Duluth,
Missabe and Iron Range Railway - (en)
The Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway (DM&IR) (AAR reporting
marks DMIR) was a railroad operating in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin
to haul iron ore and later taconite to the Great Lakes port of Duluth,
Minnesota and Two Harbors, Minnesota. The railway was acquired on May 10,
2004, by Canadian National Railway (CN) when it purchased the assets of
Great Lakes Transportation.
History
The DM&IR was formed by the 1938 merger of the Duluth and Iron Range
Railway (D&IR) and Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railway (DM&N).
The D&IR was formed in 1881 by Charlemagne Tower to haul iron ore from
the Minnesota Iron Co. in Tower, Minnesota to the new Lake Superior port
of Two Harbors, Minnesota. The first ore shipment from the Soudan Mine
over the D&IR was on July 31, 1884. The D&IR was acquired by
Illinois Steel in 1887. In 1901, Illinois Steel became part of the newly
formed United States Steel Corporation (USS) and the railway became part
of its holdings.
The DM&N was incorporated in 1891 and the first load of iron ore was
shipped to Superior, Wisconsin in October, 1892. (The formation of the
railway was necessary after the discovery of high-grade Mesabi iron ore
near Mountain Iron, Minnesota by the Merritt brothers. The D&IR was
approached to construct a new branch line, but was not receptive.) The
Merritt's expanded DM&N by laying track to Duluth, Minnesota in 1893
and built an ore dock there. The Merritt's shaky financial position,
brought in part to building the Duluth expansion, allowed for John D.
Rockefeller to gain control of the railway in 1894. In 1901, Rockefeller
sold the DM&N to USS.
From 1901 to 1938 the two railways were owned and operated by USS and were
operated independently.
DMIR ore docks loading ships, circa 1900-1915.
Merger
One of the DM&IR's 2-8-8-4 locomotives preserved in Two Harbors,
Minnesota.By July of 1938 the two railways merged to form the DM&IR.
The railway had two operating divisions, the Missabe and the Iron Range
based upon their predecessor's roads. As the United States began to
prepare for the Second World War, the iron ore tonnage moving over the
Missabe Road more than doubled from little over 8 million tons in 1938 to
over 18 million tons in 1939 and lept to almost 28 million tons in 1940
and over 37 million tons in 1941.
With such high tonnage levels, it was obvious that DM&IR needed
additional locomotive power to handle the higher traffic volume. The first
eight of DM&IR's famous 2-8-8-4 Yellowstone locomotives were delivered
by Baldwin Locomotive Works in the Spring of 1941. Total ore movement of
nearly 45 million tons in 1942 stressed the critical need for more
locomotive power on the DM&IR and the War Production Board allowed the
Missabe to order ten more Yellowstones. The new locomotives were delivered
in 1943.
Dieselization
After WWII, the DM&IR continued to haul increasing larger tonnage of
ore to the ore docks along Lake Superior reaching an all-time record year
of over 49 million tons in 1953. Also in 1953, the first diesel
locomotives, EMD SW9s, arrived on the railway. The Missabe continues to
dieselize with the 1956 delivery of EMD SD9s. The last revenue steam run
occurred in 1960. Passenger services on the Missabe division ended in 1957
and completely ceased in 1961.
In addition to dieselization and the end of passenger service, other
changes were happening to the DM&IR. The availability of high-quality
iron ore was becoming limited. Mines and pits were closing across
Minnesota's iron ranges. The DM&IR's ore docks in Two Harbors were
closed in 1963 and didn't reopen until 1966. The Missabe Road was saved by
the November 3, 1963 passage of the Taconite Amendment to the Minnesota
State Constitution. (The amendment restricted the state's ability to tax a
taconite industry for twenty-five years.) The passage of the amendment
accelerated the creation of taconite mining industry in Northern
Minnesota. The Eveleth Taconite Company was formed in 1964 and on April 8,
1966, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald took on the first load of Eveleth taconite
pellets, totally about 23,000 tons. The taconite era on the Missabe had
begun.
In 1988, U.S. Steel, now USX, spun off the DM&IR and their other ore
railroads and shipping companies into subsidiary Transtar, then sold
majority control to the Blackstone Group and USX. In 2001, the DM&IR,
and other holdings, were spun off from Transtar into the company Great
Lakes Transportation (GLT) which was owned fully by the Blackstone Group.
(For the first time in over 100 years DM&IR was no longer associated
with U.S. Steel.) In late 2003, the Blackstone Group agreed to sell GLT to
Canadian National Railway and the purchase was finalized on May 10, 2004.
