Great Northern Class O-4 2-8-2 3226 Derailed in Duluth, Minnesota December 1962

            Steam was certainly dead by the early 1960s but there was still plenty of it moving around the Twin Ports too. Area railroads stored their retired steam on spare yard tracks locally and at outlying terminals too. With thousands of steam locomotives needing to go to scrap they couldn't all be here at the same time. So as a track was cleared of steam heading for the torch in Duluth, more shipments of retired steamers came into the Ports to fill those empty tracks. This was repeated many hundreds of time until they were all recycled into other things, including diesel locomotives. Duluth area scrappers Paper-Calmenson Co. and Duluth Iron & Metal were the final resting spots for thousands of steam locomotives. GN and Milwaukee electrics too, and many diesel locomotives. But some of those steamers didn't go without a fight. It's December 1962 and NP 718 was pulling GN 3226 out of their yard on Rice's Point for placement at the Duluth Iron & Metal scrap yard located near Duluth Union Depot. This O-4's final fate is just a mile and a half from this location. As NP 718 rounded the curve going one way, GN 3226 had other ideas, and tried to head back to points west. But the venerable steam locomotive only delayed things for a day. NP kept a wrecker on hot steam available 24 hours a day for mishaps such as this one. The next day, after getting it re-railed, GN 3226 was placed for scrapping. The scrapping of locomotives and cars has always been a part of the process of railroading. Most never make it to the design life of 50 years of service. So as sad as it might seem, the recycling of railroad equipment has been around since the early teens and twenties. The earliest steamers that built these railroads went to scrap here. So too did 99.999% of the various logging and mining company locomotives that once worked north of the Twin Ports. Scrapping has been an active part of rail movements in many locations. It's really just the last part of the designed equipment life-cycle for locomotives and rolling stock. At 50, they're usually done, and that is a federal mandate. Moving locomotives and cars to scrap is to this day, a nearly every day event. Those of us who worked on or who are still working for the railroads got/get to see these movements frequently. Not very many of them were recorded on film. Not by fans. Too sad. But the guys who worked on the property were used to it and their emotional attachments to these things were slight. So when one caught their eye while stubbing a toe on a puzzle switch, it was worth digging out the camera and taking a few pictures so there was a conversation piece for all the guys who didn't get to see it happen that day. This was, after all, just a part of the job of being a railroader. Stuff falls off the track all the time. But this was rather unique. Understanding all of that as I do, my hat is off to this steam locomotive for actually managing to stay away from the cutter's torch for one more day, in Duluth, Minnesota. Long live GN 3226. Cheers!
   

Taken on: January 11, 2018

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Sets appears in: • Great Northern Railway • Railroaders more » • Steam in the Twin Ports • Duluth, Minnesota • Rice's Point • Northern Pacific Railway • Scrap Metal Docks in Duluth-Superior « less

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