Nostalgia & History > F-unit Friday: Two C&NW trains for locations

Two more nifty Black & White prints from the Jim Wilson collection need some location assistance...

1. C&NW 4097C leads a manifest at St Paul, MN* in the 1950s(?).

2. I also have this image marked as ‘C&NW 4079C’ which is most likely incorrect. I have them marked the same to keep them together in the file. This train is near Minneapolis Jct, MN*
Two B/W prints from the late Jim Watson collection, photographer is unknown. Date guestimation: Circa 1950s.

Thanks for the help!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

*Location 1st aid has indeed arrived. :^)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/25 14:50 by santafe199.

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As an aside, I can see that building with "Minneapolis Cold Storage" on it. What I'm looking for is a more precise location. Is this closer to Northtown, or maybe Minneapolis Jct or any of a handful of other sub-locations that will show in the ETT...

:^) 

I have a rough idea of where photo #1 was taken - along the GN mainline between Westminster Tower and St. Anthony Tower in St. Paul, MN.

Minneapolis Cold Storage was located on Nicollet Island in Minneapolis.  Here are coordinates: 44.9882,-93.2652  The photographer is looking towards Minneapolis Junction. The train is crossing the bridge off the Island leading into downtown Minneapolis, and the track diverging to the photographer's right leads to the Great Northern station in Minneapolis.  Some may not recognize this location because if you look at this bridge today, there is a through-truss span on it, added sometime between 1957 and 1966.

For another look at the Cold Storage building, see the photo about halfway down the page here: https://streets.mn/2018/09/27/nicollet-island-seeing-the-forest-for-the-trees/

Matthew

Very cool (or maybe cold!) photos, both.

Super scenes - Two black and white beauties.
Bob

I believe photo #1 was taken from the walkway bridge adjacent to the Koppers Coke plant east of Midway along the 4-track Great Northern mainline in St. Paul, MN.  If so, the train is eastbound on the GN freight double track mains, which were on the south side of the double-track passenger mains in this part of town; Snelling Avenue is crossing on that bridge in the background.

While trying to figure out this location, I looked at aerial photographs from 1947, 1957 and 1966 on the Historic Aerials site and consulted the John Barriger photograph collection on Flickr, as he took photos while riding on the GN through this area, what, maybe 20 years earlier?  CNW 4097-C was purchased in 1950 and retired in 1965 (see link to a roster below).  However, I believe I have identified the building with the rounded roof on the left side of the photo; it still stands and is now Kern Landscape Resources. The crest of the grade seen in the picture of 4097-C seems to match the crest of the grade east of Midway in these 1978 photos taken from the same walkway bridge:

https://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1715963
https://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1715964
https://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1715981

Here's a Barriger view looking east that shows the walkway bridge: https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/12624100144/in/album-72157640328277254

(By the way, what is the apparatus that looks like a small guardrail along the tracks in the photo of 4097-C and Barriger's photo?  It looks like it was moved between the time Barriger passed by and 4097-C was photographed.)

CNW roster with 4097-C: https://utahrails.net/cnw/cnw07.php

I will add that the Minneapolis Cold Storage building was demolished sometime between 1979 and 1984, based on aerial photography for those years.

Matthew

Lots of good location info here, and about my Mop biz car post as well. That’s why this is such a great website! 👍

Posted from iPhone

photo 2 is exellent!!

Good stuff, thanks for posting.  #2 was taken at the west end of Great Northern Station in minneapolis and shows, on the right, the connection track for GN passenger trains to get to the St Cloud line, and the Duluth line.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA