Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Steam Locomotives (Since 1900)

Published: October 22, 2026

Ore from the Mesabi and the Vermilion had to come down to Lake Superior, and the engines that did it were built for a hill. George H. Drury’s table of locomotives built since 1900 prints a quantity column of 252. That is the Duluth & Iron Range, the Duluth, Missabe & Northern, and the engines the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range added after the 1937 company was formed.

A Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range 2-8-8-4 leads ore jennies southbound through Alborn, Minnesota, circa 1959

A 2-8-8-4 southbound through Alborn, Minnesota, circa 1959, with ore jennies. American-Rails.com collection.

On this page: At a glance · The hill · Iron Range Division · Missabe Division · Switchers · Yellowstones · Engines from other roads · Roster

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range, and the Duluth & Iron Range and Duluth, Missabe & Northern locomotives in the same list. Company page
Scope	George H. Drury, locomotives built since 1900. Class C-1 includes engines built in 1899
Quantity column	252. Duluth & Iron Range 66, Duluth, Missabe & Northern 115, later DM&IR acquisitions 71
Frames	252, each once. The 1930 renumbering of Duluth & Iron Range engines is the same frames
Yellowstones	220–237, eighteen Baldwin 2-8-8-4s, 1941 and 1943. The engines
Last ore steam	2-8-8-4s on ore trains in July 1960. Last steam move, 2-10-2 514, September 29, 1962
Diesels	148 owned frames. Roster

The hill

From the Duluth ore docks up to Proctor the grade was 2.2 percent for about six miles. A Consolidation could bring 55 loads down from the mines to Proctor. The same engine was good for 28 empties back up the hill. The road looked briefly at electrifying that hill. There was no electric fleet.

When the two rosters were put together at the beginning of 1930, Duluth, Missabe & Northern numbers stayed as they were. Duluth & Iron Range numbers gained a 1 in front: 80 became 180, and 305 became 1305. Those are the same frames. Drury lists the predecessor numbers once. He does not list them again under the 1937 company. Pittsburgh, Brooks, and Schenectady in the builder column are American Locomotive Company works.

Iron Range Division

The Duluth & Iron Range switched from Consolidations to Twelve-Wheelers in 1893. The six class J Twelve-Wheelers of 1900, Schenectady, numbers 84–89, are the last of that idea in this table. The 1893 engines are outside it.

Nine Consolidations of 1905, class K, numbers 90–98, had 54-inch drivers and 22-by-28-inch cylinders. The earliest weighed 193,400 pounds. The last of the 1906–1910 batch, 200–224, weighed 198,850 pounds. Those 200s are not the Missabe Division’s Mallets. The 1930 prefix kept the two series apart.

The 1913 Mikados were one order split between Baldwin and Lima, six engines, 54-inch drivers, 27-by-30-inch cylinders, 287,600 pounds. Class N-1, three Baldwins of 1916, differed chiefly by 58-inch drivers. Class N-2, three Baldwins of 1923, was heavier and more powerful than the N-1s.

Passenger power was small beside the ore engines. Six Ten-Wheelers of 1900, numbers 101–106, were bought to stop doubleheading of 4-4-0s. Their 58-inch drivers were high-wheeled only next to 51- and 54-inch freight engines. Four Baldwin Pacifics of 1913, class A, numbers 107–110, had 69-inch drivers. Four Baldwin 0-6-0s of 1906 worked the Two Harbors dock and were replaced by Consolidations by 1927.

Missabe Division

The Duluth, Missabe & Northern’s first road engines were 29 Pittsburgh Ten-Wheelers with 56-inch drivers, built in 1893 and 1900. The table’s share is the seven of 1900, class F, numbers 27–33. The earlier 22 are not added.

Forty-nine Consolidations, classes C-1, C-2, and C-3, had 56-inch drivers, 22-by-28-inch cylinders, and weighed from 180,000 to 185,500 pounds. Class C-1, numbers 302–312, is dated 1899–1903, which is why one class in a since-1900 table begins in 1899. Most of the C-3s were rebuilt with superheaters and piston valves and stayed until dieselization. A Pittsburgh Consolidation of 1894, and another of 1895, are the start of that story. They sit inside the 49. They are not a second count.

In 1910 Baldwin delivered eight compound 2-8-8-2s, class M, numbers 200–207. Before mechanical stokers they could take 55 empty ore cars up the hill at 12 miles an hour. After stokers, 85 empties, at a lower speed. The front section of the two-section boiler carried a feedwater heater that did not work. The road took the heaters off and filled the space with 6 or 7 tons of steel plate. Superheaters, mechanical stokers, and Elesco heaters came later. The four of 1916 and 1917, classes M-1 and M-2, arrived with superheaters and stokers. They were shorter, with the firebox over the last two pairs of drivers. Five of the compounds were later rebuilt simple. Those are the same frames, and they are not listed again.

