Untangling The Twin Ports

I recently started a thread about the Duluth South Shore & Atlantic, partly because I've been trying to build a historic railroad map of the Duluth area on Google Maps (because I haven't found any), and partly because it's just really interesting.

As major rail hubs go, it's not uncommon to get confused sorting out the lines. But the Twin Ports are a particularly nasty tangle of abandoned routes, industrial spurs, trackage rights, and still home to four Class I's even after many decades of corporate consolidation.

So I'm starting a general thread regarding the Twin Ports of Duluth and Superior, WI.

JayBee wrote:...The DSS&A had a small yard and engine terminal a little further north across the LST&T and alongside the NP.

Ah, the Lake Superior Terminal & Transfer Railway. I know it was owned by all railroads in the area, but it took on the Great Northern paint scheme. It ended operation in the 1980s, and I can only assume its trackage became part of BN, as I'm guessing their primary business was serving the complex network of elevator spurs on the Superior waterfront.

Where exactly was LST&T's own track? Where was their yard? Did they have track in Duluth? Who owned the Grassy Point Bridge?

I'll start things off here. I'm sure there are many questions and knowledge we can share!

You may want to try looking in the various Duluth or St.Louis county maps here: http://www.historicmapworks.com/Search/search.php

Eh...didn't do much good.

There's also the Twin Ports Railfan Page, but it raises as many questions as it does answer them.

A current map: http://www.dsmic.org/documentstore/Maps ... 011x17.pdf

The Grassy Point Draw was an NP property and the Spirit Lake or Oliver Bridge was a DM&IR property. The two removed bridges are the St. Louis Bay Bridge once owned by the NP, and the GN-owned Interstate Bridge almost directly underneath the Blatnik Bridge.

There's some more information about the LST&T here: http://www.greatnorthernempire.net/inde ... ilroad.htm. You might actually have to contact the writer to get specifics, but it helps narrow down the ownership of some lines. For info on the DM&IR, and indirectly, information about the entire area, try The Missabe Road: the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway by Frank Alexander King. It has a few maps that might be helpful.

Finally, good luck sorting it out, but this stylized map of the DM&IR might give you a few clues as well: http://www.missabe.com/cms/gallery/v/Pr ... ewsIndex=2

Happy hunting!

The two most important chunks of actual LST&T trackage are the mainline which ran west from the diamond north of Superior Union Depot aimed directly at the Grassy Point Drawbridge (but ending just short of the bridge). And trackage in the area of the Frazier Shipyard. The LST&T served the slip where the Railcar Ferry M/V Incan Superior docked and other docks in the area with tracks off their "Mainline". They also had trackage rights to reach at least one yard of all the other Superior railroads for interchange, but not the DW&P.

Where was the Soo in Duluth? I know where it was in Superior.

For that matter, where were the DSS&A yards? How did they both cross the harbor?