Lake Superior
Railroad Museum

Category: "Latest News & Features"

Museum is Open Daily!
August 15, 2021

The museum is open daily and it is part of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum’s mission to preserve, present, and interpret the history of railroading especially as it relates to […]

Importance of Railroad Museums
May 7, 2021

The museum is now open 7-days-per-week, 10am to 5pm daily. Its great to have guests in the museum after having been shutdown for nearly 5 months due to the pandemic. […]

Museum Passes Online Now!
March 29, 2021

The museum reopens again on April 1st, 2021, and will be 7-days-a-week starting that day on onward. We’re even open on Easter! Each day 10am to 5pm. For the first […]

Museums Reopen April 1st
March 11, 2021

The Railroad Museum will be open 7-days-a-week starting April 1st, following a 5 month shutdown due to the pandemic and vaccination efforts. The museums will be open daily from 10am […]

DEPOT CLOSURE EXTENDED UNTIL APRIL 1, 2021
January 22, 2021

The Duluth Depot, and the Lake Superior Railroad Museum, will remain closed to the public until Thursday, April 1st. This is due to the pandemic of course, and vaccination efforts […]

Latest News & Features

  • May 27, 2026

    by Doug Buell As the Missabe caboose C-205 returns to the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, MN after a period of refurbishment and painting, it is a good time to review some of the history of this caboose. The C-205 was delivered in 1952 as part of an order for new, steel, wide vision (extended vision) cabooses built by International Car Company. Coincidentally, about the same time, Erie Mining Company was being designed and planned, including the 73-mile mainline railroad from Hoyt Lakes on the Minnesota Iron Range to Taconite Harbors on the shore of Lake Superior. Equipment for the mainline railroad included three steel cabooses manufactured by the same International Car Co. In this case, these cabooses would be ordered in a bay window configuration. This is perhaps because some of the railroad equipment selections were guided by Bethlehem Steel and eastern railroad experiences, where bay window cabooses were common. Hang on, we’re getting to the connection with the C-205. After operating on Erie’s mainline for a short period it was found that the bay windows on the side of the cabooses were being broken by pellets falling off of the pellet cars as the train rolled along, bouncing on the ground and back up the side, hitting the caboose window. Due to a close working relationship between Erie and the Missabe, Erie borrowed one of their newer wide vision cabooses to test. You guessed it, that turned out to be the C-205. After the use on the Erie pellet trains, all three of Erie’s bay window cabooses were returned to International Car Co. to have the bay windows removed and extended vision cupolas added. In the mid-1970s Duluth Missabe and Iron Range had half a dozen of their steel cabooses modified by removing the cupolas and adding bay windows for use on the Thunderbird Mine to Fairlane plant crude ore trains. The C-205 was one of those chosen to be modified. After it’s sale to Northshore Mining, the C-205 came to the Lake Superior Railroad Museum where it has been maintained in operating condition.

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