The E-class 2-10-2s, 500–505, Baldwin 1916, had 60-inch drivers, larger fireboxes, 28-by-32-inch cylinders, and 71,200 pounds of tractive effort, which Drury describes as 80 percent more than the Consolidations. The E-1s, 506–515, are United States Railroad Administration light 2-10-2s, slightly heavier and slightly less powerful, and generally better balanced. Ore trains were limited to 35 miles an hour, so the restriction that came with the government design was not a problem on this railroad.

Passenger Ten-Wheelers were a short experiment. A Baldwin pair of 1906, class F-1, had 67-inch drivers and wide fireboxes and steamed poorly. Baldwin reduced the cylinder diameter from 20 inches to 18¼ inches. The railroad altered one of the pair, without much success. The next pair, class F-2, 63-inch drivers, 1907, worked well enough that a third engine, class F-3, was ordered in 1910. Three Baldwin Pacifics, class P, numbers 400–402, had 69-inch drivers, cylinders 3 inches larger than the Iron Range Pacifics, at 25 by 28 inches, and weighed 245,700 pounds, which is 26,000 pounds more than those Pacifics.

Switchers

The Missabe Division’s last 0-6-0s were two Pittsburgh engines of 1900, class S-1, numbers 56 and 57, at 120,000 pounds, assigned to Proctor. Class S-3, four Baldwins of 1907, and class S-4, three Baldwins of 1910, replaced them. The S-4s had 51-inch drivers, 21-by-28-inch cylinders, and weighed 164,000 pounds. S-3s and S-4s were sold to Oliver Iron Mining in 1927. Six Schenectady 0-8-0s of 1910, class S-2, used the same size drivers and cylinders as the S-4s and were 43,500 pounds heavier. They were sold to American Steel & Wire in 1948. Four Baldwin 0-8-0s of 1917, class S-5, had 24-by-28-inch cylinders and were about the size of a government 0-8-0.

The heaviest switchers the road bought new were four Baldwin 0-10-0s of 1928, class S-6, numbers 90–93. They had cross-compound air compressors, 57-inch drivers, 28-by-30-inch cylinders, and weighed 352,250 pounds. At $85,715 each they were the most expensive locomotives the road had bought. Bridges kept them at Proctor and Two Harbors until the structures were strengthened. Tender boosters came off in the 1930s. Number 91 is the Proctor switcher on the company page.

Yellowstones

About 1940 the road wanted a locomotive about 25 percent stronger than the rebuilt Mallets on the Iron Range Division, the old Duluth & Iron Range. The starting point was a Western Pacific simple 2-8-8-4, with a four-wheel trailing truck, a heavier and longer frame, and a larger grate: 145 square feet against the Western Pacific’s 125. The Missabe burned high-quality coal. The Western Pacific engines burned oil. The Missabe engines had one-piece cast engine beds and roller bearings on all axles. Worthington feedwater heaters went on some, and Elesco heaters on the rest.

Baldwin delivered eight in 1941. Ten more came in 1943. Drury’s prose calls the 1941 engines class M-3 and the 1943 engines class M-4. His table prints one row, class M-3, numbers 220–237. This roster follows the table. Some of the 1943 engines were finished after the traffic had eased, and some of them went to the Rio Grande as helpers over Tennessee Pass and came back. The Rio Grande thought as highly of them as the Missabe did. The engines themselves, and the three that were saved, are the Yellowstone article. The wheel arrangement is the 2-8-8-4 page.

Steve Glischinski, in Classic Trains for April 1, 2021, puts the last 2-8-8-4 ore trains in July 1960. The engines 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. Drury’s retirement cell for 220–237 is 1958–1963. The SD18s that finished dieselization are dated April 1960 on the diesel roster.

Engines from other roads

Nine Baldwin 0-10-2s, class S-7, numbers 601–609, were built in 1936 and 1937 for the Union Railroad and bought in 1949. They went first to Proctor and the hill. They were slippery there. Weight on the drivers was increased by adjusting the trailing-truck equalizers and adding 10,000 pounds of steel plate toward the front. The built years in the table stay 1936–1937.

Twenty-six Mikados came from the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern. Class N-4 is Alco, 1312–1321, ex-746–755. Class N-5 is Lima, 1322–1325, ex-756–759. Class N-6 is Baldwin, 1326–1337, and Drury’s note prints an ellipsis, ex-761...774, against a quantity of 12. The numbers 761 through 774 would be fourteen engines. The ellipsis stays. The twelve are not filled in.

Eighteen 2-10-4s, numbers 700–717, came from the Bessemer & Lake Erie in 1951, Alco and Baldwin, built 1937–1943. Drury’s cell prints an ellipsis, ex-621...647, and a quantity of 18. The Bessemer steam roster names the eighteen: 621–631, 635, 637–638, 641, and 645–647. The table keeps his ellipsis. The class on his row is E-4 through E-7, printed as one line, and the retirement cell is the single year 1961.

Roster

The quantity column sums to 252. A blank note is an em dash. Retirement years are the span Drury prints, including a cell that names one year and then another.

