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)
21

You are exactly correct John. Many wonderful Finnish people live here, a lot of them residing in Northern Minnesota. There was a large population in Orr, Minnesota where I went to high school and many were my friends.

I always loved their accents in the way they shortened and changed letters in words in their sentences. Some of the phrases I heard repeatedly back then have stuck with me to this day.

Too bad you never had your girlfriend cook you a meat pie. If you want to have a really good dinner go home with one of your Finnish friends and have their Mother cook you Lihaperunasoselaatikko. Don’t ask me to pronounce it and I had to look it up to find the spelling as my memory would never have served me.

Cottage pie was one of the best meals I ever ate that Mark’s Mother made for us and I did return for it again. Beef minced meat in the mashed potatoes and lots of vegetables, it was so good[dinner] Shepherd’s pie is lamb in place of the beef but basically the same. Judy and I make this dish frequently as it is one of our favorites but I have never had it as good as Mark’s Mom made back in 1980.

TF

22

Good Morning,

A hot day here, expecting high '80s but just for today.

John, I agree with your assessment of Lutefisk. My grandmother was Norwegian and she managed to persuade my mother to cook Lutefisk a couple of times. What can you say about something that is preserved in lye. It was disgusting but Grandma smiled and said it was good. I think she was lying.

Now luftse is a different matter. That stuff is really good. We visit our friends near Thief River Falls often and to say the area was settled by Norwegians is an understatement. The local paper is full of ads in the fall for suppers featuring walleye, lutefisk, luftse, swedish meatballs, etc.

There is also a diesel locomotive rebuilder located just north of TRF. They use an old rebuilt NW2 as a yard engine. In town the Soo Line roundhouse and turntable are still there. The CP line from Winnipeg to St. Paul was the first rail link from Winnipeg before the CPR was completed going east. The first engine on the CP in Winnipeg came by barge on the Red River up from North Dakota. The ‘Countess of Duferin’ is preserved in the local rail museum.

When talking rail in Duluth, it is the terminus of the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific, a sub of CN that runs from there to Fort Frances, Ont. which is across the river from International Falls, MN. It is one of CN’s links with the U.S. As TF models the DW&P he should be able to provide us with all sorts of info.

Too hot to do much outside today so just a lazy one for me, like most days.

CN Charlie

23

My Sister is digitalizing all our family photo’s and sent me this yesterday. Me on the Countess of Dufferin on a 1966 visit to Winnipeg.

Edit; the Countess won’t load, so here is yours truly on a different loco, also in Winnipeg.

I’ll work on the Countess pic.

24

Thanks, I would love to Charlie! What I do know and my experiences growing up there with the DWP. I know my contribution won’t be too technical with dates and such.

I will take a stab at it this evening as I’ve been kinda busy running around the building here doing jobs where I live. I’ve been in and out all day but should be around this evening[swg]

Love the picture of you on the front of the Steamer as a little boy Brent. That thing is a monster in size compared to you back then[wow][:)]

TF

25

Brent,

6043 is located in Assiniboine Park and was the last run loco for CN steam in April, 1960. I saw it on its last run. I rode my bike out to the edge of the city to see it go past. Luckily it was a faily warm day for April.

Back to Thief River Falls, there is an ex-Soo Line Mikado on display outside the former station. It in turn is an ex-Monon loco and has the pumps mounted on the front of the smokebox. I believe it made its last run out of TRF in 1956 if my memory of the plaque is correct.

We haven’t visited anywhere in Minnesota or N.Dakota for many years except for TRF so I don’t have much knowledge of anywhere else in the area.

Time to check if the flowers need water. They are still in the nursery pots so constant attention is required.

CN Charlie

26

Not counting stops on Delta at Minneapolis, I traversed Minnesota twice by car. Very pretty along the Interstate between Grand Forks and Wisconsin, but I got pinched by the state highway patrol in a speed trap in western MN, about 200 yards past a temporary 35 mph sign in a construction zone. When I asked the lady officer about the short notice, she point up the hill another 200 yards to what was supposedly a warning sign - just this side of the sharp crest of a hill. I’ll bet well less than half of the non-locals ever saw it. Thought I might get a break because my last name made up the first five letters of hers. That quickly floated away on the breeze. She seemed like a hard dude anyway. Judge dismissed not my ticket but my diplomatic but carefully worded explanation. Coulda bought a loco with the bucks that cost me. [:'(]

Some wag told me their state bird is the mosquito. [:-^]

John

27

A long time ago, I was visiting her parents with an ex girlfriend. I remember taking in two Minnesota activities. The first was ice fishing. We sat out in a small shed with a heater, drank beer and fished through a hole in the ice. I thought it was a lot of fun. The other was ice racing. These were car races on frozen lakes. I think they used mostly Volvos, because they were the available vehicles with front wheel drive.

