The Minnesota chapter of the Society of Mining Engineers chartered their annual fall rail trip on LTV from Knox Yard at Hoyt Lakes to Taconite Harbor in 1995, with an A-B-A set of F9s on the lead.
The Minnesota chapter of the Society of Mining Engineers chartered their annual fall rail trip on LTV from Knox Yard at Hoyt Lakes to Taconite Harbor in 1995, with an A-B-A set of F9s on the lead.
After the wreck that took out two F9As and two F9Bs, LTV finds themselves a bit short on power and is borrowing two DM&IR SD9s, paired up with F9A #4210 and one of the GP20Ms.
I feel like this is one of those photos that's rare, but as a photographer, not what you want. A full set of GP20Ms and GP38s handling a road train, without any F9s in the consist, was truly a rarity. But people who went to LTV Mining Railroad were typically going specifically for the F9s, so EMD Geeps would be a bit disappointing to catch.
By the late 1990s, the F9s began to be consolidated into a solid 6-pack A-B-B-B-B-A lashup.
The #4211 leads a solid mix of Geeps in November of '99
Former Erie Mining Company F9A #4210 leads a loaded ore train with 119 cars downgrade towards Taconite Harbor on a beautiful summer day. Looks like some sort of lease unit at the very back, since those appear to be GE flared radiators and the paint looks to be dark blue and yellow, not maroon and yellow.
The 7am taconite job nears Highway 1 at Murphy City for a trip to the dock at Taconite Harbor.
F9A #4210 leads the LTV's infamous "6-pack" up and away from the dock at Taconite Harbor just moments before the shadows engulf the entire scene. According to the photographer, the F-units were running in the 3:00 pm slot this day with 120 loads of taconite pellets and word had it that one of the B-units was permanently sidelined the following day, conceivably making this one of the last photos ever taken of the LTV 6-pack operating in revenue service.
Ex-Monongahela Railway Baldwin S-12 switchers rest in the dead lines at Hoyt Lakes in the summer of 2000, in various states of decay. At least three of them ended up at SMS Rail Services, and the #7241 became SMS Rail Service #304, which I caught operating at the Woodstown Central last summer.
Time runs out for the LTV Mining Railroad. By when this photo was taken, May 2001, the curtains were rapidly falling on the line. Among the reasons for the planned closure in July of 2001 were obsolete technology, since the plant's pellet plant used outdated shaft furnace technology, costs for the plant's furnaces would cost more than $500 million, and declining ore quality that contained high levels of impurities. In this late photo, an F9 A-B pair leads two leaser GEs that includes an ex-ATSF SF30C.
A crew mounts a flag aboard the #4211 before departing with the last loaded taconite train on the LTV Mining Railroad. The #4211 would be donated to Lake Superior Railroad Museum after the shutdown.
It's three years later, and the F9s are back on the job, now working for Cliffs Erie Railroad. In 2002 Cleveland Cliffs bought the old Erie Mining/LTV plant, and again renamed the railroad to Cliffs Erie Railroad. In 2004, Cliffs Erie hired a contractor to claim leftover chips and pellets from the mine due to high iron prices, and also began selling off parts of the old, shutdown pelletizing plant. They used the only unsold locomotives, which were the F9As and the RS-11s, and even leased back the #4211 from the Lake Superior Railroad Museum. This is one of the first moves on the rejuvenated line in 2004, with an A-B-B-B set of F9s and 26 loaded cars.
The #4211 back on the job after a brief 3 year retirement.
A pair of F9s ease back to pick up RS-11 #7209 and a waste water tank car from the top of the dormant ore dock in 2006. Cliffs Erie had moved some cars to the dock area to pick up grinding equipment that needed to be moved to Hoyt Lakes and from there by truck to Duluth for placement on a ship for India.
The #4210 moves a short train of grinding mill parts that are being sold off by Cliffs Erie in 2006.
An A-B-A set sit in front of the shuttered pelletizing plant that Cliffs Erie was dismantling. The pelletizing plant was part of the reason that LTV Mining shut down the operation in 2001, and Cliffs Erie was taking parts of it out and selling them to companies overseas.
After a flurry of activity from 2004 to 2006, the line went dormant for two years before Cliffs Erie began hauling waste ore trains again in the summer of 2008. After two years of inactivity, the crew of the first train over the former Erie Mining mainline pauses at Sarto to inspect their train. The #4210 was the only F9 lettered for Cliffs Erie.
Heading through the loops to the docks, the F9As are 52 years old in this photo and still hard at work. The line had been reactivated to haul ore stored in the dock back to the mine/plant for reloading into trains for Sparrows Point.
Cliffs Erie F-units working hard with 12 loads of chips and fines bound for Tunnel Siding.
The wear and tear is starting to become evident on the 52 year old F9s, and the weeds in the rails are evidence of the fact that the railroad has been dormant for 2 years.
An excavator loads a cut of cars with the mine tailings and chips at the dormant docks.
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