View allAll Photos Tagged mstl
IARR 3004 & 3802 lead a string of ethanol loads northbound past 130th St, just south of Ackley, IA. This is the Iowa River Railroad, and it is by far one of the jankiest operations I've ever photographed. The sheer lean on many spots along this former M&StL trackage would be concerning if they weren't always going 10 mph or lower--but still, crazy stuff. I like the green John Deere in the background, it really added to the shot in my opinion. Taken on 12/27/19.
A pair of S&S Shortline Leasing EMD's are hard at work switching out the Union Pacific intermodal facility in Salt Lake City, Utah located on west of downtown on the Lynndyl Sub. A Union Pacific conductor is on the ground, throwing the switch down the wye to allow a local to back down before heading west.
====Info====
UP Lynndyl Sub
Salt Lake City, UT
Unknown Symbol
SSRX 1414 SD40-2 Ex. TFM 1414, MILW 155, MILW 3025 Blt. 1972
SSRX 116 GP9 Ex. MRL 116, MSTL 706 Blt. 1958
A battered ex-MoPac GP15-1 and two GP38-2s lead LNM34 through Gilman on the former M&StL mainline across the heart of Iowa.
UP LNM34 rolls through the heart of Iowa on the former M&StL headed towards Oskaloosa with a ratty GP15-1 leading two GP38-2s.
CNW 6851 East is wrong main on the WW Main at the Depot in Marshalltown IA in May 1974. A Classic Scene. Notice the TO Fork, TO Signal, and in the upper left, the semaphore approach signal for the diamonds at Marshalltown on the old MSTL. Photographer unknown.
IARR 3802 & 3004 lead a string of ethanol empties southbound past 130th St, just south of Ackley, IA. This is the Iowa River Railroad, and it is by far one of the jankiest operations I've ever photographed. The sheer lean on many spots along this former M&StL trackage would be concerning if they weren't always going 10 mph or lower--but still, crazy stuff. Taken on 12/27/19.
A pair of S&S Leasing switchers shove a cut of stacks onto the lead to UP's Centennial Business Park at the east end of UP's Salt Lake City intermodal facility. The switchers, of Milwaukee Road and MStL heritage, are leased by the contractor that switches the ramp for UP.
SSRX SD40-2 #1414
SSRX GP9 #116
Salt Lake City, UT
April 24th, 2023
Beautiful Minneapolis & St. Louis power pulls freight thru small town Iowa. It has been speculated that this is Albia, Iowa in 1957. I could find no other information.
As the M&StL was absorbed by the CNW in 1960 and mostly abandoned we can confidently say this was pre-1961.
Unknown photographer, date, location.
BNSF 1462 and 129 are on the point of LTWI675 as they head south through Boyd on their way back to Wilmar. Not particularly the most scenic line I've ever seen. And I would rather have seen 1462 on the Watertown or 661. But I guess catching something on the old Louie is still pretty neat.
BNSF operates this portion of the old Minneapolis and Saint Louis from Hanley Falls to Madison. At one time the branch ran from Hopkins, on Minneapolis's west side, to Watertown, Aberdeen, and eventually Leola South Dakota. These days, TCW subsidiary Minnesota Prairie Line operates the line between Norwood Young America and Hanley Falls. And BNSF operates the rest to Madison. Everything else is abandoned today.
In a coordinated two-crew operation, the Eastern Illinois Railroad builds a 110-car train of corn loads at the ADM facility in Oakland, Illinois.
The crew working the cut on the left, led by EIRC (ex-CR, built as PRR 7111) GP10 #7565, is about 2 cars into a cut of 9 hoppers. Having just completed loading and moved its cut forward, HLCX 3834 has run back and is waiting for a clear switch so it can retrieve the next 9 empties from south of town. Meanwhile, EIRC (built as MSTL 707) GP9 #1040 waits for the eventual trip south.
Loading will take into the early afternoon. The crew will then put the power back together, shove north to collect various groups of cars cut to clear up grade crossings, and head for interchange with CN at Neoga.
The TC&W Saint Paul Turn is now on home rails traversing a brief stretch of ex-M&StL trackage on its way back to Hopkins with a train from the UP. Just around the corner was the site of the former M&StL yard and shops complex at Cedar Lake. Both Cedar Lake Yard and the M&StL were mothballed by C&NW when it gained control of the ex-Rock Island "Spine Line" in the 1980s.
