Texas Transportation Museum
11730 Wetmore Road, San Antonio, TX 78247
(210)490-3554
A.M.R.E., the Alamo Model Railroad Engineers
& President, Peter Shavney, present . . .
The Missabe Ore Train
This is a fully functional model of the Duluth, Missabe, and Iron Range Railway, which is abbreviated as DM&IR. The train can be run with up to one
hundred individually numbered ore cars, but it is more usual for only fifty cars to be in service on the A.M.R.E. layout.
Widely known in railroad circles as the "Missabe", the DM&IR was organized by the United States Steel
Company for the purpose of hauling the large quantities of iron ore from the vast Missabe iron
range, perhaps the largest man made excavation in the history of the world.
Prior to dieselization, huge steam locomotives, among the worlds largest, were required to haul
the heavy tonnages from the mines to Two Harbors, and Duluth harbor on Lake Superior. These
locomotives known as "Yellowstones" were of the 2-8-8-4 wheel arrangement with a tractive
effort of 140,000 lbs and were built by Baldwin, 8 M3s in 1941 and 10 M4s in 1943 weighing 569
tons. Fuel used was 10-12 tons of coal and 12,000 gallons of water per hour. Early diesels of
the SD9 class later supplanted the steamers and conversion to the new more efficient though
less spectacular engines took place in the late fifties and early Sixties. Three of these
spectacular engines have been placed on display in MN area.
These engines pulled typically 180 car trains over most of the railroad without helpers except
on the difficult climb out of Duluth Harbor to Proctor Yards en route to the mines. Here a
second Yellowstone was sometimes used as a pusher on the rear of trains up to two hundred cars
in length. During the war years, Missabe shipped 45 to 50 million tons of iron ore per year.
Models of these early classes are on display or being operated here as an educational project
by AMRE (Alamo Model RR Engineers) and by Longhorn Chapter NRHS. Fifty car trains are routinely
run, and on special occasions one hundred or more.
The Missabe train is privately owned as is most of the rolling stock on the otherwise club owned layout.
It was created by A.M.R.E. president, Peter Shavney, many years ago. It has
been featured in quite a few model railroad publications.
Click • Peter Shavney• for more about the current President of A.M.R.E.
To contact A.M.R.E., the Alamo Model Railroad Engineers, click on "A.M.R.E." below:
A.M.R.E.
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Site Navigation & Links
Many of the pages below will have sub-directories of their own.
•Main Page•
•Hours of Operation & Location•
•The Longhorn & Western Railroad•
•S.A.G.R.E.S. - San Antonio Garden Railroad Society•
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•Private Parties at TTM•
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•Santa's Holiday Depot;
•Big Engines, Small Engines•
•History of San Antonio Transportation•
•Links to Other Related Web Sites, Books, Videos, Etc•
•Contacting the Museum;
Site Established: June 13, 2002
copyright ©2001