Nostalgia & History > Photos of the Bethany Trestle -- Chicago Great Western

The Bethany Trestle was 17 miles east of Rochester, Minn. along the old Winona & South-Western (Chicago Great Western) line between the junction at Simpson and Winona.  Dover, St Charles, Altura and Rollingstone were stations along the challenging route.

When the Altura and Rollingstone route was abandoned, freight trains bound for Winona from Rochester left CGW rails at Planks Junction and used the C&NW Plainview to Chatfield line to access the C&NW mainline between Rochester and Winona.

These photos of the Bethany Trestle were taken June 1962 by Walt Dunlap



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/25 17:58 by MartyBernard.

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That's a lot of toothpicks!
Gonut

Actually the CGW only used the Chatfield Jct. to Planks Jct. portion of the Chatfield Branch. The Plainview Jct. to Plainview Branch was not used by the Great Western. To get to Altura, the CGW did use C&NW trackage from Planks to Altura Jct. which was an ABS control point about one mile West of Utica, MN. That branch, which used the Bethany Trestle, remained in service from 1931 to 1963. In 1931 Altura to Winona was embargoed, with the rail not removed until 1937. The pictured trestle was about a mile and a half NW of where this is being written.
SR2

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