28

Good evening

Well let me see what I can do with some of the history of DWP and some other things that I remember growing up near the railroad.

DWP actually originated from the 1800s as the railroad was a logging type of railroad and logging White Pines for milling building materials near Duluth and Viginia Minnesota.

I know it was Cook that later teamed up with O’Brien that owned the DV&RL Duluth Virginia and Rainy Lake Railroad. This bit of History does stick out in my head as we had two towns named after these historical men where I grew up.

I do believe this railroad was made up from Duluth and Iron Range, Duluth Minnesota and Northern, Duluth Rainy Lake and Winnipeg. I may have some facts twisted and turned around here as I never was really good at retaining history. I do know Cook and O’Brien did very well for themselves in the Logging Railroad business.

It was Canadian Northern as it was called back then that saw potential and bought out these two logging tycoons to start a railroad going from Canada to Duluth, this was known as the Peg. DWP became founded in the early 1900s out of all this.

Since these early days Canadian National has purchased DMIR and Wisconsin Central and has a route going all the way to Chicago. I’m sure you probably see older DWP locomotives still in service along with CN but I don’t think any new DWP locomotives are painted. I hear the same with DMIR that the CN locomotives are orange up there.

I also have life experience of childhood memories of DWP growing up but I wont try to fit everything into one post as sometimes posting from a phone times out and everything disappears into Oblivion.

[;)]Thanks TF

29

[(-D][(-D]

It is lot of fun Mister B. I go out with my friends every year. The sport has evolved over the years since I remember in the beginning. Most ice fishing houses have four to six holes depending on the size of them.

Now-a-days, although the fishing is fun when they’re biting, it’s just a good excuse to get a break from the wife to go out and do some male bonding. We have a poker table in the middle of the ice fishing house with bells on the lines in case someone gets a bite, we don’t really pay attention to the fishing unless we hear a bell.

It’s all about the potluck of the dish that everybody brings out to eat, the beer, the cards and the dice[Y]

I don’t know about now since the fishing problem of the lake but I have seen pictures. Milacs Lake has Ice Fishers that are so serious they have upstairs sleeping rooms in their ice houses, kitchen and a bathroom[(-D]

P.S. The one I really like that is quite a serious ice sport to me is Spearing. I went out every year when I lived up by the Canadian border but I’ve only gone a few times since then. This sport is really fun. You have to be on the right Lake for it. For me now that means travel.

You chain saw a rectangle in the ice in the middle of your ice house. The illumination of the Sun going through the ice into your dark ice house. You can see the fish come up but they can’t see you. The adrenaline of a Big Muskie or Northern coming up to see your little lure your bobbing around startles you as you throw your sp

30

Post-hog

Judy’s half sister just called from New Orleans. The news is hurricane season could start as soon as this Saturday. Hopefully not.

TF

31

Hurricane season is the original fake news. Every year we are supposed to have 6 storms of the century plus another dozen. Stay tuned at 11 for the latest update.

Top of the page again. Since Tang wasn’t a hit, how about chocolate eclairs, all around.

32

We know hurricane season always starts June 1st, here in south Louisiana (and elsewhere). Not a bulletin.

33

Chocolate eclairs, Yes! Oh for sure Henry. Cream puffs with that light fluffy pastry even better.

Either one, You know when you got a really good one when you have a mess all over your face after you eat one.

After that I always feel fortunate if I’m near a sink and I can just run the water and take my two hands and go blah blah blah and wash all the messy remnants stuck to my face off[(-D]

Give me another one please!

[dinner]TF

34

Post-hog

You know I am going to keep my stories to a minimum.

My travel from the Kabetogama State Forest to Orr Minnesota of my high school took an hour and 20 minutes in the morning and an hour and 20 minutes to home. The drive was 35 minutes in a car but in the school bus and all the stops to pick up and drop off kids was an hour and 20 minutes.

