DM&IR No. 224 is a Class M-3 2-8-8-4 "Yellowstone" type steam locomotive currently on static display at Charles E. Carlson Park.
History[]
This enormous engine was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1941 for the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Ridge railroad, one of the primary iron ore hauling railroads in Minnesota. Iron ore is heavy, and combined with the railroads steep grades, made transporting this material from the mines to the Great Lakes a tricky task and required great amounts of power. Indeed, even the 2-8-8-0 locomotives - the most powerful ones of the DM&IR's roster - needed a helping hand.
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 requiring 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.
Although the 225 is called a "Yellowstone", footplate crews called it a "Mallet" after Swiss engineer Anatole Mallet. Mallet introduced locomotive articulation, in which the rear engine is rigidly attached to the main body and boiler of the locomotive, while the front engine rides on a separate truck attached to the rigid rear frame by a pivot so that it can swing from side to side.
The first eight were delivered in 1941 and performed beyond the DM&IR's expectations, who ordered another ten of these engines in 1943. The engines performed so well that several were loaned out to the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad for use on their Tennessee Pass route. The Rio Grande heralded the engines as being the best ones to operate.
The engines began fading into obscurity as dieselization took hold. After an accident on Tennessee Pass, the loaned engines were returned. Afterwards the DM&IR began scrapping them, only saving three of the later batch.
The DM&IR donated #225 to the city of Proctor on the 25th of March, 1963, and put on display at Charles E Carlson Park, where it remains today.
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