The 72-mile railroad operated from 1957 to 2001, and also saw minimal use from 2004 to 2008, with trains passing through the 1,800-foot tunnel and descending an 8-mile, 2-percent-grade rail.
Check out the seemingly mundane video below by Christopher Muller from Oct. 14, 2008, when a Cliffs Erie train makes a trip toward the tunnel. Notice how the sunbeam magically follows the train.
When LTV Steel purchased Erie Mining in 1989, the railroad was renamed LTV Mining Railroad. It closed in early 2001 when LTV ended operations at the harbor. Cleveland Cliffs bought the plant in 2002 and renamed the railroad Cliffs Erie Railroad. Cliffs hired a contractor to claim leftover chips and pellets from the mine using unsold locomotives. The cleanup trains ran until 2008.