DULUTH MISSABE & NORTHERN  COAL DOCK AT PROCTOR, MN.
by Jeff Lemke  
"Coal is what kept the whole place moving. We made money from the ore. But without the coal nothing would have happened here. Coal powered the railroad and the economy."
RAILROAD LANDMARK: PROCTOR'S LOCOMOTIVE COALING STATION
Proctor, Minnesota has long been famous for its iron ore sorting yards. But there was another valuable commodity used here to keep the whole thing going - coal.

In 1916 the Duluth, Missabe & Northern Railway erected a mammoth concrete and steel coaling facility that supplied the fuel that powered their steam locomotives. For 54 years this 100-foot tall structure dominated the landscape here.

Join me on Zenith City Online for a look back at the men and machines that utilized this landmark facility. Each month I write about the railroads and industries of Duluth-Superior and the surrounding communities.

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Cheers!

Jeff Lemke

Things We Buy
and
Stories in Prep
DM&IR Railway at Proctor, MN.
Ore Yard Plan, Rolled, 75 Inches Long undefined

My Twin Ports Rail History newsletter and the stories provided to Zenith City Online are free public resources. We spend an extensive amount of time researching, writing, and editing the content you read on these pages. If you appreciate what we do here then please consider becoming a Sponsor Subscriber for May. I'm hand-picking my collection to find some of the more interesting items to share with my Sponsors. Proceeds help to defray the costs of content creation so that I can include a wider variety of material for you to enjoy each month.

  

For May, I selected something that I think you'll agree goes nicely with our topic of the month. This is a very nice line diagram of the Missabe's Proctor Yard schematic. It covers the very same yard pictured at the top of this newsletter. It measures 75 inches long when it's unrolled. This large plan runs from the old DM&N roundhouse at the south end of the yard all the way north to Adolph. It includes everything in between the two points, i.e. the yards, car shops, old and new roundhouses, diesel house, scale track, mainlines, and even the line split at Adolph. This is a high quality black & white plan, black image on white bond paper. Each track is represented by a single line. This plan provides clarity to better understand exactly how the tracks were arranged and numbered.  The original plan hung inside the Proctor roundhouse and was used by employees to familiarize themselves with the yard. It's dated 1938 then updated to 1985 when the yard still had most of its original track before CN began removing things. This is a lovely, full-size reproduction of that exact plan. It shows the configuration of tracks as they were, 30 years ago.

The Proctor Yard Plan ships USPS rolled inside of a waterproof bag then packed inside of a square cardboard tube. Package tracking and delivery confirmation are included too. If you're interested in following along as we explore these places in more detail down the road then this is an excellent way to increase your own capabilities as an industrial archeologist. You can use this plan to decipher the past within your own hobby and research projects.

 

Click the donate button to become a Sponsor Subscriber for May and I'll send you a Proctor Yard Plan as my way of saying thanks for helping me to keep things rolling.

 

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