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Legislation introduced to pay for South Dakota rail upgrades
The paint on the SD reminds me more of the GN than any RI scheme remembered…more color and striping than color field s and shapes…
Maybe I didn’t set the Way-Back machine way back enough to dig up the pre '58 GP schemes
When did GN paint locomotives red and black? This is similar to the Rock Islands “Rocket Freight” scheme of the 1950s or maybe even 1940s. It is also similar to Iowa Interstate’s “Rock Island” heritage unit.
Where did Dakota Rail fit into this? They ran freight on the line with f units.
You might be right, Mr. Keiser, but my recollection of Dakota Rail is that it operated a former Milwaukee Road branch off of the west coast line at Milbank in N.E. South Dakota (today’s Sisseton and Milbank line operated by the Twin Cities & Western.) In 1985, Dakota Rail founder Jerry Ross (retired Milw. engineer) moved his operation, including a pair of F-units, to Hutchinson, Minn. to operate the 44-mile former GN/BN Hutch branch (once home to NW-5 diesels and a 50-foot caboose known as “the Hutch.”) Dakota Rail in Minnesota eventually fell into bankruptcy, was turned over to someone else, and later sold to Rail America. RA in turn shut down the line in June 2000. The route was then sold to three counties and is being turned into a bike trail. The last I saw of the Dakota Rail Fs, they were at Gettysburg (since gone), and DR’s pair of SW1200 went to switching work — one was at New Ulm, MN, for a while and then at an ethanol plant in Winthrop. I remember seeing one of them at other RA operations — St. Croix Valley in Hinckley and Minnesota Northern in Crookston. Not sure where it is now.
Great book about this line called “Rails through the Grass” by Rick VanZee. Good to see this frail line gaining strength. Hate to hear that about Dakota Southern especially after all the work that went into it.
Great book about this line called “Rails through the Grass” by Rick VanZee. Good to see this frail line gaining strength. Hate to hear that about Dakota Southern especially after all the work that went into it.
Meant to say Dakota rail…not Dakota Southern.
With a large state and low population SD should try to keep in place or railbank unused lines if it wants to plan long term. Populations grow everywhere and someday those lines will be needed again. The fighting, delays, NIMBYs are such a hassle that I wonder why most unused rail lines aren’t permanently railbanked even if they sit idle for 100 years.
Mr. Van Zee’s book “Rails Through the Grass” covers the MILW Road branchline that terminated at Platte, South Dakota. The line to Platte was also operated by the Dakota Southern but these are two distinct ex-MILW lines. The line in question once carried the “SIOUX” passenger service to the Black Hills.
The train in the picture is at MP390 which is 16 miles west of Mitchell. If approved this would be money well spent to fix up this viable line.