Nostalgia & History > WAG Wednesday: Steam in Willmar, MN

In the summer of 1957 Bill Gibson paid a visit to his sister and brother in law living in Bemidji, MN. In the course of the trip he made a side trip to the old Great Northern division point town of Willmar, MN. Even thought it was getting late in the game for active steam he was no doubt very pleased to catch a 3100 Class(?) 2-8-2 in action. Art thinks the young fan just barely visible in the lower left hand corner of image #1 is his (now deceased) cousin John Page.

1. 2. & 3. GN 3135 rolls by in front of Bill’s camera in Willmar, MN on August 22, 1957.
Photo by William A. Gibson (WAG) Sr.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Art Gibson (wag216)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/19/22 20:44 by santafe199.

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Thanks both for posting these fine images and, although they are steam, posting them first in the "Nostalgia" section. Appreciated.

Great shots, thank you for posting these.

Steve Sloan
San Jose, CA

very nice pics

VERY NICE!!!!

Just from memory, that might be a class O7 mike, which were rebuilt from the short lived M class 2-6-8-0 articulateds.

No complaints!

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HotWater Wrote: > ...  from memory ... a class O7 mike ... rebuilt from the short lived M class 2-6-8-0 articulateds ...

Thanks for that tidbit, Jack! I did an on-line search for an "All-time Roster" of Great Northern steam, but couldn't seem to find one. Strange...

Lance/299

Great photo! 

I have no particular link to Willmar or to the GN.  I do, however, have a link to the date.  My mom delivered me at 2 AM (eastern time) that day.  This is the third or fourth 8/22/57 photo I've come across on the web.  Evidently it was a good day for railfanning!

GN 3135 is a "late-model" O-1 (4 separate groups) from Baldwin in 1918, rebuilt/modified regularly like everything GN operated, got a Vandy tender and a booster along the way and scrapped in 1963...I'd have to dig more, but there were some GN Mikes built from their L-Class 2-6-6-2's, and as HW says at least some of the O-7's were built using boilers from M-Class 2-6-8-0's which I believe were consequently rebuilt to 0-8 specs...Whew!

Cheers, Dave

Lance, more great images from Mr. Wagner. I hope this series of WAG's never ends.

Not many "new" images of GN steam being made public at this point, especially in color. Thanks very much for posting these wonderful shots.