I’ve tried google earth and can’t see much. Too many trees. I just tried Microsoft similar feature but it must have a blank spot or something as it just shows black. But the Microsoft pictures are much better. I’d like to see views of the junction and nearby. Someone on here said there is still the foundation there for a passenger station that used to be there.
On Google Earth, you might try usting the terrain feature. It might help with treeain layers.
Here’s the actual junction where the lines crossed. Click “Bird’s eye” for the best views, which also happen to be defoliated shots. The Duluth line is now a rec. trail, and the track east to Stillwater is still in. The ROW to the west is long overgrown.
Can anyone copy and paste it? My computer won’t handle that page.
Is the line to the east still in service? I followed it all the way to Stillwater.
The “Minnesota Zephyr Railroad” runs from Duluth Junction to the Stillwater depot, where the track ends.
It looks like that the track’s end where the lines once crossed see post’s above for the link. Or are you talking about when you get to Stillwater and the tracks begin to curve north?
BN last used the line in 1982. The Zephyr ran for the last time on 12-31-08. Everything from the Zephyr company is for sale. The line is isolated as they pulled up the tracks in downtown Stillwater.
If you follow the ROW from the junction eastward, it will curve to the south in Stillwater. The track runs between the junction and the Stillwater depot, and is completely disconnected from any other railroad.
Ok I see now.
The tracks going west to White Bear Lake from Duluth Junction were pulled up several years ago. I think it was BN that still technically owned the tracks south of the Zephyrs location through downtown and up to Sunnyside Marina where UP tracks begin. The city of Stillwater forced abandonment of the tracks through town since they had not been used in about 10 years and had all the tracks through downtown pulled up accept at road crossings. That happened in about 05 or 06. The track south of downtown up to Sunnyside Marina is still there but washed out in one section. An active RR track was one more impedement that the city would have to deal with when the new bridge over the St.Croix goes in.