The route of the Minneapolis & St. Louis through Morton over the Minnesota River cuts through 3.5 billion year old gneiss. There are many railroad rock cuts in Minnesota, but none of them cut through bedrock this ancient. I also like Morton Gneiss above all other of Minnesota's stone varieties. It has a fascinating geologic formation beyond its characteristic banding. A train in good light here to highlight the colors would be sublime!
A red board was on the track behind me due to high water levels. Many low areas in the Minnesota River Valley were flood, especially in the New Ulm area. The communities west of Morton on the Minnesota Prairie Line were temporarily cut off of rail service.
The TC&W Saint Paul Turn heads west through what used to be Milwaukee Road's Bass Lake Yard, now known as M&STL Junction, along the future Southwest LRT right-of-way at Beltline Parkway in St. Louis Park. About a mile east of here, the TC&W shifts onto the former M&StL ROW to get to BNSF rails at Cedar Lake Junction.
CNW 1578 leads a train at Ft Dodge Iowa in May 1974. Nice consist and notice the MSTL Boxcar converted to grain service. 70s Midwest Railroading at its best. Phootgrapher unknown.
DME ran a train from Mason City on the CNW's Spine Line to Albert Lea where they ran on the Old MStL to Waseca,MN
The old MSTL between Cedar Lake and Merriam became the C&NW Cedar Lake Subdivision. It had a maximum speed of 49 MPH and was heavily used by the CNW for both MSTL and Omaha trains. At MP 28.2 there was a 2040 foot siding called Eden Prairie. It was exactly 3 miles south of the MILWAUKEE railroad crossing west of Hopkins. On October 23, 1984 three "new" SD18R's (6643-6632-6626) head railroad east to Merriam. The overpass in the background was Minnesota State Highway 5 or West 78TH Street. The railroad is now a recreational trail.
A quick stop at Clinton, Iowa on this whirlwind day of railfanning, in northern Illinois before heading back to Dixon. We stumbled on CNW RS1 215 (former M&StL 215). My memory is really fuzzy on this location, but I believe this was fairly close to the car shops there at Clinton, but those in the know are welcome to correct me, please.
Montana Rail Link's Paradise Local departs Paradise, Montana as it crosses the Clark Fork River. Former Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway (later C&NW) GP9 leads the local. Since the geeps have been idol receiving maintenance over the weekend, it obviously takes some time to clear up the exhaust on Monday mornings.
1951-built Alco RS-1 on display in Boone IA
MSTL 244 was actually Lake Superior & Ishpeming 1002, becoming Calumet & Hecla Railroad 205 before being donated in 1996 and repainted as Minneapoils & St Louis 244.
Perhaps someone can give more backstory to the restoration choice.
A sharp looking locomotive in the hot summer sun.
On June 6th, I made a trek out to Northeastern Iowa in hopes of photographing two operations I've had on my to-shoot list for years, the Iowa River Railroad and Iowa Northern Railroad. The IARR is much more feasible, as most weekday mornings they run North for Ackley. The IANR is much more of a hassle, with the predictable trains running in shitty light.
One of the early WGRF meets was in the Twin Cities over the Memorial Day weekend 1968. Here's the lineup at the former M&StL Cedar Lake Shop on May 30, 1968. We pretty much had the run of the town - in some cases organized with release forms but in most cases behave ourselves and just walk in. Many firsts for me. The first WGRF I attended. The first time in a couple years I'd got farther from the U.P. than Green Bay or Duluth - account I had NO formal vacation time on the job for a year and a half after starting at the Groveland Mine. Third, using grey market Kodachrome 25 (price including processing) from either England or France IIRC that Matt Herson of NYC had taken orders for and packed with him on the train all the way to St. Paul. The first time I ever bought a brick (20 rolls) and it was a whole 60 some dollars processing included. I really saved over my previous practice of hitting Erickson gas stations, Target, Snyders (downtown Duluth), Copps discount stores, or whatever. Henceforth, phone calls to NYC would get me a brick on the way to go in the freezer. Fourth - my first glimpse of SOO's brand new U-30Cs, including the group shot on the 806 at Shoreham where I'm sitting in the cab. Fifth - the HUSTLE MUSCLE on a hot Great Northern. And sixth, I gotta quit somewhere - a morning at SPUD, with the steelwork for the Hy. 52 bridge overhead, Es, Fs, passenger GPs, the Builder, the NCL, Morning Hiawatha, Morning Zephyr, all in about 3 hours. WHEW.
