Drone Railfanning - CN's Duluth, MN Ore Dock

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[@soddog4]

Fun fact: CN's rail network extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and crosses the Canadian Rocky Mountains and yet this climb up Steelton Hill from Dock 6 in Duluth is the steepest grade on CN's network.

[@bhproductions1061]

Fun fact: I catch CN iron ore trains in Butler Pennsylvania on the BLE and I catch B&P trains as well

[@Shaymackinaw]

Steelton Hill does not connect to the ore docks. Steelton leads to Pokegema yard outside of Superior, WI. Trains going down to the ore dock come down Proctor Hill from the yard in Proctor, MN.

[@StepvanDan]

Great video thanks for sharing looked great big hugs from Cedar,MN

[@libertyvilleguy2903]

Only three locomotives to pull that massive string of heavy ore cars. Amazing.

[@SantaFe19484]

Nice video! Iron ore: the industry that pretty much every industry in the world depends on!

[@bcgrittner]

I enjoyed that. Your drone hovers better than I do.

[@douglasskaalrud6865]

I’m not sure flying drones over railroad right of ways is recommended or even legal but I’m not an expert. Looking at every other drone video it’s always on one side of the track or the other. Now that I’ve said that this is a priceless video of an area that anyone save CN employees will ever have a snowball’s chance in hell of seeing in person. For those of you wondering about what you’re seeing, this is the DM&IR railway’s dock six located at the end of the St. Louis river where it empties into Lake Superior just west of Duluth, MN. Dock six is indeed the sixth dock at this location on the bay and the only one operating. The dock splitting off to the side is dock five and no longer in use as it’s slowly sinking. Dock six handles strictly taconite pellets (still called “ore” on the lakes) outbound and limestone inbound. The stone is added into the taconite fines during benefication at the mines to make it a whole lot easier during steel production at the mills. Ore boats bring stone to the dock and take taconite from the dock. The grade down to the dock begins at the Missabe’s home in Proctor, about ten miles northwest of Duluth. Loaded ore trains average between 15 to 20 thousand tons, stone going back up the hill ranges from 8 to 10 thousand tons. When watching videos of trains climbing “Proctor Hill” it is the gut-wrenching climb of stone trains climbing the hill you’re watching, and you will watch some of these videos! We Minnesotans are incredibly fortunate to have this show to watch. Boats coming into port offloading stone and picking up ore to take down to the Soo locks is endlessly fascinating simply for the industrial scale of the things. Oh ,in case you’re wondering why I don’t call it the CN dock, the locomotives are still sublettered DM&IR and the railroad will always be “The Missabe” to true railfans of the ore mining scene.

[@StormySkyRailProductions]

Fantastic drone video of the ore docks.enjoyed it.

[@OsborneMcclintic]

i lived in proctor between 3rd and 7th grade 73-77... i used to hop ore cars and get busted everytime... taconite pellets tell all with orange! lol!!!

[@Adidasdude74]

I really enjoyed this, thanks for sharing.

[@peterjhillier7659]

Great Video, fantastic Drone Footage. Thank you. The Size of the Viaduct makes you realise what an enormous Job painting it will be and why Railway Infrastructure costs so much to maintain.

[@jstoli996c4s]

Peter J Hillier I never realized the scale of it either, very large!

[@dapto234]

Yes that's how it is with the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia when they paint it, by the time they get to one end it's time to start again and go back over it again.Just ask Pual Hogan he was a painter on the bridge before tv got him.

[@bigmonmagoomba9634]

Golden Gate same way. Full time jobs.

[@kgirl4078]

Very interesting operation, I'd like to see more. Thanks for sharing your great drone video. So much can be seen by a drone that we can't from the ground. I enjoyed watching :-))

[@irelandbloke]

Superb shots !

[@BNSF1458]

Amazing!!

[@billinindiana1]

This is a beautiful area.

[@splitrock323]

Great video. Any chance to show them dumping the cars? It would be cool to see the trapping machine in action.

[@UjjawalKashyap]

Lovely footage!

[@adriaanboogaard8571]

Great video. Looks like you picked a perfect day for it. They must not doing as much business there anymore as the track on the 2nd Dock is gone. It would be nice to be able to walk out on it for the view of the the other and the water. Just a great place to be . Like the Odis Redding song comes to mind. Sitting on the Dock of the Bay. My Dad gave me a happy Childhood memory just go down to the Harbor in California to watch Ships

[@gregturner5890]

I live on the west coast san Francisco...ships are beautiful ...but my first time on Chicago's water front I said what the hell is that..it was an funny looking boat. yes it was an ..Laker... or ore boat..at that time one ugly duckling...now I love them ..never seen them being loaded...thank you😁

[@ccaaproduction105]

Good job

[@jstoli996c4s]

Looks like wonderful summer weather compared to the humid 90+ degrees here in Tampa, FL

[@douglasskaalrud6865]

Duluth can get pretty hot too-I was up there in early September and there were people swimming in the lake (Superior). Little too cold for me.

