Chicago and North Western Parlor/Lounge No. 6700:   C&NW 6700, formerly 6700, the Deerpath, formerly 6511, was built in 1946 for the Twin Cities 400 by Pullman Standard. It was configured as a 1 drawing room, 22 seat parlor car. In 1961 the car was modified with the removal of the drawing room and the adjacent smoking lounge. At this time the car's conventional 32-volt power system was also removed and replaced with a 480-volt system that was compatible with the C&NW bi-level commuter equipment. From then until retirement it served as a club lounge on Chicago commuter trains. In storage at Escanaba and Lake Superior Railroad

Coach No. 33:  This coach was constructed in 1918 by Pullman Car Company for the Duluth & Iron Range Railroad. It is referred to as a heavy weight passenger coach. This particular coach was used extensively in the region on the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway’s passenger service between Hibbing and Ely/Winton, Minnesota. This coach was used in the filming of the Walt Disney movie Iron Will, and is part of the collection of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum.

Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway Coach Minnesota II:

Minnesota II was built in 1946 by Pullman for the Northern Pacific Railroad. Numbered 517, it served on both The Mainstreeter and The North Coast Limited. At 85-feet long, it seats 62 passengers and features a smoking lounge (which is, of course, smoke free today). It was sold to the DM&IR by Burlington Northern around 1974, and was the only piece of non-self-propelled STREAMLINE passenger equipment owned by the DM&IR. Minnesota II was officially donated to the museum by the DM&IR in August 2000 and is used on the North Shore Scenic Railroad.

Northern Pacific Railway Post Office Car No. 1447:  RPO Car No. 1447 was built for the Northern Pacific in 1914. It consists of a fully equipped 30-foot mail compartment and a 40-foot baggage section. There are large side doors in each section to facilitate loading and unloading. However, the only way to get from the mail section to the baggage section and back when the train was moving was through a trap door under the counter. Because the postal workers were kept very busy, it probably wasn’t used very often. Most of the letters at that time were carried by train, instead of by truck or air as they are today. The worker would stand at the counter canceling stamps, using the rubber pads on the counter to hold the letters. Next, he would place the mail in the proper pigeonhole for its destination. The pigeonholes were labeled with the names of the towns that the train traveled through. When they were full, the postal worker would put the letters into canvas bags which, when full, were tied at the top and put in the back until delivery. The cubicles above the canvas bags were probably used for things like bulk mail and newspapers. This mail would be tossed over the top of the doors. When they were full, a canvas bag was hung on hooks underneath, and the door was slid open. This allowed everything to slide out, due to the slanted bottom. Wooden sorting tables placed in front of the canvas mailbags were also used when separating the mail.

On the side door of the mail section, there is a large black hook. This is for picking up mail “on the fly.” If there were no passengers to pick up, but the mail still needed to be picked up, the stationmaster would hook a canvas mailbag to a tall pole with side arms. As the train went by, the worker in the RPO pulled the hook to a horizontal position and caught the mailbag, lowering it into the car. Delivering mail from a moving car was a bit easier. The postal worker would set the mailbag on the floor, and when the train passed the station, he opened the gate and kicked the bag onto the station platform. The stationmaster then came out to retrieve it.

The baggage compartment has been converted into a railway historical library and archive, which is open for research by special arrangement. RPO cars were once quite common in the railroad industry, but now are extremely rare. The car was donated to the Museum by the Burlington Northern, and restored by the Lake Superior Transportation Club.

Northern Pacific Observation Car 390 Rainier Club  This car was built in 1946 by Pullman and spent its entire career on the Northern Pacific's North Coast Limited. In the later 1960s it was retired from active service and placed in storage. At that point, Carroll Mattlin of White Bear Lake, MN purchased the car. The museum purchased the Rainier Club in 1984 from Mr. Mattlin and restored it to operating condition. It was in storage at the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway's Proctor Roundhouse for years until it was brought back to the LSRM in 2003.  Photo from Lake Superior Railroad Museum collection

Great Northern Coach 1115:  Great Northern Coach 1115 was built in 1950 by American Car and Foundry for the Great Northern Railway’s “Internationals,” which carried passengers between Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia. The coach is now part of the collection of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum.

Great Northern Coach 1116:  Great Northern Coach 1116 was built in 1950 by American Car and Foundry for the Great Northern Railway’s “Internationals,” which carried passengers between Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia. The coach is now part of the collection of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum.

Car Missabe was built in 1893 by the Ohio Falls Car Company. It was purchased for the Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railway by the Merritt brothers, the developers of the Mesabi Iron Range. It was used by the railroad from 1893 until 1931. The car was then sold to Foley Brothers Construction and used as an office at the Boulder Dam construction site. In 1937 the car was sold to George T. Maloy of St. Paul, an executive with Foley Brothers, who moved it to a lot on the St. Croix River in Hudson, Wisconsin for use as a summer home. It served three generations of Maloys for summer vacations. Upon the death of James G. Maloy (George Maloy's only son) in 1997, his wife, Catherine Maloy, donated Car Missabe to the Lake Superior Railroad Museum.

The interior of the car is largely original and intact. The majority of the restoration work will be done to the exterior, and will take two to three years to complete. Even though the car body is wood, the car itself, not including the trucks (wheels), weighs 35 tons. The car would have cost about $4,500.00 when new. It did not originally have electric lights. These were retrofitted sometime between 1906 and 1910.  Photo by Mike Oswald

Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway Business Car Northland:  Built by the Pullman Company of Chicago in 1916, car Northland was the last of the Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railway’s business cars. Ordered by then-DM&N President William A. McGonagle, the Northland replaced Business Car Missabe, which is currently being restored in the museum’s Lenard Draper Maintenance Shop. The coach is of all-steel construction, including the interior bulkheads, which have been grained to look like rich mahogany. The Northland measures 82 feet in length and weighs roughly 100 tons. It is essentially the same today as when it was first put into service, though a few modifications have been made. Roller bearing journals were added in 1949, ice-activated air conditioning and a propane generator were installed in 1950 and a propane-fired hot water boiler was installed in 1988. Numerous improvements have been made to the original 32-volt DC electrical system. Car Northland was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

The Northland has seen continuous service since its construction and has hosted numerous notable passengers, including King Olaf of Norway and President Calvin Coolidge. It was used as James J. Hill’s private car in the Walt Disney film Iron Will, which was filmed in and around Duluth in 1991-1992.

The museum purchased Business Car Northland and its companion work car W-24 from the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway in the summer of 2003. We are pleased to be able to keep the Northland in the Northland.  Photo by Basgen, LSRM Collection

Business Car Missabe as it looked when donated in 1998.

Car Missabe on its way to the LSRM.

Car Missabe undergoing roof work in the museum's Lenard Draper Maintenance Building.

Volunteer Lee Oviatt readying the roof for transport.