Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range No. 221 was one of 18 class M-3 2-8-8-4 "Yellowstone" type steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1941 for the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway (DM&IR), one of the primary iron ore hauling railroads in Minnesota. Iron ore is a heavy mineral, and combined with the railroads steep grades, made transporting the material from the mines to the Great Lakes a tricky task, and this required great amounts of power.
The DM&IR decided to build eight engines that would be similar to the Western Pacific's 2-8-8-2's. These new engines were built with large fireboxes and all weather cabs causing a second axle to be added on the rear truck. This arrangement earned them the name "Yellowstones" and were the most powerful engines of this type producing 140,000 lbf of tractive effort. The first eight were delivered in 1941 with another ten of these engines arriving in 1943 numbered 220–237.
No. 221 was the second member of the first batch that was delivered in 1941 and served the DM&IR faithfully hauling ore trains between the Iron Range, Two Harbors and Duluth/Proctor until its retirement in 1960.
In 1960 No. 222 was sent to Two Two Harbors, Minnesota to be put on static display after it was retired. However, it only remained on display for a few months as it was needed for a DM&IR fan trip and was taken out of retirement and put back into service. No. 236 was chosen to replace No. 222 on the display but that too was later removed from the display when it was needed to provide steam for iron ore thawing duties.
Since No. 236 was also needed elsewhere, No. 221 was selected as the next candidate to replace it. No. 221 remained on the display site until 1967 but by this point it had deteriorated drastically due to being exposed to the elements and had been heavily vandalized. The decay was so severe that the DM&IR felt that it had to be scrapped so it was pulled from Two Harbors to the Proctor roundhouse and was later sold for scrap.
With No. 221 now lost to the cutters torch, No. 229, which had been stored in the Proctor roundhouse up until then, was chosen as the final engine to be displayed at the Two Harbors site where its three former siblings once sat. This time a protective covering and a security fence was put up around the locomotive so that what happened to No. 221 wouldn't happen again to No. 229.
No. 229 is still on display at Two Harbors to this day and is only one of three Yellowstones to have been preserved along with No. 225 and No. 227.
Accidents and Incidents[]
- No. 221 suffered a derailment in the mid 1950s on the Alborn Branch.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Two Harbors DM&IR 221 Front (Aug '65).jpg (145 KB)")