[@bigmonmagoomba9634]

They say the Interlake Steamship footers can hold 700 rail cars in a single load. The American Steamship footers even more.So even though it looks like a lot of ore cars there’s not enough of them visible in the video to fill one of the bulk carriers.

[@esosthompe]

I'm not fan of aerial views, but it's really well done, the images are beautiful. It's superb.

[@49BigPoppa]

Trestle to the right has moss growing on it, how long has it not been used?

[@ronwilken5219]

Ok big deal. Three locos pulled 100+ ore cars to near the dock. What happens now? That would be the interesting part. I'm assuming, always dangerous, that the three departing locos now go to the other end and push the cars to the hoppers over the dock where they are unloaded, disconnected from the "train" and by gravity fed onto the down grade track the locos used. At some point they are stopped by some mechanism on the track and assembled into a return train. This procedure is repeated until all the cars have been processed and the locos resume command of the now empty train back to the mine for refilling. The hoppers are emptied into the laker(s) as and when they arrive. Am I correct? Please? If not, don't call me an idiot. Just let me know how it works. Or if there's a second video showing that part let me know where to find it. Thanks and happy new year.

[@williamwoods3277]

As an old Southern Pacific "Hog Head"

[@myroncoleman9825]

Love the photography on this vide o my dad worked on the old Sout hern Railroad long ago they call it Norfolk Southern now they had a sl ogan are advertisement on the bo x car that read The Southern Serve s The South. Does anyone remem ber

[@garyjohnson1392]

I'm guessing that's a pretty high-end Drone that you're using. Footage is so good . Any chance you could list the make/model? Thanks a lot !

[@XOXFilmStudio]

DJI phantom 3 standard

[@robertproctor1358]

The dock to the right (looking at the water) I don't see any rails on the bridge, is that not used anymore or is it for something else??

[@renorailfanning5465]

My question exactly.

[@railsofthenorthland1181]

That is dock 5 and was abandoned in 1985 after the dock 6 rebuild when it was realized that the dock 6 could handle the work.

[@robertproctor1358]

@@railsofthenorthland1181 Thank you for clarifying that

[@davidgolbert3548]

What is the structure for that spans the tracks just before the viaduct passes over I-35?

[@douglasskaalrud6865]

That's a really good question. I've driven under it often enough-you'd think I'd know.

[@OsborneMcclintic]

that was the old bay bridge that went into superior... torn down around 79-80... was a narrow wooden bridge you could drive on... and did as a kid with my mom... it was held up with piles everywhere and was pretty rickety... long-gone era...

[@bigmonmagoomba9634]

Me, too. When I lived in Duluth 58-62.

[@railpast]

Are you able to walk out on the old one? Is it being saved and converted to a elevated park?

[@douglasskaalrud6865]

Dock 5 is private property (CN's) and it's very well fenced off because the dock is falling apart as the piles rot underneath it. If you want to try your luck there are ways of getting to the deck but the stairs are holed-through with rust. Know that CN is not kind to trespassers.

[@oriolesfan129]

Two years old and the loaded train still sits there.

[@bigmonmagoomba9634]

Probably a different one. I read somewhere that the length of an aberage freight train is about 140 cars. If that’s true than it would take 5 complete trains to fill the Barker or Mesabi Miner, six trains for the big Americans. They’ve probably got them lined up for miles waiting for the boats.

[@terrywitkowski9486]

I wonder where all the ore cars went? And what happened to the Ashland WI ore dock.

[@paulj1962]

The Ashland dock had not been used since 1965. They tried to re-purpose it but finally a few years ago the railroad tore it down. You can find video on you tube

[@terrywitkowski6937]

@@paulj1962 I was in Vietnam at the time. I went up there for a wedding, in 1979 took pictures of the Soo Line 950 a decapod, the dock was still there

[@TexanMAGABOI]

@@paulj1962 i wonder when watco will bring those old lines back

[@conservativethought1460]

What's the dock on the right ? Abandoned ?

[@douglasskaalrud6865]

The dock in use is Dock 6, the one on the right, facing the lake, is dock 5. Dock 5 is out of service-for good-because the piles under the dock are rotting and it's unstable. It hasn't been used in several decades. It would be impossible to outright "abandon" Dock 5 because it goes over Interstate 35 and it would be bad news for somebody if a rusty beam fell on them. There's probably enough steel in Dock 5 and the approach to it to build a skyscraper and then some.

[@lawrencekangas5120]

OP

[@Toddgillilandfan]

dulth missable and iorn range cars