Nostalgia & History > North Western Wednesday - The Minneapolis & St. Louis.....

The Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway (reporting mark MSTL) was founded in 1870, and expanded through line construction and acquisition through the early part of the twentieth century. They maintained a dogged competitiveness for 90 straight years - at which time - they were forced to deal with realities unforseen in its' infancy. The road operated lines radiating both south and west from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their most important route was between Minneapolis and Peoria, Illinois; a second major route extended from Minneapolis into eastern South Dakota. Other trackage served various areas in north-central Iowa and south-central Minnesota. Despite best efforts, excessive competition from neighboring roads and lack of system route miles led to light traffic and a few daliences with bankruptcy. Dieselization helped, but sadly couldn't delay the inevitable. After Chairman Heineman left the road for the North Western in the late fifties, he had the acquisition of the "Louie" first and foremost on his mind. Thus, the "Midnight & Still Later" was melded into the Chicago and North Western Railway on November 1, 1960, and in subsequent years, much of its former main line trackage was abandoned.

Thanks to railfan photographer J.J. Buckley - M&STL memories of better times are to be cherished - in succinct homage.

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

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A heritage scheme that UP forgot. I wish their program was like Norfolk Southern's.

Adam

Wow. Outstanding shot by Jim Buckley. Thanks for posting, Bob.

The M&StL did not go to Waterloo. However, they operated coordinated freight service with IC Waterloo - Albert Lea, MN via their interchange at Glenville, MN. Evidently there was run-through power in this corridor early on. It might have been one of the first run-through power arrangements.

Ben Heineman won a proxy battle to acquire the M&StL in 1954. He then tried to acquire the TP&W but Pennsy and Santa Fe jointly bought it before he could get his hands on it. He left M&StL for CNW, then came back in 1960 to get M&StL.

Note the trolley poles at left in the photo.

Fabulous shot, thanks for sharing.

Best regards,

Rob L.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/16 17:55 by rob_l.

The posted photo by J.J. Buckley is included on Page 16 of Minneapolis & St. Louis in Color by Gene Green published by Morning Sun Books.
ALLEN

That is a wonderful photo.

The Minneapolis & St. Louis had one of the snazziest paint schemes of the 1950s.
 

Very nicely done!

Marty

Bob,

what an excellent picture of M&StL's F3-twins. The best I've ever seen!

Many thanks for sharing.

Franz

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Double wow.

KG

rob_l Wrote:
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> The M&StL did not go to Waterloo. However, they
> operated coordinated freight service with IC
> Waterloo - Albert Lea, MN via their interchange
> at Glenville, MN. Evidently there was run-through
> power in this corridor early on. It might have
> been one of the first run-through power
> arrangements.
>
> Ben Heineman won a proxy battle to acquire the
> M&StL in 1954. He then tried to acquire the TP&W
> but Pennsy and Santa Fe jointly bought it before
> he could get his hands on it. He left M&StL for
> CNW, then came back in 1960 to get M&StL.
>
> Note the trolley poles at left in the photo.
>
> Fabulous shot, thanks for sharing.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Rob L.

This is all correct.  The location is West Tower, structure in background right, where the WCF&N
crossed the IC main west of Waterloo Yard.  (They crossed it again east of Waterloo Yard at
Rath Tower.)  I'm not for certain on this, but I believe the run-through, and there are shots of
red M&StL units near the same location, ended with the CNW takeover of the M&StL.  However,
there continued to be an interchange at Albert Lea lasting into the 1980's.  To effect this, the
IC(G) had trackage rights on the M&StL/CRIP Joint trackage from Glenview, MN, to Albert
Lea, the joint trackage ended at Curtis in Albert Lea.  When Jack Haley got this line, the
interchange stopped, and I don't believe any Cedar Valley/Cedar River/CN train has run to
Albert Lea since 1984.  

An FYI post for you, Bob.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/16 08:46 by ntharalson.

Wow, this is fantastic.  What a great paint scheme and matching set of power.  I never got to see any of this RR until now--thanks for showing 
Brian Stevens

> The M&StL did not go to Waterloo. However, they
> operated coordinated freight service with IC
> Waterloo - Albert Lea, MN via their interchange
> at Glenville, MN. Evidently there was run-through
> power in this corridor early on. It might have
> been one of the first run-through power
> arrangements.
>


Hello Rob & all,

The IC-M&StL power runthrough agreement started in '52 is the first I'm aware of, west of Chicago at least.  I believe it was a true "pool power" arrangement, with each RR allocating units to the pool in proportion to their usage.  This runthrough arrangement was mentioned in a recent Streamliner article (quarterly Union Pacific Historical Society publication) and it was also discussed here a couple of years ago:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3371564,3372022#msg-3372022

The runthrough agreement was via the Albert Lea interchange, operating trains between Waterloo and Cedar Lake (Twin Cities).  M&StL system maps of that era had IC lines including the Albert Lea - Waterloo route shown in bold, with that usually indicating they were cooperating on things like train scheduling and traffic solicitation.   

And that was a really nifty M&StL paint scheme; probably made the IC stuff look even more bland by comparison!

Take care,

Mark