoppers back to Keenan on February 24, 1996. At first I thought these were Laskin empties but the train isn't coming off the Iron Range Division but rather from Wolf. The cars could be coming back from Virginia's municipal plant located near the DW&P depot.

The end of the high-hood era was near as new 400-series SD40-3s would make the old veterans surplus. Trailing SD18 No. 189 is "Heritage" 129, an SD9 the DM&IR repainted back into its as-delivered scheme in 1990 (before heritage units became popular). It would end up being sent to sister railroad Birmingham Southern a few months after this shot was made and eventually reduced to a shell and scrapped in 2013.

Number 189 was sold to Diesel Locomotive Services in 1998 becoming DLSX 189 in their lease fleet. At last report it was on the Bighorn Divide & Wyoming as their number 2012 (Bonneville, WY).

Just another wider take on this scene from last fall.

CN train U7178104 has a string of vintage 70 plus year old DMIR ore hoppers loaded with taconite from Cleveland Cliffs UTAC facility at Fairlane headed to Proctor and ultimately CN Dock 6 in Duluth. Leading the way is a three pack of ex Southern Pacific tunnel motors now rebuilt as SD40-3s in the form of CN painted DMIR 408 and and BLE 903 bracketing orange BLE 906.

The aspen leaves are beginning to turn gold seen thru the shimmering heat distortion as the classic EMDs slug around the popular Culver s-curve at MP 28 on modern day CN's North Division Missabe Sub mainline. Modern day CN's designation for the route pays homage to the historic former Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railroad which was incorporated in 1891, ran its first train in 1892 and built into Duluth proper in 1893. In 1938 the road was merged into the Duluth and Iron Range both long owned by US Steel to officially create the legendary Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway.

Culver Township

St. Louis County, Minnesota

Wednesday October 4, 2023

Looking across from Farmington Road.

This was one of only a handful of shots I didn't get back during the May trip that I wanted to try this time. Though I didn't ever get a nice afternoon sunlit shot I did catch two trains here in the famous slot from the viewpoint on Skyline Drive just north of where the former DMIR main crosses Interstate 35 on its 600 ft and 2.2% climb up from the docks to Proctor Yard.

In already shared the blue hour evening shot I got on Wednesday of a GE wide cab here, and for the second train I snagged the 'good' power. A three pack of classic EMDs consisting of rebuilt tunnel motors, now SD40-3s, DMIR 409 and 404 in CN dress trailed by SD40-2W CN 5349 lead a string of empty veteran 70 year old DMIR ore hoppers at MP 4.5 on modern day CN's North Division Missabe Subdivision mainline. Six miles to the northeast can be seen the famed aerial lift bridge over the Duluth Harbor entrance and beyond to horizon is the blue expanse of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee.

Duluth, Minnesota

Saturday October 7, 2023

EJ&E #804 seemed to be a fixture at Kirk Yard for many years. Built as an SD9 for the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range, the unit was overhauled into an SDM (chopped nose, 645 power assemblies, refurbished electricals) in the 1980s. Both roads being owned by US Steel, "The J" and the DMIR swapped locomotives around on ocassion. In the 90s, a few SDMs migrated to The J when the DMIR received rebuilt SD40-3s. #804 was never repainted and continued to work for The J in its attractive Missabe Arrowhead paint scheme.

Upon CN's purchase of the EJ&E in 2009, the SDMs, along with pretty much everything else The J had that was powered by a 567, were almost immediately retired and put up for sale. #804 was sold to Indiana Boxcar Corp, which employed it on the Chesapeake & Indiana. When MB Rail purchased most of IBC's railroad assets in 2020, #804 was unfortunately retired and scrapped in 2021. In better times, the #804 is seen waiting at the east end of Pine Yard for an NS local to finish their switching. Once the way is clear, the crew will take the vintage round-top EMD into the yard, grab a long cut of coil cars, and drag them back over to Kirk. This unit still retained its awesome DMIR old cast Nathan P5 at the time, too.

Le QG 501 négocie la courbe de Breslay, à l’Est de la gare du Parc, avec la SD70MAC 4016 en tête. La QGRY 4016 a été construite BNSF 8860 en 1999, et achetée par le G&W en 2022 pour remplacer la flotte vieillissante des SD40-3. À droite, une ancien portique signalétique tient toujours sur ce qui était autrefois une troisième voie qui permettait d’entrer dans le triage d’Outremont, maintenant devenu un secteur résidentiel moderne.

QG train 501 negociates the "Breslay" curve, east of Parc station, with SD70MAC 4016 leading. QGRY 4016 was built as BNSF 8860 in 1999, and purchased by G&W in 2022 to replace the old fleet of SD40-3s. On the right, an old signal bridge structure still stands on what was before a third track to enter in Outremont yard, now a modern residential area.

R92181 works its way down Proctor hill to the ore docs in Duluth Minnesota. Once at the docs the crew will spend most of the day unloading the 137 loaded ore cars into a waiting ship before making the run back up to Proctor late in the afternoon. Leading the train is Bessemer and Lake Erie SD40-3 number 904. BLE 904 was rebuilt from a Southern Pacific SD45T-2. A pair of veteran Canadian National SD40-3s make up the rest of the locomotive consist.

Matt Watson's recent post from Aylesbury prompted me to think back to the one time I shot that line, back in summer 2013. Mobil Grain was a bit newer back then, and it would appear their right-of-way could use a little tending. Both SD40-3s at Aylesbury faced south and there was something wrong with their m.u. function, so a solo, long-hood-forward unit is pulling as many loads as it can pull for Davidson, with many more left behind. As I recall, there were loads from Mobil's previous run sitting on the main at Davidson. We didn't stick around to find out, but it would appear this crew's only course was to run around their train and shove it up against the extant loads for pickup whenever CN's local from Saskatoon made its next journey south. I recall wondering whether this short line had much of a future, but happily, they seem to be doing very well for themselves. This photo is at the Craik elevator.

The Minorca E-Rail trains of 2003 ran from Virginia, MN to Escanaba, MI from January through March on the DM&IR and CN. A couple of weeks into the season, a dead E-Rail is passed by a Missabe T-Bird at Keenan Road late on the afternoon Jan. 12, 2003. DMIR 201 is leading "wrong main" to get around the dead Minorca train, which sometimes had troubles loading the all-rail coal cars and getting them back to WC/CN at Steelton for interchange with one crew.

The 2003 season saw a mix of WC SD45s and GCFX SD40-3s pulling SSAM and WC coal hoppers on these seasonal trains. Would have much rather had maroon 45s on this E-Rail, but was a bit uncommon to get two trains passing on the DM&IR, as the freights were still all over on the DWP. The CN takeover was over a year away and there wasn't as much traffic as now on the CN.

CSX train Q560 has a pair of EMD SD40-3s for power as the work the east end of Goodman Street Yard. Due to the rear end drop the power is quite far from the end of the yard, and are east of the "Can of Worms" highway interchange.

A northbound train emerges out of the morning sun at Alborn, MN. This limestone train is headed for the Minorca pellet plant in Virginia, MN. Up front are two former SP/SSW SD45T-2s which were rebuilt as SD40-3s and repainted for DMIR. Later they were painted in CN colors with DMIR sub-lettering. The trailing unit is BLE 909, originally SSW SD45T-2 9277, also rebuilt as an SD40-3. It retains its Bessemer livery and sub-lettering.