Nostalgia & History > Otter Tail Valley Railroad GP18 192 -- Walt Dunlap

The Otter Tail Valley Railroad operates 64 miles of track between Moorhead, Minnesota and Fergus Falls, Minnesota, and two short branch lines.  It is owned by Genesee and Wyoming, Inc., having been acquired in 1996.  Source, Wikipedia.  Note, Wikipedia says nothing about Rail America (painted on the geep).

Walt's three photos are of Otter Tail Valley Railroad GP18 192 (ex-NS) and freight train passing the Fergus Falls, MN ex-Northern Pacific Depot in June 2000.

Enjoy,
Marty Bernard

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I live 20 miles east of the this Fergus Falls NP depot. It is on the 1883 Black Hills branch from Staples/ Wadena through Henning (crossed by the Soo Line 1903 Glenwood - Thief River Falls - Winnipeg line) through Clitherall to Fergus Falls (crossing the GN St Cloud - Alexandria- Barnesville- Fargo second main) to Breckenridge ( crossing the 1871 GN original main) and on to Oakes, North Dakota.
The depot is being restored and has recently opened with a restaurant. Thanks for taking the time to post all these great memories.

Jeff Stabnow
Clitherall MN
 

MartyBernard Wrote:
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> The Otter Tail Valley Railroad operates 64 miles
> of track between Moorhead, Minnesota and Fergus
> Falls, Minnesota, and two short branch lines.  It
> is owned by Genesee and Wyoming, Inc., having been
> acquired in 1996.  Source, Wikipedia.  Note,
> Wikipedia says nothing about Rail America (painted
> on the geep).
>
> Walt's three photos are of Otter Tail Valley
> Railroad GP18 192 (ex-NS) and freight train
> passing the Fergus Falls, MN ex-Northern Pacific
> Depot in June 2000.
>
> Enjoy,
> Marty Bernard

Wikipedia is wrong, which is not surprising.
Otter Tail Valley was started in 1996 as one of Rail America's numerous short lines. The entire Rail America (aka Fail America) operation was brought by Genesee and Wyoming several years ago and added to their rather large operation.

When you refer to that unit as being former Norfolk Southern, you are referring to the original Norfolk Southern that was absorbed by the Southern Railway which in turn was absorbed into the current Norfolk Southern.   It's one of the few units that has gone from an as built low nose unit into a high nose unit (courtesy of the Southern Ry).