I have spent part of this morning trying to figure out whether a DM&I SD is appropriate for the J and if so at what date(s). So far I am confused!
Can someone tell me what an SD-M is/was please? I’m sort of expecting it to be a modification… if so what of please? At what date did they get them and where from please?
I think they were ex DM&I as were previous SD18s. Can anyone enlighten me on this please?
I have been looking at the main EJ&E sites that come up on searches and can’t get a clear picture - although lots of pictures!
The DM&IR SD-M is a rebuilt SD9. Besides the usual internal upgrades, the chop nose is done as well. The large 48" fans are something DM&IR had been doing to their SD9 fleet for some time. They had a program to replace the 4 36" fans with a pair of 48" ones for some time. Some SD18’s also were rebuilt in the SD-M program. A number of SD-M’s were sent to the EJ&E over the years.
Check out the Missabe Historical Society web site for complete locomotive info:
I don’t know if anyone has ever kept track of all the times the Missabe used EJ&E diesels and vice-versa, but it’s been pretty common for many years - back to the last days of steam on the Missabe.
BTW it was DM&IR - Duluth Missabe and Iron Range, created by the merger of the Duluth Missabe & Northern and the Duluth & Iron Range in the late thirties…and yes, the railroad spells it “Missabe” although everyone else spells Minnesota’s largest iron range “Mesabi”. [:S]