Duluth & Iron Range

Type	Class	Numbers	Qty	Builder	Built	Retired	Notes
0-6-0	F	28–31	4	Baldwin	1906	1927	—
2-8-0	K	90–98	9	Baldwin	1905	1956–1961	—
2-8-0	K	200–224	25	Baldwin	1906–1910	1950–1959	—
2-8-2	N	300–303	4	Baldwin	1913	1961, 1959	—
2-8-2	N	304, 305	2	Lima	1913	1958–1959	—
2-8-2	N-1	306–308	3	Baldwin	1916	1958–1959	—
2-8-2	N-2	309–311	3	Baldwin	1923	1958–1959	—
4-6-0	M	101–106	6	Schenectady	1900	1929–1933	—
4-6-2	A	107–110	4	Baldwin	1913	1953–1955	—
4-8-0	J	84–89	6	Schenectady	1900	1933	—

Duluth & Iron Range quantity: 66.

Duluth, Missabe & Northern

Type	Class	Numbers	Qty	Builder	Built	Retired	Notes
0-6-0	S-1	56, 57	2	Pittsburgh	1900	Sold 1920	—
0-8-0	S-2	80–85	6	Schenectady	1910	Sold 1948	—
0-8-0	S-3	58–61	4	Baldwin	1907	Sold 1927	—
0-8-0	S-4	62–64	3	Baldwin	1910	Sold 1927	—
0-8-0	S-5	86–89	4	Baldwin	1917	1954–1958	—
0-10-0	S-6	90–93	4	Baldwin	1928	1955–1958	—
2-8-0	C-1	302–312	11	Alco	1899–1903	1933–1948	—
2-8-0	C-2	313–318	6	Pittsburgh	1904	Sold 1919	—
2-8-0	C-3	319–350	32	Pittsburgh	1905–1907	1919–1955	—
2-8-8-2	M	200–207	8	Baldwin	1910	1950–1953	—
2-8-8-2	M-1	208, 209	2	Baldwin	1916	1954, 1958	—
2-8-8-2	M-2	210, 211	2	Baldwin	1917	1957	—
2-10-2	E	500–505	6	Baldwin	1916	1959–1962	—
2-10-2	E-1	506–515	10	Brooks	1919	1959–1963	—
4-6-0	F	27–33	7	Pittsburgh	1900	1923–1939	—
4-6-0	F-1	100, 101	2	Baldwin	1906	Sold 1933	—
4-6-0	F-2	102, 103	2	Baldwin	1907	1932, sold 1933	—
4-6-0	F-3	104	1	Baldwin	1910	Sold 1933	—
4-6-2	P	400–402	3	Baldwin	1913	1955–1958	—

Duluth, Missabe & Northern quantity: 115.

Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range

Type	Class	Numbers	Qty	Builder	Built	Retired	Notes
0-10-2	S-7	601–609	9	Baldwin	1936–1937	1958–1963	Ex-Union Railroad. Bought 1949
2-8-2	N-4	1312–1321	10	Alco	1923	1958–1961	Ex-Elgin, Joliet & Eastern 746–755
2-8-2	N-5	1322–1325	4	Lima	1923	1958–1961	Ex-Elgin, Joliet & Eastern 756–759
2-8-2	N-6	1326–1337	12	Baldwin	1929–1930	1958–1962	Ex-Elgin, Joliet & Eastern 761...774
2-10-4	E-4–E-7	700–717	18	Alco, Baldwin	1937–1943	1961	Ex-Bessemer & Lake Erie 621...647. The Bessemer roster names 621–631, 635, 637–638, 641, and 645–647. Sold to the Missabe in 1951
2-8-8-4	M-3	220–237	18	Baldwin	1941, 1943	1958–1963	Eight of 1941 are class M-3. The ten of 1943 are class M-4 in the text. One row here

Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range quantity, the engines added after the predecessors: 71. Bessemer & Lake Erie is B&LE. Elgin, Joliet & Eastern is EJ&E. The three blocks together are 252.

Sources

George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, pp. 169–171. The since-1900 class table for the Duluth & Iron Range, the Duluth, Missabe & Northern, and the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range. The 1930 number prefix. The hill, the Mallets, the 2-10-2s, the switchers, the Yellowstones, and the 1949 and 1951 purchases. Recommended reading: Frank A. King, Locomotives of the Duluth Missabe & Iron Range (Pacific Fast Mail).
Steve Glischinski, “Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway: A History,” Classic Trains, April 1, 2021. Last 2-8-8-4 ore trains in July 1960. No. 229 at Proctor as late as November 1961. Last steam move, 2-10-2 514, September 29, 1962. Eighteen Bessemer 2-10-4s in 1951. Nine Union Railroad 0-10-2s in 1949.
Bessemer & Lake Erie steam roster. The eighteen 2-10-4s sold to the Missabe in 1951: 621–631, 635, 637–638, 641, and 645–647.

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