Photograph courtesy of Brian Bennett.
Throughout North America, railroads have appealed to the iconography of the vast western frontier, but the image of the arrow itself is never as indelible as when on the running flanks of the Duluth Missabe and Iron Range.
On September 25, 2006, Brian Bennett and Matt Robertson were pacing the 316 south as it led a T-Bird on the pacing straights between Eveleth and Forbes, MN. Of this experience, Bennett wrote, "Those magnificent P5 bells were singing the songs of taconite and Minnesota... Watching that arrow fly to the sound of screaming 645D3As, 645Es, 645E3s, and D77s was enough to bring a tear to the eye."
We couldn't agree more.
Raise the glass! Chase the Arrow.
Blaine Hadfield
Awesome! Dan Kohlberg reminded me that a “T-bird” took raw tax from the Thunderbird mine to the Eveleth. This was the refined pellet loads roaring south towards the docks at Duluth. Thunderbird and Eveleth are up in the same corner of the railroad; my memory was skewed!