(The Proctor Journal posted the following article on its website on December 22.)
PROCTOR, Minn. — Twenty Duluth Missabe and Iron Range Railway Co. employees have returned to work. An additional 45 laid off workers are expected to be back on the job by spring.
The call back is the result of the purchase of EVTAC Mining Co. and the anticipated resumption of pellet production scheduled for next week at the renamed United Taconite plant.
The news came as a welcome Christmas present. Canadian National, which bought the 212-mile railroad and other properties in October, had planned to cut 94 DM&IR jobs. In May, 86 DM&IR workers were laid off, 43 of them in Proctor.
The first trips began Monday with crude ore taking the 10-mile trip from Eveleth to Forbes. It’s estimated that there will be eight trains a day.
Within a few weeks, taconite trains will travel through Proctor as they make their way to the Duluth docks. The route will continue through 2004, when the CN is expected to transfer operations to Taconite Harbor.
EVTAC and the DM&IR have had a close relationship since the plant opened in 1965. EVTAC was the DM&IR’s second largest customer for total business, but it’s first in total tonnage.
The DM&IR employs about 498 people – 248 work in Proctor.