DULUTH, Minn. – Canadian National has activated centralized traffic control signaling on the last portion of its former Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway Missabe Subdivision main line. CTC has now been activated over the 6-mile stretch between Kelsey, Minn. and milepost 51, the last portion of the line that lacked the system.
When it acquired DM&IR in 2004, CN shifted northbound freight traffic from the parallel former Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific main line to the Missabe Sub, in effect creating a double-track line. [See “Tightening the Iron Lariat,” January 2017 Trains.] Both the former DW&P and most of the Missabe Sub were governed by track warrants (or in CN terms, track authority). Over the years CN gradually extended CTC north on the 38.6 miles of track between Carson, Minn., just north of Proctor Yard outside Duluth, and milepost 51 until the project was completed this month. CN also installed CTC over the former DW&P.
Canadian National is continuing a project to upgrade the signal system on the Missabe Range, gradually replacing the classic former DM&IR searchlight signals with new signals.
