Three Days on Canadian National's Iron Range with B&LE Tunnel Motor Trio! [4K]

In the first week of January 2024, I traveled back to Minnesota's Iron Range with some friends for three days of railfanning. While the weather was drab and the trains were sparse, we still had fun as always. The main goal of this trip was to capture an extremely rare sight in 2024: three Bessemer and Lake Erie locomotives running together. Like the DM&IR, Canadian National bought the B&LE in the early 2000's to solidify it's hold on the movement of iron ore from Minnesota to Pittsburgh. The B&LE ran from the shore or Lake Erie to the steel mills of Pennsylvania and was the last link in the movement of iron before it was smelted and used in steel production. Similar to the DM&IR, the B&LE used former SP tunnel motors as their main road power. Most of the former B&LE roster has been sold off or repainted in CN colors, with just a handful still in Bessemer orange. The Iron Range is currently home to three of these units, 904, 906, and 909. For nearly three months, these three locomotives were lashed together, providing an extremely rare opportunity to shoot matching Bessemer units. In the three days we were there, the power set ran on two ore jobs. We chased both trains from Proctor to the mines near Virginia. We also shot other CN trains, including on the line to Two Harbors, with a rare set of five C40-8's on one train. Another highlight was getting to see DM&IR 215, the last Missabe painted unit on home rails, switching Proctor yard. To top everything off, about 6 inches of snow came down on our last day, providing some beautiful powder for the trains to plow through. Shortly after we left, the Bessemer trio was split up, so these are some of the last runs for these three engines together, for now. Sit back and enjoy some of the Iron Range's finest, in 4K resolution.

Also, with this being my first big trip with my new camera, I tried some different editing techniques for a few sequences. Let me know what you think. Enjoy!