Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway

Last revised: October 22, 2026

The Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range carried iron ore from the Mesabi and the Vermilion down to the Lake Superior docks at Duluth and Two Harbors. Reporting mark DMIR. The Duluth & Iron Range was chartered in 1874. The Duluth, Missabe & Northern was incorporated on June 23, 1891. By 1901 both railroads were under U.S. Steel. The Missabe Road leased the Iron Range on January 1, 1930. The Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range was formed on July 1, 1937, and on March 22, 1938 it acquired the Duluth & Iron Range and the Interstate Transfer. George H. Drury’s list of steam locomotives built since 1900 is the steam roster. The quantity column prints 252. The diesel roster can be found here. Canadian National’s purchase of Great Lakes Transportation was finalized on May 10, 2004. The company stayed on paper until December 31, 2011, when Canadian National merged it, with the Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific, into Wisconsin Central Ltd.

Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range SD18s lead empties out of Duluth toward the Skyline Parkway overpass on May 1, 1970

SD18s lead empties out of Duluth and are about to duck under the Skyline Parkway overpass, May 1, 1970. Jim Jeffery photo. American-Rails.com collection.

On this page: Vermilion · Mesabi · The two railroads · At a glance · Ore, taconite, and the hill · Steam · Passenger trains · Diesels · Canadian National

Vermilion

The Vermilion Range came first. In 1881 Tower and George C. Stone took up the Duluth & Iron Range charter of 1874 and built a 68-mile railroad from Agate Bay, now Two Harbors, inland to Tower. The first iron-ore train in Minnesota ran on July 31, 1884.

Tower sold the Duluth & Iron Range to Illinois Steel in 1887. The property passed to Federal Steel, and then to U.S. Steel. The railroad’s own line left Duluth along the lake to Two Harbors, then inland to Virginia, Eveleth, Tower, Babbitt, and Winton. Ore from that range went to the docks at Two Harbors.

Mesabi

The Mesabi was discovered in 1890 by Lewis Merritt and three sons, near Mountain Iron. Mesabi is an Ojibwe name, also spelled Missabe. The Duluth, Missabe & Northern was incorporated on June 23, 1891, to bring that ore to the lake. The first Mesabi ore moved on October 17, 1892, by way of Stony Brook.

The railroad then built its own line into Duluth and the yard at Proctor. From Proctor down to the Duluth docks the line drops 600 feet, and the maximum grade is 2.2 percent. The first ore reached those docks on July 22, 1893. The Panic of 1893 put the property in the control of John D. Rockefeller. By 1901 the Duluth, Missabe & Northern and the Duluth & Iron Range were both under U.S. Steel.

The Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway logo. Author’s work.

The two railroads

The Missabe Road left Duluth through Proctor and the hill, then northwest to Coleraine, Hibbing, and Virginia. In 1915 it leased the Spirit Lake Transfer Railway, a link between its line at Adolph, near Proctor, and the Interstate Transfer at Oliver, Wisconsin, across from Steelton. The Interstate Transfer ran from Oliver to Itasca, in eastern Superior, and connected there with the Northern Pacific, the Omaha Road, the Soo Line, the Wisconsin Central, and the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic. Headquarters were in Duluth. The operating yard was Proctor.

On January 1, 1930, the Duluth, Missabe & Northern leased the Duluth & Iron Range. Missabe numbers stayed as they were. Iron Range numbers gained a 1 in front, so that 80 became 180 and 305 became 1305. Those are the same engines. On July 1, 1937, the Duluth, Missabe & Northern and the Spirit Lake Transfer Railway were consolidated as the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range. On March 22, 1938, that company acquired the Duluth & Iron Range and the Interstate Transfer. Two operating divisions remained. The Iron Range Division was the old Duluth & Iron Range. The Missabe Division was the old Duluth, Missabe & Northern.

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range. Mark DMIR. Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin
Headquarters	Duluth. The operating yard is Proctor
Duluth & Iron Range	Chartered 1874. Agate Bay, now Two Harbors, to Tower, 68 miles. First ore train July 31, 1884
Duluth, Missabe & Northern	Incorporated June 23, 1891. First Mesabi ore October 17, 1892. First ore at the Duluth docks July 22, 1893
Lease	Duluth, Missabe & Northern leased the Duluth & Iron Range on January 1, 1930
DM&IR	Formed July 1, 1937. Acquired the Duluth & Iron Range and the Interstate Transfer on March 22, 1938
Divisions	Iron Range, the former Duluth & Iron Range. Missabe, the former Duluth, Missabe & Northern
Docks	Two Harbors and Duluth
Steam	Quantity column 252, and 252 frames. Fleet in 1951, 172 locomotives. Roster
Diesels	148 owned frames, each once. A Helm lease of twenty SD40-3s is counted apart. Roster
2004 description	Canadian National’s May 10, 2004 release describes the 212-mile company
On paper through	December 31, 2011, merged into Wisconsin Central Ltd., controlled by Canadian National

