Jeffrey's Track Side Diner for the month of June. This time we are exploring Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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Hello everyone!! Welcome to Jeffrey’s Diner for June 2020!

As Garry suggested, we are going to change things up a bit by visiting a region as opposed to a single state. We will start at the western most tip of Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota where we will have a look at the ore industry as well as the tourist railways that operate in the area. Minnesota had the Northern Pacific, Great Northern and The Milwaukee railroads, and it still boasts four Class I railways, two regional (Class IIs) and several shortlines.

Later in the month we will slide on over to North Dakota to see the wide open spaces and the trains that run through them both past and present, like the Northern Pacific which would eventually reach Portland, Oregon, and the Great Northern, The Milwaukee Road, Soo Line, Canadian Pacific and the BNSF.

Finally, we will head south into South Dakota to see what there is to see there. (That was weak - I’m running out of words![swg]).

Rather than starting off with some pictures of Minnesota I thought I would post this video of #4014 travelling, or more accurately, creeping through Duluth:

Let’s see everybody kick in some info on Minnesota, and North and South Dakota!

For those new to this place, Jeffrey´s Trackside Diner is the place for you to go to relax and talk off topic about most anything - as long as you stay within the forum rules, which means certain hot button topics are excluded. Please refer to Steven Otte´s post on Forum Policies. Everybody is welcome to participate in the Diner !

The staff - that´s Zoe, Chloe, Flo, Janie, and Brunhilda — is very friendly and will serve up plenty of virtual diner fare with a smile. Just don´t

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Dave, Thanks for opening the June edition of the trackside diner.

I have never been to North Dakota or Minnesota.

We did drive through South Dakota on my trip out West last year, but it was cold and raining the entire time we were in South Dakota, and I did not take a single picture.

Sorry, I have nothing too share.

This is literally the only evidence I have that I was in South Dakota. The picture of the burger i had for dinner from my Wife’s cell phone.

-Kevin

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Thanks for the flawless Diner move, Dave [:D][Y][bow]

Glad we start out seeing FOOD [dinner] I’m craving a big, fat burger right about now.

Tonight we had nice, thick slices of Virginia ham with raisin sauce and au-gratin potatoes with asparagus from the garden.

Great stuff!

Cheers, Ed

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Good Morning!

Another bright and sunny day has just started! It´s still a holiday, with all shops closed. Although the stay at home rule has been lifted, it is quiet on the roads, unlike the previous years, when people used the holidays for a short vacation on the seaside or in the mountains.

Thanks, Dave, for moving the Diner to the June 2020 location. A job well done! The only thing I didn´t like about it was looking at the RIP track. That list is getting ever longer!

I am looking forward to learning about the region we are staying for the month. That´s one part of the US I have not been to and know literally nothing about. I hope to be able to fill that gap a little this month!

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Ed, That burger was at a place called Al’s Oasis, which can be Googled.

It is worth doing a Google image search. The place is really unique.

It was late at night, raining, and we were worried we would not find food because we were completely outside of civilization.

Then we happened upon one of the most campy tourist trap like places I have ever seen, about ten minutes before they closed. Everyone was friendly, and they fed us well. For a silly themed tourist trap, that burger was darned good!

-Kevin

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Okay, I’m hungry too!!

Here are some of Minnesota’s favourite foods:

Walleye!

Lefse: It is a paper thin bread of Scandivadian origin that Minnesotans will claim is the best carb ever! Butter it, sprinkle with sugar, roll it up and enjoy your dessert:

Swedish meatballs!!! That is my kind of comfort food! (lose the cucumber!):

Venison:

Tater Hot Tots. Tater tots on top with beef, green beans, corn and mushroom soup. More comfort food:

Booya! This is a tomato based stew typically cooked outdoors in large vats with everyone in the community supplying the various vegetables and other ingredients:

Lastly, just because Minnesotans love their county fairs, we have ‘anything on a stick’! Forget corn dogs, these guys do everything imaginable including spaghetti on a stick, snickers on a stick, salad on

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Hi Ulrich,

I have never been there either so I am flying by the seat of my pants. (I hope I’m not smelling smoke!) I hope that lots of people will contribute to the information about the Diner’s location. Google is your friend!

Dave

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Here are a whole bunch of railways in operation in Minnesota:

https://ca.video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrEeB2QntReTX0A4AwXFwx.;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=minnesota+railroads&fr=yhs-rogers-rogers_001&hspart=rogers&hsimp=yhs-rogers_001

Dave

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Dave,

Thanks for moving the diner----

herrinchoker

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A little something to get our ore jennies moving this morning!

Proctor, Minnesota: 1960? Sure enough, the last (revenue) run of a DM&IR Yellowstone was #222 on July 5, 1960!

DMIR, Proctor, Minnesota, 1960 by Center for Railroad Photography & Art, on Flickr

Cheers, Ed

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Another smoooooooth moooooove Dave! [Y]

It looks like it was a rainy day for the last run of 222. Our neighbor, up North, also model railroads in the winter, and he says the yellowstones were is favorite locomotive. They are huge!

Didn’t the DM&IR get them from the NP? or is it the other way around?

Dave, that is a great link to MN. railroads.

This week will be a catch-up week for my routine medical visits, than next week, back to work up North.

I take my laptop with, but I rarely take the time to sit and participate in forums, and Face Book.

Have a great week everyone!

Mike.

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Good Morning All,

I’ve been remiss in not stopping by of late. We actually got busy in the shop even though the first event is still the end of the month. I’ll have a regular and a bacon egg and cheese on a plain bagel please Zoe.

