Nice to see in Trains newswire that part of the old Milwaukee line from Mitchell to Kadoka has been re-opened to some grain traffic. Has there been any more news on the proposal earlier this year to re-open part of another old Milwaukee the line from Napa to Platte?
During December 2005 while driving eastwards along I-90, I made it a point to stop and take a look around Kadoka, South Dakota. Yes, the tracks were still there including a couple of grain elevator spurs. The Milwaukee Road depot looked to be in pretty good condition too. Then the building was being used as some kind of museum and/or community center.
Given the extremely light weight of the rail, the condition of the crossties (“Crossties?” What “crossties?”), and the fact that so many of the latter were sunk into the mud (“Ballast?” What “ballast?”), I’d be scared to take a lonesome GP7 into there with a string of empty 40-ft. boxcars. And where the mainline slips under I-90 east of Kadoka, rail gauge looks to be maintained more by force of habit than by crossties. I should hope that Dakota Southern has completed at least some small measure of track work out there before they run any trains that far west.
During that same trip the track was in noticeably better shape through and east of Murdo.
I can’t picture the line west of Chamberlain being usable at all. From what I’ve read, it was all they could do to get the last cars off the line a couple of years ago, without tipping them over. I’m sure there has been no work done since then.
I remember playing along those spurs when I was a kid. Raised in Sioux Falls, had family friends in Kadoka who we visited at least once a year.
Usually to go hunting with.