I was watching a Pentrex video about RR’s in the twin cities, and found a few things interesting.
Minnesota Commercial RR…do these guys still operate all those old Alco’s?
Union Pacific…Did I see correctly that UP has a yard in Minneapolis, that it can only reach by trackage rights on other RRs? (no home rail connections to their system)
MN Commercial heck yes!
The Minnesota Commercial(old Minnesota Transfer) is still around. Beside their usual Midway Yard, the do contract switching for several Class 1 lines in the area. And they do have a collection of Alco engines.
UP gets into the Twin Cities via a combination of ex CMO/CNW/CRIP/CGW/MSL trackage they picked up from mergers. They do use the BNSF(ex-GN) to get to the East Mpls Yard. Thier current main operation is the ex-CGW Park Yard in South Saint Paul. The East St Paul and Western Ave Yards are basically gone(except for a few tracks).
Jim
The Minnesota Commerical does still operate a few Alcos, but not too many. I was up in the Twin Cities this past August for a few days to track them down and only found RS27 #318 operating. Other jobs were being covered by their B23-7s.
Here’s a shot of the 318.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wales23/4872518590/
I stayed with this job for more than 2 hours following them as they switched at numerous industries. A sunny day, facing the right way and a nice red Alco: what more could I want?
Lance Wales
Thanks to all who replied. It looks like Minneapolis/StPaul would be a good place to railfan, looked like there was some interesting lineside industry as well.
I was at the Andersen window factory a couple years ago in Bayport, on the east edge of the Twin Cities metro area. While I was there, Minnesota Commercial showed up with some cars to switch out. Power on the train was a CF7. [tup]
Obligatory analysis of paint schemes:
Honestly I think that the red -dominated scheme that Chicago Fort Wayne & Eastern paints on it’s locos is more becoming than the red-dominated paint scheme used by Minnesota commercial