My earliest memories of the D&H ore trains are from when they were coming from Tahawus, and passing through south to Saratoga.
I began hearing and seeing these when I was seven or eight years old.  The majority of the time we were camping at my parents on the upper Hudson, initially on the Lake Luzerne side at a place called buttermilk falls. I remember sitting at the fire at night and hearing that southbound ore train working its way down the grade, dynamic brakes, whining, wheel, flanges, screeching, in later years, 1975-1980, the same scene when we repeated on the other side of the river in the Hadley 4 corners area.

You could always hear the dynamic brakes humming and brakes on locomotives straining to come downgrade with all that tonnage. We were sitting by the fire on a weekend evening hearing this grow in intensity as it approached the Wolf creek bridge and then the high Sacandaga River bridge.

In the mid 1970s to the early 1980s I was able to actually beat the train to trackside and stand in my favorite boulder to watch the passing of the southbound which usually was powered with 2 or 3 Alco or EMD, 4 axle units and 60-80 cars of eliminate and sinter heading to either New Jersey or St. Louis, Missouri.

Michael Kudish  drawing

Ilmenite loading into open hoppers.

The National Lead plant in Sayreville, NJ, where the Ilmenite loads were shipped to from Tahawus. This plant made paint and paint pigments

Builders card for the Ilmenite cars, (click to enlarge).

Here is a derailment on the Raritan railroad that served the National Lead plant in Sayreville NJ. 

While this photo could be on either the Tahawus page or Saratoga yard page, I am placing it here, This a cut of Ilmenite cars with the Saratoga yard light tower and repair building in the background. This yard originally existed to be a staging yard for the Ore trains and repair yard for the specific cars used on the ore trains SC-5 and SC-6.

Here is a 55 Ton open hopper with a coal load. Most likely heading up to the National Lead plant at Tahawus. The burned and rusted paint indicates previous use to haul out hot sinter. 

Open Hoppers being loaded with "hot" sinter and sprayed with water to cool then down. (Trains 1959)

These images are from the 1959 Trains magazine

Much of the heavy equipment used in the mine had to be transported on the rail line. 

The entire mine complex.

Here is a cut of Ilmenite cars on a south bound train rounding Thompson curve on the Susquehanna division.