You Need to be Big to Carry All of that Weight

The locomotive on the front of this post card is a very large, M4 class locomotive. In the Whyte Classification it is a Yellowstone Type steam locomotive design, of the 2-8-8-4 wheel arrangement and an articulated

design featured many of the peak technological advances of the motive power being developed in the late 1920s. The 2-8-8-4's late development also meant that few, in comparison to other types, were ever built. In total 72 of these massive machines were manufactured for four different railroads: the Baltimore & Ohio; Northern Pacific; Southern Pacific and the railroad featured on this post card, the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway (DM&IR). This website gives a history of how the DM&IR came to be. It is a long history that starts in the 1880s and continues to its birth in the 1930s and its disappearance in the 2000s. https://www.american-rails.com/missabe.html The Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway (DM&IR) was a Minnesota institution that played a vital role in our country's steel production. It is the result of a merger of two previously existing railroads. The two railroads remained separate corporate entities until a series of transactions in the late 1930s; first, the Duluth, Missabe & Northern (DM&N) and Spirit Lake Transfer Railway were merged on July 1, 1937 to form the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway. The Spirit Lake Transfer Railway was formed in 1907, this DM&N subsidiary eventually constructed 11 miles in the West Duluth area to serve a steel mill owned by the Minnesota Steel Company. While several Midwestern carriers moved iron ore in some capacity only the Missabe Road did so on a grand scale along a condensed network of just a few hundred miles. Its main lines fanned out northward from docks situated at Duluth and Two Harbors to serve the bountiful Mesabi and Vermilion Ranges. The discovery of this important resource predates the Civil War although contemporary mining operations did not begin until the early 1880's. In time, two railroads came to serve the region; the Duluth & Iron Range and Duluth, Missabe & Northern. After many years as separate entities the two merged in the late 1930's to form the modern Missabe Road. Over the years its system map constantly changed as it built, then removed, trackage while following the iron. As time passed the natural ore fields were exhausted which gave rise to the taconite pellet, a sort of man-made ore created from natural deposits. In May of 2004 Canadian National purchased Great Lakes Transportation, which owned the DM&IR, and within a decade its corporate identity vanished.

The post card was published by Audio Visual Designs (AVD) out of Earlton, New York. This post card is one of three hunred and thirty three in my collection that were published by AVD. The photo credit is given to Bob Lorenz. I found this article on line about a Bob Lorenz. I will not be surprised if this is the man who took the photo. This is from: https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/20-artist-designer-bob-lorenz-dies-at-95/ "It’s not a brash claim to say that no railroad artist or designer has ever reached as large an audience as Robert “Bob” H. Lorenz, thanks to his memorable paint scheme for the American Freedom Train of 1975-76. Millions of people witnessed his patriotic flourish as the Freedom Train rolled through hundreds of towns and cities across the U.S. That’s quite a legacy for Lorenz, who died peacefully on Tuesday in Fremont, the place he called home since childhood. He was 95."

You Can Still See It Today

The locomotive on display on the front of this post card is still in existence today. This was the first locomotive used to haul iron ore from the Iron Range to the ore docks at Two Harbors, Minnesota.

The Duluth & Iron Range Railroad No. 3 is a 2-6-0 "Mogul" type steam locomotive built by the Baldwin locomotive works in 1883 for the Duluth & Iron Range Railroad. It was intended for a railroad in Brazil at a cost of $12,000, but was refused on technical grounds and needing a locomotive to help lay rails from Two Harbors, MN., the D&IR purchased it for $9,750. The locomotive was shipped to Two Harbors by barge and was the only wood burning locomotive ever operated on the road. It was a good choice, however, because it could take fuel from the plentiful adjacent forests, and water from the many local rivers and streams as it hauled rails, supplies and equipment from Agate Bay up to the rail head. The locomotive was assigned to the Minnesota Iron Company in 1874, where it hauled iron ore from its Soudan mine to Two Harbors, and the company greatly contributed to the growth of the town. It was bought by Illinois Steel in 1887 which, in 1901, became part of United States Steel Corporation. The D&IR then merged into the Duluth Missabe & Iron Range in 1938. As heavier locomotives arrived on the D&IR, "3 Spot" was beginning to seem unsuited for the longer trains. Surplus to requirements, it was sold to the Duluth & Northern Minnesota, another ore carrier operating out of the Missabe Range to docks at Superior, WI, and Duluth, MN, in 1899 and was renumbered #2. Today the locomotive is on static display at the Two Harbors Depot Museum in Two Harbors, MN.

The psot card was printed by W. A. Fisher Company of Virginia, Minnesota. Founded in 1922 in Virginia, MN, the W.A. Fisher Company broke into the business world as a printer and lithographer – one of the first north of the Twin Cities. Although the company has since expanded to include advertising, marketing and interactive divisions, full service printing and binding remains as one of our core capabilities. Over our many years in business, W.A. Fisher Printing has built a reputation for quality and outstanding customer service.