Ore, taconite, and the hill

In 1932 the railroad ran no all-ore train. The Second World War reversed the traffic, and the all-time tonnage record came in 1953. Natural ore gave way to taconite. The plants were Fairlane, near Forbes; Minntac, at Mountain Iron; and Minorca, near Virginia. In 1973 taconite exceeded natural ore.

The Coleraine Branch was abandoned in 1977. The original Duluth & Iron Range line to Tower and Ely was taken up in 1982. The next year, 25 miles of the logging branch northeast from Wales were lifted. Double track on the Iron Range Division came down to a single track in the 1960s. The Missabe Division was single-tracked in 1988. Ore still went to the docks at Two Harbors and Duluth.

An official 1969 system map of the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway

An official, 1969 system map of the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway. Author’s collection.

For about six miles, from the Duluth ore docks up to Proctor, the grade was 2.2 percent. A Consolidation could bring 55 loads from the mines to Proctor. The same engine was good for 28 empties back up the hill. The engines built for that work, including the Yellowstones, are on the steam roster. The 1940 timetable is a separate page.

Steam

Steve Glischinski records that the steam fleet peaked at 172 locomotives in 1951. That is a fleet in one year. Drury’s since-1900 quantity column, the Duluth & Iron Range, the Duluth, Missabe & Northern, and the engines added after 1937, prints 252. The Bessemer & Lake Erie 2-10-4s, the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Mikados, and the Union Railroad 0-10-2s are on that roster.

The road locomotive of the ore seasons was the 2-8-8-4. Baldwin delivered eighteen, numbers 220–237, in 1941 and 1943. The last of them on ore trains ran in July 1960. They still made excursions in 1961, and 229 steamed at Proctor as late as November 1961. The last steam move was an excursion with 2-10-2 514 on September 29, 1962.

Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range 2-8-8-4 231 at Proctor, Minnesota, in July 1959

2-8-8-4 231 at Proctor, Minnesota, in July 1959. Photographer unknown.

Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range 2-10-2 514 at Duluth, Minnesota, in September 1962

2-10-2 514 at Duluth, Minnesota, in September 1962. Rick Burn photo.

Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range 0-10-0 91 in the Proctor yard, circa 1955

0-10-0 91 in the Proctor yard, circa 1955. American-Rails.com collection.

Passenger trains

Into the 1950s, Pacifics pulled the passenger trains. In 1953 a Budd RDC-3 went on the Iron Range Division, a daily round trip between Duluth and Winton by way of Two Harbors. Duluth–Hibbing was discontinued in 1953. The Minnesota Supreme Court ordered it restored in 1956, and the RDC then made both round trips, about 400 miles a day. Hibbing ended at the end of 1957. The Winton train last ran on July 15, 1961. The diesel roster counts locomotives. The RDC-3 stays with these trains.

Diesels

The railroad was all steam until 1953, when fifteen SW9s arrived. It borrowed F7s from the Bessemer & Lake Erie, then settled on SD9s. Six Alco RSD-15s came in 1959 for Two Harbors and went to the Bessemer in 1964. Nineteen SD18s arrived in April 1960. The owned roster is 148 frames. Twenty SD40-3s leased from Helm in 1996 and 1997 are counted apart, on the diesel roster.

Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range SD18 181 and SD9 162 at Virginia, Minnesota, on August 22, 1966

SD18 181 and SD9 162 at Virginia, Minnesota, on August 22, 1966. Marty Bernard photo.

Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range SD9s 170 and 153 at Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota, circa 1960

SD9s 170 and 153 at Hoyt Lakes, circa 1960. Thomas Hoff photo.

Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range SDM 320 with taconite at Iron, Minnesota, on August 15, 1994

SDM 320 at Iron, Minnesota, on August 15, 1994. Wade Massie photo.

The tug Edna G on display in front of Dock 1 at Two Harbors, Minnesota

The tug Edna G. on display in front of Dock 1 at Two Harbors. Doug Kroll photo.