It's high noon on the Iowa River Railroad as IARR #3802, a rebuilt ex-C&O GP38, lays over outside Pine Lake Corn Processing, the primary source of revenue for this small railroad. With a livery resembling that of the former Arizona and California, the IARR operates nine miles of the ex-M&STL between an ethanol plant near Steamboat Rock and the CN (ex-IC) in Ackley.
Shooting that 1941 Alco tea kettle in Iowa was cool and all, but randomly stumbling upon this 1951 Alco product might have been cooler. It's not every day that you roll over a grade crossing, look to your left and exclaim "Oh, hey! It's an RS1!"
Bonus points for the fact that it was a work train, and not the excursion hodgepodge.
MSTL 244 comes out of the B&SV engine house for another day of hauling passengers on the old Ft. Dodge line.
Montana Rail Link's Paradise Local splits the "shortie" semaphores in St. Regis, Montana, in September 1998. The semaphores were made shorter so crews could see them clearly as they headed westbound underneath the old Milwaukee Road Pacific Extension, the old U.S. 10 overpass, and later the Interstate 90 overpass (located behind me) The local is headed up by a pair of GP9s.
Bad news: The pair of GP9s is off the roster. 134 (former Great Northern), was scrapped in Livingston in 2008. The 116 (former Minneapolis & St. Louis/C&NW) was sold in 2014
Good news: the Local is still powered by a pair of GP9s.
Boone and Scenic Valley 2921 (SD40T-2) sits in the sun at Boone, Iowa displaying its 123 inch "snoot" nose. Per the LocoNotes IO Group, the BSVY traded this locomotive to Midwest Locomotive Services for a GP9R of CNW / MSTL heritage.
2921 was built as SP 8385 in June 1979.
The GP15 duo on LTU23 leans hard to the side as it rolls over some soggy roadbed. These two units put on a nice little show as the headed down the line.
Stanley Baker Collection
Demolished 1978 - Minneapolis Union Depot – the predecessor to the Great Northern Depot, located on the South side of Hennepin Avenue next to the Mississippi river, currently green space between the bridge and Minneapolis Central post office.
LNM34 is the sole train that still uses the former M&STL line south of Marshalltown, Iowa, and man is it a good one
This one was restored and exhibited inside for many years.
National Railroad Museum, Green Bay, Wisc.
LNM34 is the sole train that still uses the former M&STL line south of Marshalltown, Iowa, and man is it a good one
EIRC #1040 outside the CN interchange near Neoga, Illinois. This engine was built for the Minneapolis and Saint Louis (MSTL), a long-forgotten carrier absorbed into the Chicago and Northwestern in 1960. The rails date back to the Toledo, Saint Louis, and Western (Clover Leaf), later part of the Nickel Plate.
Big Northwestern road power next to an old Minneapolis and St.Louis Railway GP9 (MSTL 710) in Oshkosh, WI.
LNM34 is the sole train that still uses the former M&STL line south of Marshalltown, Iowa, and man is it a good one
LNM34 is the sole train that still uses the former M&STL line south of Marshalltown, Iowa, and man is it a good one
January 12 1956 M&StL RS1 845 is southbound through Peoria Illinois after delivering to the CRIP yard. Monty Powell, Collins Collection.
We’re looking at the cab of an RS1 that began life in 1947 as Minneapolis & Saint Louis 547, later renumbered 219. It retained its second number when it was sold to Canadian road Sydney & Louisburg. In 1968, the S&L was reorganized as the Devco Railway, and the unit was renumbered 204. Finally, the Alco came to the Black River & Western with small block “BRW” lettering on the long hood, and it retained number 204. At least one repainting has faded to the point of revealing the RS1’s original identity and number.
LNM34 is the sole train that still uses the former M&STL line south of Marshalltown, Iowa, and man is it a good one
Spotted on the stub track at Winthrop Jct. is a set of 3 ballast cars. The history of these cars is evident on the sides of MRX5. Remarkably this car is still in its original paint for Minneapolis & St. Louis, with added clues to it's service on the C&NW and the Nebkota Railway. Built in the '50s these cars have over 63 years under their belts. MRX6 and MRX7 were repainted by C&NW at some point. Mineral Range doesn't have a lot of its own rolling stock so seeing Mineral Range cars is interesting on its own, even more so when a few fallen flags are part of the story. June 3, 2022.