Westminster Cab Rides

I want to thank pkeppel for uploading the great cab ride videos from the Westminster. Part 2 starts off running by a pair of my ILSX SD40-2 in the Valley Park Yard, then makes it's way around to a my modules (MN Transload and Rush City). Thanks for the great clips!

The Last of the Missabe

While attending the DMIR Convention this year I decided I wanted to see the last two DMIR painted engines in service on their home rails. Leave it to friends to make it happen.
DMIR SD38-2 215 was working Proctor Yard on our way north, one down one to go!

 

We came across DMIR SD40T-2 403 the next day a little further north and just like that, I was content.

But it got better, the 215 and repainted sister DMIR (not CN) SD38-2 211 were working the Proctor Yard again on our return trip. Long live the DMIR!

Two Harbors

Recently I attended the Missabe Convention in Virginia, MN. On the return trip, my traveling companions and myself took a little side trip to Two Harbors, MN to get some pics of the ore docks. My friend Brian commandeered a boat to get us onto the big pond to shoot photos of these massive structures for an upcoming modelling project. I took 250 pictures in 30 minutes. Here is a brief overview:

The South Dock us no longer used, but you can see the huge ore storage piles in the background.

 Dock 2 houses the large conveyor fed loaders to load the big boats as quickly as possible. To give perspective the tires at the base are over four feet in diameter each.

 Dock 1 is the best known by tourists, with a DMIR Yellowstone 2-8-8-4 and the Two Harbors Depot hiding in its shadow. This dock is for transferring ore directly from trains to boats, with 4 off-loading tracks on its deck.