Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad launches passenger season Saturday

The Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad opened its 46th passenger season Saturday, sending 2-hour narrated round trips from 6930 Fremont St. in Duluth through the St. Louis River estuary. The weekend schedule is set for 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, with adult fares at $24 and child fares, for ages 5 to 12, at $12.

The all-volunteer railroad, which operates as a nonprofit 501(c)(3), is using the season to do more than sell a scenic ride. It is presenting the excursion as a way to tell the history, industry, community and ecology of the river corridor, turning a short rail trip into a moving lesson about Duluth’s waterfront, Western Duluth and the St. Louis River. The railroad says the season is family-friendly and that tickets for the 2026 runs are on sale.

That preservation angle is central to the operation’s identity. The railroad says it runs on 5.2 miles of original railroad right-of-way and uses vintage equipment that includes a 1946 locomotive, two 1912 coach cars and a 1928 flat car converted into a safari car. The modern heritage railroad was revived in 1981 by the volunteer Lake Superior Transportation Club, keeping a piece of Duluth’s transportation history active instead of leaving it as a relic.

The route also places the passenger season squarely inside a broader St. Louis River comeback story. The river cleanup has been part of a long-running Great Lakes Area of Concern restoration effort, and recent reports say the Minnesota side of the sediment cleanup is nearing completion. That makes the train ride more than a weekend diversion: it is a way for residents and visitors to see a corridor that has been shaped by heavy industry, restoration work and renewed recreational use. Along the way, passengers often spot bald eagles, herons, deer, ducks, geese and turtles, adding a nature-tourism element that can help support other local spending tied to Duluth’s riverfront.

The railroad says the excursion season will run through mid-October 2026. For St. Louis County, the value is not just in the ride itself but in the continued preservation of a historic line that first connected Duluth and St. Paul when the original Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad was completed on Aug. 1, 1870.