If no one on the bus was playing cards I got my homework done on the bus. We usually didnt play cards in the morning but sometimes we did. On the way home from school we always played cards. Usually Hearts, Jick, Jack, high, low and shoot the Moon. We played partners, believe me we all had our secret signals. Sometimes we played Spades. I never liked Spades so well, I usually sat out and did my homework.

Thore the bus driver often stopped in the small town of Cusson to talk to the bar owner for a few minutes. We always liked it because we could get off the bus and have a cigarette. Thore didn’t care.

I do remember one time the cusson bar owner showed Thore a railroad lantern that had DWP on it. I remember listening to the story. The bar owner told Thore almost every night when he heard the train he would go out and wave just before bar close.

One day the morning DWP engineer stopped the train when he saw the bar owner and walked across the highway and handed him the railroad lamp and said the night engineer wanted to give this to you.

What’s ironic about this story is I’ve seen it happen more than once later when I lived in Prior Lake.

Later on when Thore stopped the bus to talk to the cusson bar owner, I heard him tell Thore he waved the railroad Lantern when the night engineer went by. And he said the night engineer blew the horn at him and waved.

TF

35

Thats the way the sturgeon spearing works, on Lake Winnebago, WI. I’ve never done it.

Mike.

36

If you have it in your means. If you have friends that participate in the sport that you can meet up with.

I would highly recommend it as the adrenaline rush is so, … I can’t even describe when that great big fish appears in the rectangle. It’s a jolt! You do have to go experience it[Y]

Fish are curious and so am I. What I can’t believe is when you miss they do come back! They can’t see you!

TF

37

Good evening …

Dave … A huge THANK YOU for starting the June Diner !

Henry … Thank you for the chocolate eclair. Yummy!

Ken … I saw your post about your broken rib and having pneumonia. That must be awful Coughing must hurt. Prayers for you.

There is much to talk about regarding MN, ND, and SD.

I see you are already talking about Duluth, DM&IR, and DW&P. There is a lot of train action in the Twin Cities, of course. Looking at northwest ND, we can talk about crude oil trains originating there and also the border connection with Soo Line and Canadian Pacific. In southwest SD, there is the Badlands, Rapid CIty, Mt. Rushmore, … and of course, the Deadwood Branch of the CB&Q !

In my younger days, I rode on the Burlington Twin Cities Zephyr and the Milwaukee Road Hiawtha beween Chicago, IL and St Paul, MN . (I grew up near Chicago) .

Burlington’s passenger trains between Chicago and the Twin Cities were the Zephyrs, the overnight Blackhawk, GN Empire Builder, GN Western Star, NP North Coast Limited, and NP Mainstreeter. … The Western Star amd the Maintreeter were combined with the Blackhawk. … Sometimes, the Empire Builder and/or the North Coast LImited were combined with the Twin Cities Zephyr… There were two Twin Cities Zephyrs in each direction every day.

Here is a picture of the Twin Cities Zephyr. It had dome cars, and it had a schedule with 90 mph runnning.

Other info … On June 1, 1793, Kentucky became the 15th State of the Union. Happy 228th birthday, Kentucky !

38

The Burlington Route Silver Streak Garry.

I have one of those parked in my cart for $169 on eBay free shipping.

The locomotive and all the passenger cars in a set brand new. It’s breaking my heart I’m not spending money right now.

I have come so close to pushing the PayPal button[:S]

Push the butt! … [:(][:S][:|]

[:-^][(-D]TF

39

TF … I won’t tell if you use some of your $1200 check from Uncle Sam to buy it. If I recall correctly, the Silver Streak Zephyr ran between Kansas City and Omaha.

40

Good Evening,

Go ahead TF, press that button! If your wife asks, just say the devil made me do it.

Mr. B, good guess on the Swedish cars for ice racing but it would have been Saabs as Volvo didn’t have a front drive car until 1992.

Well it did hit 32C which is about 88F here today.

Not a good day as my wife isn’t feeling well and I’ll just leave it at that.

Nothing on the agenda this week except maybe a little yard work. We have a lot of flowers to plant but that is what my wife usually does. I may have to do it but I’m sure it won’t be done right.

Think I’ll go back downstairs and watch TV a little longer. I seem to spend most of my time down there lately.

CN Charlie