In a post card published by the Interstate News Company of Duluth, Minnesota, a Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range 2-8-8-2 brings an ore train around a curve near the Lake Superior shoreline. Judging by the massive front low-pressure cylinders, this is one of the DM&IR's class M Mallet compounds erected by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1910. Nos. 200-202 had 57-inch drivers and sustained a boiler pressure of 200 p.s.i. The cylinder stroke of both sets was 32 inches; the diameter of the front cylinders was 40 inches and that of the rear, high-pressure cylinders was 26 inches. With these specifications the ponderous, 218-ton class M engines mustered 96,000 pounds of tractive effort. Such power was needed to pull the short but heavy cars of iron ore for which this railroad is known, but DM&IR's later 2-8-8-2 simple articulateds and its famous 2-8-8-4 Yellowstones weighed even more and were heavier haulers.

The date of the post card and the name of the photographer are unknown, but the card probably comes from the period before the introduction of the 2-8-8-4s in 1941. The card's caption reads, "60% of the ore produced in the United States and 25% of the ore mined in the world is mined on the Vermilion, Cuyuna and Mesaba Ranges of Northern Minnesota. This trainload of iron ore is headed for docks on Lake Superior, where it is transferred to one of the large freighters plying the Great Lakes."