Lake Superior
Railroad Museum

Category: "Latest News & Features"

We are open again!
July 2, 2020

The museum is open again! As of July 1st, the museum is open to the public. Doors unlock at 10am now to allow for an additional hour. Masks are required […]

Until June 30th
May 18, 2020

The exhibits of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum, and the excursions on the North Shore Scenic Railroad are cancelled through June 30th, with the hopes that July 1st we will […]

Video Tours of the Museum
March 19, 2020

The Museum is closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, you can’t come here right now, but we can come to you! The Lake Superior Railroad Museum is exited to introduce […]

Henry and Per cleaning up along the tracks in Lakeside
Good Neighbors
May 16, 2018

North Shore Scenic Railroad has good neighbors out in the Lakeside area of Duluth.  Each year the Gagne/Lyytinen family grab their garbage bags, wagon and kids and pick up trash […]

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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