Highway 61 has long been the default way to experience Minnesota’s North Shore, as the road traces Lake Superior, passing rocky shoreline, evergreen forests, and small harbor towns. Now there’s another way to see the first stretch of the shore: from the open-air back platform of a 1959 private railcar.
The newly christened Head of the Lakes just debuted on the North Shore Scenic Railroad, operating between Duluth and Two Harbors along Lake Superior. The 18-passenger car is available exclusively for private groups, with three itineraries, ranging from a two-and-a-half-hour afternoon ride to a longer excursion to Two Harbors.
The car can be booked through Halloway, the luxury rail marketplace that launched earlier this year with private overnight journeys aboard restored railcars attached to scheduled Amtrak trains. Afar previously covered Halloway trips aboard the sleeper Evelyn Henry and the dome-lounge Warren R. Henry, including journeys on the Coast Starlight between Los Angeles and Northern California and the California Zephyr between the Bay Area, Denver, and Chicago.
Rather than joining an Amtrak train for a multiday journey, Head of the Lakes is based permanently in Duluth and makes day trips (departing the Duluth Depot). It can be added to North Shore Scenic Railroad departures, operating on the heritage railroad’s seasonal schedule, generally from May through October.
The experience is new, but the car has been traveling North American rails for nearly seven decades.
One of six executive business cars built for Canadian National Railway by National Steel Car in 1959, it originally operated as Car CN92. It carried senior railroad officials and at one point served as the mobile office of the vice president of Canadian National’s Prairie Division.
“Decades ago, private business railcars were the equivalent of today’s private jets,” Jonathan Lamb, president of Rice’s Point Rail Enterprises, the Duluth-based company that owns Head of the Lakes, told Afar. The idea now, he said, is to give passengers “a unique sense of history and what it might have felt like to be a business tycoon in the early 20th century, but with modern-day onboard amenities.”
An old railcar with an entirely new interior
Guests gather in leather swivel chairs in the lounge with the railcar’s open-air viewing platform behind them.
Photo by Rice’s Point Rail Enterprises
Despite its age, Head of the Lakes is not a museum-style restoration intended to re-create 1959.
The structural body and shell remain, but the 85-foot car was otherwise substantially rebuilt, with a new floor plan, fresh paint, and modern systems.
Inside, there’s a lounge with leather swivel chairs, table seating, and a private bar. Starlink, cellular Wi-Fi, and updated audiovisual equipment make it possible to use the car for business meetings as well as dinners, celebrations, and private outings. At the back is arguably its most appealing feature for leisure travelers: an open-air observation platform facing the tracks.
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Three ways to ride along Lake Superior
The custom dining table, topped with a Lake Superior depth map, is a focal point aboard Head of the Lakes.
Photo by Rice’s Point Rail Enterprises
All three itineraries leave Duluth on the North Shore Scenic Railroad’s Lakefront Line, following Lake Superior northeast toward Two Harbors.
- Northwoods Explorer: 2.5 hours, departing at 1:30 p.m. Friday–Sunday, $1,250 flat rate, snacks and drinks included
- Northwoods Explorer with dinner: 2.5 hours, departure time coordinated at booking, $1,500 for the car, drinks included, food is additional (roughly $45 per person)
- Two Harbors Turn: 6 hours, departing at 10 a.m. on Thursdays, $2,000, snacks and drinks included
The shortest option, the two-and-a-half-hour Northwoods Explorer, travels nearly 20 miles up the line before turning around. That takes passengers beyond Duluth, into the forests, and along the rocky shoreline north of the city, passing river mouths and crossing bridges above the waterways that drain into Lake Superior. On the outbound trip, Head of the Lakes rides directly behind the locomotive, giving passengers a front-row view of the engine pulling through the landscape.
At the turnaround point, the locomotive moves to the opposite end of the train. For the return to Duluth, that puts Head of the Lakes at the very back, turning its open-air observation platform into what Lamb calls a “rolling porch.” Instead of looking through a window, passengers can step outside and watch the rails, forest, bridges, and Lake Superior shoreline recede behind them.
The evening dinner excursion follows the same route, but with a private meal on board.
The Two Harbors Turn continues farther north, past the shorter trips’ turnaround point and through the Knife River community before reaching Two Harbors. The scenery changes along the way, from Duluth neighborhoods and stretches of open shoreline to small North Shore communities, river crossings, and more heavily forested sections of the Lakefront Line.
The Two Harbors Turn chugs along and through Knife River before reaching Two Harbors, where passengers will see iron ore pellets transferred from trains to Great Lakes freighters, part of Canadian National’s working rail and dock operations.
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How to book Head of the Lakes
Head of the Lakes is booked by the car, not by the seat, and can accommodate up to 18 passengers.
Lamb recommends booking at least 30 days in advance so the team has time to arrange food service and other onboard details. Contact Halloway for reservations aboard Head of the Lakes.
