Yesterday, we visited my wife’s home farm from when she was growing up, her younger brother lives and farms there, now. I had heard that there was a portion of railroad grade on the farm and had an opportunity to see the grade on this visit. This is in Polk County in North Western Minnesota. About 3-4 miles east of Fertile, MN where the Northern Pacific’s line north, from Manitoba Junction to Winnipeg, Manitoba, ran.
The railroad grade I walked yesterday runs parallel to the N.P.’s line and I believe is the work of the Great Northern which found itself in a race with the Northern Pacific to get to Winnipeg. I’m thinking this would have been in the late 1800 or early 1900. Great Northern lost the race and all the work put into building the road bed was for naught!
The section of road bed I walked was around a 1/4th mile long and passed through a small river valley. It went from fairly close to ground level to almost 20 feet tall where it ends at what would have been a trestle abutment. My thoughts are that this road bed probably never had ties; or, rails on it and the trestle itself may never have been built.
The engineering department would have sent crews out to where the survey showed “Cuts and Fills” would be needed to get the ball rolling. Looking at the work done it becomes obvious how much effort would have been put in, to make this fill. There is no big cut nearby, so I’m uncertain of where the fill came from. I think all this work was accomplished with horse drawn scrapers and wagons.
It was back breaking work. Ever heard the old saying “wouldn’t stand a chinaman’s chance”? That was a reference to the Chinese laborers that worked on the railroads.
A surprising amount of dirt gets lifted from lineside ditches and cuts so shallow they’re barely visible. The top of the fill is much narrower.
Even in the late 19th century there were dump drays and scrapers available - animal powered (more likely oxen than horses) but major labor savers nonetheless. A major earthmoving project might also use steam power - crawler shovels and traction engines.
Major earthmoving efforts that encounter problems with politics, economics or an unfriendly Mother Nature have happened throughout history. Look at the amount the French invested in the Maginot Line, only to have it outflanked and taken from the rear. And then there was the dam in, IIRC, Montana that simply washed away after it was undermined by seepage…
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - including one prototype route that was abandoned 11 years later)
This was certainly not the first time I have noticed large fills, built to support track work. What I found interesting about this particular fill was that it was never used. G.N lost the race, end of story.
Speaking of trestles that where later filled in with earth, not to far from me, there is almost a 6 mile long stretch of what was N.P. mainline that was just that, a very long trestle that was filled in with earth.
USGS maps show that abandoned grade you are describling - It went north through Maple Bay, and Dugdale/Tilden Jct. Eventually winding up in Crookston, MN. The GN picked up and replaced the line west of Tilden Jct with a re-alignment at one point. The line south of there through the farm field was also picked up, and the GN ran on NP trackage rights through Fertile. The NP and GN had several joint lines in the area where they used the best pieces of each others trackage. The GN line to Winnipeg ran north out of Crookston and used CN trackage from Noyes to Winnipeg. The GN Winnipeg Ltd ran fron Mpls/St Paul to St Cloud, Barnesville, Crookston and on to Noyes(the border). My parents old neighbor was a RPO clerk on the overnight run, until the USPS got rid of the RPO contract.
The NP line went through Grand Forks and up the west side of the Red River. It crossed the border at Pembina, ND. The NP ran RDC’s for passenger service in later years. The line north of the border was combined with the CN line at Emerson Jct.
BNSF still has trackage in Winnipeg and an engine & caboose marked BNML that switches the local indistries. Neat Stuff!
Jim, The N.P./B.N. tracks that ran from Manitoba Junction to Winnipeg now only run up to Ulen. I’m unsure when the tracks were torn-up through Fertile. Do you know? I’m thinking probably in the 90s as I seem to recall freight cars in Fertile, in that time frame.
Do you agree that the abandond road bed was the Great Northern’s? Thanks for this intersting information!
I suspect late 80’s/early 90’s. That roadbed east of Fertile is marked GN. Prosser’s ‘Rails to the Northstar’ book would have the construction dates and original names of the companies. Jim
Note how the temporary timbers and rails were put in place to support the cars of fill. I can not explain the tipped rail on the right side of the photo other than perhaps a car got away while being unloaded.
In my neighborhood there was a wood interurban trestle that was slowly and eventually filled in with slag. Some years later the slag began to burn rendering the fill useless until the slag could be cooled and removed. Lesson learned for being cheap and not using a better grade of rock fill.
This was written after seeing a set of photos of the 1907 construction of the Stephenville North and South Texas Railroad. It’s from page 1 of Cotton Belt Engineer:
“Usually Sunday was a day of rest and relaxation, but the SN&ST crews were working on this Sunday. Sunday socials and community events centered on the church were a more commonplace thing in those days. But the coming of the railroad had the whole town in a whirl. What Cecil Standefer saw that summer day in 1907 was the broad sweep of construction needed to create a new railroad. He saw Fresno scrapers moving a yard of fill, each drawn by two-mule teams. Each Fresno had an operator and each team of mules had a driver. Thus, two men were required to move that yard of earth for the fills for the embankment. Other mules worked the large field plow to loosen the fill material for the Fresnos. Other horse teams were used to pull the pile driver to the top of its reach. This lead was then released to let the pile driver fall upon the piles being driven for the new bridges that would carry the rails over the small streams and the bigger one that was the Leon River. The horses were then led around for another pull at the lead and the rail building work went on.”
By the time the US got into the major cut business (the Gaillard(?) Cut of the Panama Canal) the flatcars were loaded with steam shovels (some mounted on rail cars) and unloaded by dragging a plow blade along the entire cut of cars. Actually, the plow was in a fixed location and the loaded cars were pulled into it.
I have finally received my copy of Rails to the North Star book by Prosser. I have scanned through and attempted to find where this might be discussed; but, have been unsuccessful so far. Jim (jrberner) do you have an idea/chapter where this informatiobn can be found?
I will be reading the entire book when I’m done with the book I’m reading, now.
The fills on the Lane Cutoff, from Omaha to Pacific Jct, west of Omaha (which parallels I-80) , some of which are 40-60 ft high, were formed by building trestles then coming back with dump cars of dirt to fill in the trestle.
Yes, Dave, there is a place not to far from me on the Northern Pacific where the process you mention was done. However, I doubt that was the case here, as I don’t believe there were ever tracks laid on the grade I am talking about.
