Iron Jct

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LDE - Iron Junction

Iron Junction is the junction of the former DM&N branch to Biwabik with the main line to Mountain Iron.  On the present-day map below, North is to the left.  When originally constructed, the north leg of the wye was of a much tighter radius.  There was also at that time a 6-track yard just off this print to the right, as well as a small engine repair shed.

With the coming of larger engines, the wye was replaced with one of larger radius.  The original north leg was removed from connection with the main line, however, a portion of it still remains (in red below) as a siding from the Biwabik branch for use by Company cars.  The new north leg is in green below.

The original depot stood into the 1970's, and plans were begun to restore it to its original condition when it was destroyed by fire.  The photo below, from Dave Schauer's book, shows the depot in the 1950's, open and active in the passenger business.   Behind the photographer was a water column, and behind and to the left was a water tower that stood until the 1980's.

Iron Junction was also the home of the Missabe's CTC operations building from the inception of CTC in the 1940's until the facilities were built at Keenan.

Here's an "aerial" view of Iron Junction looking south.  The Mobilgas spur (has three ore cars on it in this photo) is on the wrong side of the tracks, but selective compression requires it to be moved if I want to have a siding here.  The curved wye track to the left is an electric reverse loop, and to power it I used Digitrax' reverser.  Although it works great in DCC mode, I found out it dosen't work for an analog engine on Channel 00.

Here is another shot, looking north toward to paper depot.  The water tower on the hill to the right of the depot is a stand-in.  The fascia for the upper level can be seen in the upper right.