"The Missabe Road tells the complete story of the DM&IR: its construction, early operation, line extensions, passenger service, rolling stock, steam locomotives, and today's modern diesels. Frank A. King examines underground and open pit mining operations, modern-day taconite mining, the handling and transportation of ore to the docks, and the loading of boats."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This illustrated look at the history the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railroad begins with a brief look back at its late-nineteenth-century origins in the Duluth & Iron Range and Duluth, Missabe & Northern railroads. The bulk of the book, however, covers the period from 1937-when those two roads merged under U.S. Steel-to today. Along the way, readers will learn about and witness the road's legendary early steam power, the evolution of its unique mining operations, its switch to diesel power in the 1950s, and its modern fleet and operations. About the AuthorJeff Lemke is the advertising director for RailModel Journal magazine. His photography has been featured TRAINS, Model Railroader, and RailModel Journal. He lives in Bloomingdale, Illinois.Hardcover - 8-1/4" x 10-5/8" - 160 pp - 125 color, 75 b/w
During the heyday of lumberjacks and sawmills, railroads such as the Duluth and Northern Minnesota and the Alger-Smith enabled logging companies to break away from the traditional mode of transportation (floating logs downriver) and its shortfalls (logjams and winter freezes). Frank King traces this rich history from its beginnings in 1886 to the railroads' disappearance around 1937 when the last of the giant sawmills closed down. King profiles every logging railroad in Minnesota and examines all aspects of their operations, including locomotives such as the geared Shays and Heislers, McGiffert log loaders, Russel log cars, dump trestles, hot ponds, logging camp life, railroad finances, and the impact on communities as timber supplies ran out and lumbering and sawmill operations shut down, causing thousands to lose their jobs. Heavily illustrated throughout, Minnesota Logging Railroads contains maps, photographs, postcards, engineering drawings, and railroad memorabilia such as timetables, passes, fare receipts, and freight tariffs. The appendixes comprehensively list the state's logging railroads, locomotive rosters, and railroad and lumber company names.
Author Tom Murray provides an unprecedented look at a national icon, from its genesis amid the turmoil surrounding World War I to its acquisition of the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway and its lease of BC Rail, both in 2003. In addition to exploring Canadian National operations and equipment through depression, war, modernization, and acquisitions, Murray explains how the railway affected and was influenced by the vast and varied regions it served. Marvelous photography from top shooters and Canadian archives, along with period timetables and print ads, illustrate CN's extraordinary geographic reach, diverse operations, and social and economic roles, both as a government entity for 70-plus years and more recently as a privatized industry exemplar.
Written by historians at Harvard Business School, Mississippi State U., and St. Cloud State U. (Minn.), this history details the development and day- to-day affairs of this powerful business, and the careers of the main figures instrumental in its operation. This definitive work, first published by
The American public has a fascination with railroad wrecks that goes back a long way. One hundred years ago, staged railroad accidents were popular events. At the Iowa State fair in 1896, 89,000 people paid $20 each, at current prices, to see two trains, throttles wide open, collide with each other. "Head-on Joe" Connolly made a business out of "cornfield meets" holding seventy-three events in thirty-six years. Picture books of train wrecks do good business presumably because a train wreck can guarantee a spectacular destruction of property without the messy loss of life associated with aircraft accidents. A "train wreck" has also entered the popular vocabulary in a most unusual way. When political manoeuvering leads to failure to pass the federal budget, and a shutdown is likely of government services, this is widely called a "train wreck. " In business and team sports, bumbling and lack of coordination leading to a spectacular and public failure to perform is also called "causing a train wreck. " A person or organization who is disorganized may be labelled a "train wreck. " It is therefore not surprising that the public perception of the safety of railroads centers on images of twisted metal and burning tank cars, and a general feeling that these events occur quite often. After a series of railroad accidents, such as occurred in the winter of 1996 or the summer of 1997, there are inevitable calls that government "should do something.
