North Shore Scenic Railroad trip!

Today we were in Duluth, and one of our stops was to take a ride on the North Shore Scenic Railroad.

The train left the Duluth Depot at 12:30. We got there at 11:00, so we had plenty of time to check out the train museum in the depot. I have to say, it is one of the better train museums out there. The collection has a lot of ties to the Duluth/Superior area railroads. My new favorite in there is the DM&IR observation car. It was a business car for the railroad, and was, well, pimped. Lots of nice wood furniture, fine china, and other treasures.

Around 12:00, the train pulled up to the depot. Today's power was a restored Soo Line GP30. As a bonus, as it pulled by getting the train ready, one of the access doors was open, so you could get a look at the prime mover. The train we took went from the Depot in downtown Duluth, to the the Lester River bridge in east Duluth.



We started out in an old Great Northern coach, that still had the original interior which is cool. The slight smell in the coach was not so cool. It kind of reminded me of Emma the Schnauzer and one of her less pleasant hobbies. When we got to the end of the line, we headed out to the open air car, which was very cool, in more ways than one! From there, we got an up close view of the engine as it cut off to run around the train for the return trip.

















SOO 700 shows off it's intimates before our train left

















SOO 700 running around the train to take us back to Duluth. You can see some excess air being blown out.


After we got back, we had heard rumors that the steam special, using the Soo Line 2719 would be rolling down the line. We waited for an hour and a half after it's scheduled departure from Two Harbors. Alas it never showed. We then packed up and headed back to camp for steaks and a fairly nice campfire.