Duluth, Missabe & Northern Railway Class M 2-8-8-2

The Duluth, Missabe & Northern Railway Company was incorporated in 1891 to haul high-grade, soft hematite iron ore away from the Missabe Range Mountains near Mountain Iron, Minnesota. In 1893 an ore dock was built by the railroad for direct shipments to Duluth on Lake Superior. Through a merger in 1937, the railway's name was changed to the more familiar Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway. In 1916, the DM&N ordered four new Class M locomotives from the erecting shops of the famous Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With a 2-8-8-2 wheel arrangement and a length of just over eighty-three feet, these heavy-duty locomotives, with the tenders, weighed almost 324 tons empty. In this period postcard of a newly-delivered Class M engine, we see yet another contender for the title of "The Largest and Most Powerful Engine in the World."