Monument to a C&NW crossroads
This handsome C&NW depot is well-preserved as a museum. The brick structure speaks to the one-time importance of Redfield as a crossroads for C&NW. They had lines stretching in four directions from Redfield and all passed in front of this station. A line ran north from Huron (James Valley Jct.) through Redfield continuing north through Aberdeen and ultimately to Oakes, North Dakota. An east-west route also came through here after splitting off the mainline at Blunt and passing through Gettysburg, SD continuing to Watertown and ultimately Tracy, MN.
Like many secondary granger lines, the years have not been kind to the old C&NW routes here. One isolated segment, from Redfield north to Mansfield, SD is all that remained to be passed onto "heir" RCP&E. That branch is reached by trackage rights from Wolsey and includes a tiny bit of the old line to Watertown. I suppose catching an RCP&E job up here can be added to the bucket list. The closest I've come is a train returning to Wolsey on the trackage rights during the time CP had the ex-C&NW across South Dakota.
September 10, 2023.
Monument to a C&NW crossroads
This handsome C&NW depot is well-preserved as a museum. The brick structure speaks to the one-time importance of Redfield as a crossroads for C&NW. They had lines stretching in four directions from Redfield and all passed in front of this station. A line ran north from Huron (James Valley Jct.) through Redfield continuing north through Aberdeen and ultimately to Oakes, North Dakota. An east-west route also came through here after splitting off the mainline at Blunt and passing through Gettysburg, SD continuing to Watertown and ultimately Tracy, MN.
Like many secondary granger lines, the years have not been kind to the old C&NW routes here. One isolated segment, from Redfield north to Mansfield, SD is all that remained to be passed onto "heir" RCP&E. That branch is reached by trackage rights from Wolsey and includes a tiny bit of the old line to Watertown. I suppose catching an RCP&E job up here can be added to the bucket list. The closest I've come is a train returning to Wolsey on the trackage rights during the time CP had the ex-C&NW across South Dakota.
September 10, 2023.