DULUTH, Minn. – The Lake Superior Railroad Museum has added a third dome car to its fleet and completed the overhaul of its former Erie Mining Co. F9A No. 4211.
Puget Sound
Dome car Puget Sound was donated to the museum this summer and arrived in Duluth this month. The car was constructed for the Great Northern Railway by Budd in 1955 as 46-passenger dome coach No. 1323 for GN’s flagship Empire Builder. Amtrak acquired the car in 1971, and renumbered it to No. 9463. Retired in 1985, it was sold into private ownership in 1993. In 1998 the car was stored on Canada’s Algoma Central Railway. In 2001 it was again sold and sent to Avalon Rail near Milwaukee for overhaul. Avalon rebuilt the car, reconfiguring the dome with table seating, lounge space, and a dumbwaiter to a galley on the lower level. In addition to the galley, the lower part of the car was converted into sleeping space. Renamed Puget Sound, the car traveled widely in charter service on Amtrak until it was donated to LSRM. The owners who made the donation wish to remain anonymous.
The car will go into service on the museum’s North Shore Scenic Railroad, which operates a 27-mile line from Duluth to Two Harbors, Minn. The museum also has two other domes: ex-Santa Fe full-length dome No. 551 Sky View and former Burlington California Zephyr No. 250 Silver Club.
Erie Mining F9A
Museum staff and volunteers have also completed the overhaul and repainting of Erie Mining Co. F9A No. 4211. Work on the unit included replacing the radiators, removal of rusted side panels replacing them with new steel, and repainting into Erie’s yellow and maroon colors.
No. 4211 was one of 11 F9s – five A units and six B units – Erie Mining purchased in 1956 to haul taconite pellets from its mine and plant at Hoyt Lakes, Minn., over a 72-mile private railroad to its ore dock on Lake Superior at Taconite Harbor. Operations began in 1957, and the fleet of F9s remained intact even after LTV Steel acquired Erie Mining in 1986. Four F9s, two A units and two B units, were destroyed in a runaway derailment at Taconite Harbor in January 1997.
LTV shuttered the taconite plant in 2001. LTV successor Cliffs Erie donated No. 4211 to the museum in 2002, followed by Erie F9B No. 4222 in 2006. After brief revivals of the railroad to haul waste material in 2004 and 2008, two other Erie F9As were saved, while the three surviving F9Bs were scrapped in Hoyt Lakes in 2014. Like the dome car, the museum plans to put the restored No. 4211 to work on the North Shore Scenic. The museum is also working to repaint No. 4222. While not serviceable, it can be pulled behind the A unit serve as a “dummy” until funds are raised to replace the main generator which is needed to return the unit to active service.
For additional information or to contribute to the Lake Superior Railroad Museum or the North Shore Scenic Railroad, please visit their website.
Somebody went through a lot of trouble to reskin that car with corrugations in place of the original slab-sides. Nevertheless, it will blend well with the other two Budd domes.
Technically the sides are fluted and the fluting is not structural. It clips to the side framing underneath. It was a simple matter of removing the flat sides and substituting the clips and flutes.
The roof is corrugated as built and is structural. It is is pressed stainless steel and shotwelded.