On the home front I am still messing with plaster for the parking lot and area around the back of the layout. I probably should have let in cardboard first and then just done a skim coat over that but I thought I’d try building up layers instead. It’s pretty laborious that way. I’ve also been battling an ant infestation in our storage shed. We have an ancient set of storage drawers that came out of the Howlands where my aunt worked so of course they moved in there. I cleaned the ants out as best I could and set an insect bomb off in there yesterday. I will see how that went when I get home today.

Kevin - Oddly enough my dad was also assigned to the ball turret but on a B-24 flying in the Pacific. He was in Australia then started island hopping as things progressed. He got shot down in the lead up to the invasion of the Phillipines. Likely the fact that he had to crank the ball around by hand after the planes electrics failed so he could get out, put on his chute and then jump saved his life as most of the crew were shot in their chutes or life rafts and by the time he got out he was some distance from the rest and got overlooked. He was able to get ashore on Mindanao and was lucky enough to be found by friendlies who took care of him for the time it took to find one of the coast watchers who could arrange for him to be picked up. That was also the end of his war as by the time he recuperated he was mustered out.

thumbnail by J.R. Mitchell, on Flickr

Not from a museum but a painting by a squa

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On a fine Spring day in the Yorkshire Dales, just in the final days of steam:

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Good morning all,

Dave - Thanks for hosting the diner once again and for your post of the slo-mo Big Boy.

Kevin - Al’s Oasis looks a lot like Wall Drug also located on I-90 in western S.D. near Mt. Rushmore.

Ed - Thanks for posting the Yellowstone picture. I have a question more properly located in the “What’s in a Photograph” thread but what are the cylindrical devices mounted on the smoke box door (four pairs and two individuals on either side of the bell)?

JR - Thanks for sharing your dad’s story.

Ulrich - Very nice video.

Tim

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Thanks for opening the new Diner location, Dave.

I’m looking forward to some subway pictures from ND.

Since we’re starting in Minnesota, be very careful if the Diner has Lutefisk on the menu. Try it. You’ll never eat it again. In fact, you may never eat in the Diner again.

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Lutefisk (Norwegian) or lutfisk (Swedish) or ludfisk (Danish) is a Viking specialty constisting of dried fish, which is boiled in water, sometimes with beech ash added to it, until it has a jelly-like consistency. I am afraid I let this one pass by!

If you think it can´t get worse, try Surströmming, which is a lightly-salted fermented Baltic Sea herring traditional to Swedish cuisine since at least the 16th century.

I prefer a nice hamburger!

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Good morning

Great job opening the Diner in Minnesota North and South Dakota Dave. You provided a lot to gather and I have been enjoying it so far. I will be taking some time to go through it all, Thanks[Y]

I was watching 4014 a while ago. I do love slow-moving trains and that sure was a good example of it. It seems the radius of the curve was a little more than she felt comfortable navigating through.

Great job on the food, my mouth is watering, the only thing I would add at this time is Grouse slow baked in tastefully seasoned homemade cream of mushroom soup.

The Norwegians up here love their lutefisk as I see John posted. I have tried it before, … I will stick to my Walleye thank you[:)]

I had hundreds of Duluth photos I lost in one of my phones that got ran over by a bobcat unfortunately but I do have some others I can post later.

Thanks for the Proctor contribution Ed. I have stayed in that town. I enjoyed that layout again Ulrich. The heavyweight center depression flat car I noticed behind the steamer is one of my favorites. J.R. , I see you’ve been to Brainerd, Minnesota. I’m sure you saw Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.

Thanks and have a great day everyone.

TF

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What? Norwegians and Swedes in Minnesota? I hear there’s also a rather large contingent of Finns as well. Apparently Upper Michigan was unable to entice them any longer. And if there’s Finns, there must be pasties (the food kind, I mean [;)] ). And if there’s pasties, there’s lore, recipes, and photos, too. My first girlfriend had Finnish heritage. She never offered me meat pies, but did offer some sauerkraut. Once. That went nowhere - fast.

Flo, are you out of rhubarb pie again? How about butterscotch?

Oh, and Flo, I’ve got one more question that’s been buggin’ me for a long time: I often see you bringing a half of a dog treat to Ken’s table for Dirk. What happens to the other half back in the kitchen?

John

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Good question, Tim,

Front-mounted, Westinghouse cross-compound air compressors.

As boilers got larger there was less room on the side of the boiler to mount the compressors, plus “sometimes” the weight would be better distributed if they were mounted up front.

I have to run off for some chores but I’ll post some photos later.

DMIR, Proctor, Minnesota, 1960 by Center for Railroad Photography & Art, on Flickr

More unusual is the front mounting of the feedwater heater and pump (lower-center of the smokebox)!

Cheers, Ed

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Where are my manners lately? Yes, Thank you Dave for moving us and getting everything ready for the new month. I’m not sure if the radius or the general stability of the track was the question on the Big Boy shot. In the Danbury railyard, we had to keep moving projects and displays because just resting on the rails would sink the ties over time. As was common New Haven practice at the time it was built, all the ballast was cinders. Not all the ties had date tags on them, but a lot of the ties we pulled that did have tags were 1904 - 1914 sort of era. So long times between service seemed to be the rule.

John, I have the strongest suspicion Dirk gets the other half of his evening treat when Ken is looking the other way[;)].

Yup, I’ll stick to the walleye - grilled not breaded - one of the best meals I’ve ever had. Back to it. J.R.