We've had a vote for both south ends, how about the north end? Mixing it up with Oliver Mining, the DWP, and the GN, yards, mine runs, sawmills, pulpwood loading, small and medium sized towns loaded with rail served businesses, and even passenger trains in your period. It was an incredibly densely trafficed railroad back then. Everything from CTC main lines to two silver streaks through the trees. To me it's far more attractive than an ore dock.
For my money, the Missabe had some really handsome and powerful steamers. Of course, probably the best-known would have been those 18 magnificent M3/4 Yellowstones from Baldwin, arguably the most powerful American steam locomotives ever built. And they didn't spend all their time on the Missabe, either. During the winters of WWII, they spent time on the Rio Grande (who said they were the best steamers to ever run on the railroad), Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and though not documented, rumored to have run on the Western Pacific's Utah Division--which would make some sense, as the M3/4's were based on the design and specs of WP's 251 series 2-8-8-2's, built by Baldwin in the 'thirties. UP is "rebuilding" one of their Big Boys for operation, but for myself, I'd much rather see one of the preserved Missabe Yellowstones put back in operation. That is one spectacular HUNK of steam locomotive!
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
You can't forget the Two Harbors division. Kind of a combination of Duluth and Proctor. Yards, roundhouse, docks,shops all in one place. All very close to each other as you could walk to any area from one of the others. I guess I enjoyed this as a youngster but really it was just an everyday occurance. Ore trains coming in boats loading and the occasional derailment. So was riding in the cab of a Yellowstone or a Mike. The fact that my father was a engineer on the road made it easier to get to things, but almost every ones parent or relative worked on the road somewhere. Looking back I wish I had known what an advantage I had witnessing all of this.
God's Best & Happy Rails to You!
Bing (RIPRR The Route of the Buzzards)
The future: Dead Rail Society
Several months ago I posted a comment about the lack of DM&IR specific steam locomotives in HO scale. I received some feedback, both positive and negative. Mostly, that as a railroad the DM&IR wasn't very interesting to model. So I did some more studying. In the 1940-50 time frame within a 20 mile area, were the ore sorting yards, roundhouse and backshop operations at Proctor, Steelton Yards, a US Steel mill with blast furnace and coke plant in West Duluth along with a ship building yard, grain elevators,the ore loading docks, a swing bridge and viaducts, and the main Duluth yard. Seems like plenty of interest there. Lots of switching and yard industrial action. Also MTH is putting out a DM&IR Yellowstone in HO this year. Time to model the Missabe.