Here we see the Arthur M. Andersin loading at the Duluth Missabe and Iron Range ore docks. The DM&IR is a railroad built exclusively to haul Iron ore from the Iron Range of Minnesota to this dock in Duluth. The iron comes here in a semi-processed form called Taconite. The marble-sized pellets are shipped to steel mills in Gary, Indiana and to Ohio ports on Lake Erie (Cleveland, Lorain, Conneaut). This dock resembles a railroad tressle. The train cars ride along the top and dump their cargo down into a hopper inside the dock. Each hopper has a chute that is lowered into a ship's cargo hold, gates are opened and the taconite flows into the hold. It's an entirely gravity-operated system.

Often boats that load here will first discharge a load of limestone brought from lower lake ports. The limestone is loaded on DM&IR trains that return to the Iron range where the plants use it to make taconite.

Arthur M. Anderson is taking on a load of taconite pellets. If you look closely at this video you can see the taconite flowing down the chute into the cargo hold. (Sorry that this video is shot sideways. If you know of any software that will rotate an mpg file, please let me know!)

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