The Duluth and Northeastern Railroad (DNE) was a logging railroad headquartered in

Cloquet, Minnesota Cloquet ( ) is a city in Carlton County, Minnesota, United States, at the junction of Interstate 35 and Minnesota State Highway 33. Part of the city lies within the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation and serves as one of the reservation's three admi ...

. Incorporated on September 30, 1898, the railroad was built through the forests of northeastern Minnesota, eventually reaching its zenith with of track, including branches extending from Cloquet to Hornby, Minnesota, near today's settlement of Brimson, Minnesota. The railroad interchanged with the

Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway The Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway (DM&IR) , informally known as the Missabe Road, was a railroad operating in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin that used to haul iron ore and later taconite to the Great Lakes ports of Duluth and Two Harbor ...

at Saginaw, Minnesota. The railroad was one of the last in Minnesota to dieselize, continuing to operate steam locomotives until 1964. Following dieselization,

Duluth & Northeastern 28 Duluth and Northeastern 28 (also known as Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range 332) is a preserved 2-8-0 " Consolidation" type steam locomotive built in 1906 by the Pittsburgh Works of American Locomotive Company (ALCO) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ...

continued to make special trips until it was donated to the

Lake Superior Railroad Museum The Lake Superior Railroad Museum is a railroad museum in Duluth, Minnesota, United States. Opened in 1973, the museum focuses on railroading in the Lake Superior region. It is housed in the restored Duluth Union Depot complex. The museum als ...

in 1974. In 1941, the railroad was cut back to a line between Cloquet and Saginaw, Minnesota. This 10-mile line continued to operate until 1991, when the line was again cut back to just the trackage in Cloquet serving the then Potlatch Paper Mill and the USG Ceiling Tile Plant. Potlatch Corporation acquired the railroad in 1964. In the 1990s, traffic consisted of about 5,000 cars of pulpwood, pulp, paper and related products plus chemicals. On May 13, 2002, the SAPPI paper mill took over operations of the railroad, the Duluth and Northeastern Railroad ceased, and its successor, the

Cloquet Terminal Railroad Cloquet Terminal Railroad is a small Class 3 terminal railroad operating of track in Cloquet, Minnesota. The railroad interchanges with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Canadian Pacific railroads in Cloquet and services the Sappi Paper Mil ...

began.

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