Canadian National

In 1988 U.S. Steel spun the DM&IR, its other ore railroads, and its shipping companies off to the subsidiary Transtar, and sold majority control to the Blackstone Group. In 2001 those holdings moved from Transtar to Great Lakes Transportation, fully owned by Blackstone.

On October 20, 2003, Canadian National announced it would buy Great Lakes Transportation, which also held the Bessemer & Lake Erie, the Pittsburgh & Conneaut Dock, and Great Lakes Fleet. The purchase was finalized on May 10, 2004, at a price of US$380 million. The release of that day, a Form 6-K filed in Montreal, describes the 212-mile Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway Company. The 17-mile segment in the same filing is in the Twin Ports, Duluth and Superior, together with a line parallel to Canadian National’s own line in the 64-mile corridor north of the two cities.

The Surface Transportation Board announced Decision No. 7 in Finance Docket No. 34424 on April 9, 2004, press release No. 04-12. Canadian National and Grand Trunk Corporation acquired the DM&IR, the Bessemer and Lake Erie, and the Pittsburgh & Conneaut Dock. Great Lakes Fleet, Inc., the water carrier, was left to its own regulator. The conditions included one year of oversight, open gateways, a waiver of the bottleneck rate defense, a settlement with BNSF on a build-out, and protection of competition where Canadian National and the DM&IR both operated.

With that sale the independent Missabe was gone. The company stayed on paper until December 31, 2011. On that day Canadian National merged the DM&IR and the Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific into Wisconsin Central Ltd. The Federal Register of April 22, 2011, 76 FR 22748, carried the notice of exemption, Docket No. FD 35476. Wisconsin Central Ltd., the DM&IR, and the Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific had filed jointly under 49 CFR 1180.2(d)(3). The notice, filed April 8, 2011, scheduled consummation no sooner than May 8, 2011, the exemption’s effective date. Canadian National’s release of December 30, 2011, reports the merger completed on December 31. The successor is Wisconsin Central Ltd., controlled by Canadian National.

Sources

George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, pp. 169–171. The two routes. The rosters put together at the beginning of 1930, with Iron Range numbers prefixed by 1. The hill, about six miles at 2.2 percent, 55 loads from the mines to Proctor and 28 empties back up. The since-1900 quantity column, 252. The class grids are the steam roster.
Steve Glischinski, “Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway: A History,” Classic Trains, April 1, 2021. Tower and George C. Stone in 1881, the 68 miles from Agate Bay to Tower, and the first ore train on July 31, 1884. The Mesabi in 1890, incorporation on June 23, 1891, first Mesabi ore on October 17, 1892, by way of Stony Brook, the 600-foot drop to the Duluth docks, and first ore there on July 22, 1893. The lease of January 1, 1930. Formation on July 1, 1937, with the Spirit Lake Transfer Railway. Acquisition of the Duluth & Iron Range and the Interstate Transfer on March 22, 1938. The 1915 lease of the Spirit Lake Transfer, Adolph to Oliver, and the Interstate Transfer from Oliver to Itasca. The 1932 season, the 1953 tonnage record, the taconite plants, 1973, and the abandonments of 1977, 1982, and 1983. Passenger service through July 15, 1961. Steam fleet of 172 in 1951. Last 2-8-8-4 ore trains in July 1960, No. 229 at Proctor in November 1961, and 2-10-2 514 on September 29, 1962. Transtar, Blackstone, and the company on paper through December 31, 2011.
Canadian National, Form 6-K, Montreal, May 10, 2004. Purchase of Great Lakes Transportation finalized that day at US$380 million. The release describes the 212-mile Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway Company. The 17-mile segment is the Twin Ports and the parallel line in the 64-mile corridor north of Duluth and Superior. The announcement of the purchase was October 20, 2003.
Surface Transportation Board, press release No. 04-12, April 9, 2004. Finance Docket No. 34424, Decision No. 7. Canadian National and Grand Trunk Corporation acquire the DM&IR, the Bessemer and Lake Erie, and the Pittsburgh & Conneaut Dock. Great Lakes Fleet, Inc. is the water carrier.
Federal Register, April 22, 2011, 76 FR 22748, FR Doc. 2011-9820, Docket No. FD 35476. Notice of exemption filed April 8, 2011, by Wisconsin Central Ltd., DMIR, and the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific, under 49 CFR 1180.2(d)(3). Consummation scheduled no sooner than May 8, 2011.
Canadian National news release, December 30, 2011. The merger was completed on December 31, 2011. The successor is Wisconsin Central Ltd.
The owned diesel count, 148, and the Helm lease of twenty, are the diesel roster. Serials and builder orders are there.

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