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Trains News Wire EXCLUSIVE: Milwaukee Road No. 261 pulls successful fall color excursions
Well done 261 & crew! The trips usually depart from the shop at Minneapolis Junction in NE Minneapolis. Got to see the Sunday trip. Looked great! Proud to be a lifetime Friends Of The 261 member.
Where did the trip originate? Midway station? Target Field? St. Paul? "“Mionneapolis” is pretty vague.
I believe the other named location at the Minneapolis Junction wye is called VanBuren Street.
Willmar has no wye. Trains coming from or going to the west from the Sioux City line or Marshall sub as BNSF calls it (grain, crude oil or their empties) have to run their power around the consist. Make Willmar a busy place. There has been talk about building a long wye to the west of the yard but it would cost many million and affect nearby highway traffic on US 12. Someday, maybe. The 261 looked great on that turntable at Willmar and pulling a very nice consist. Kudos to all!
KUDOS to the Frinds of the 261!! They sound like a real class act. Well done!
There is no wye at Willmar? If a train comes up from Lincoln, does it have to go East or West?
Was it called the fall color text version for the colorful consist?
261 trips typically originate at the wye (“triangle”?) where the Wayzata and Midway subs join – they have a shed there for the locomotive. One of the 3 points is known as Minneapolis, another as Harrison Street. I forget what the third one is (if it has a name at all).
Crud. I should have ridden around Hinckley a bit. Did not realize they stopped for service. I saw the 261 at the old Hwy 61 crossing and went home from there. It was a great day on the motorcycle, but more pics of the 261 would have been nicer.
That is truly a handsome locomotive. Not quite a Niagara, but… Amtrak should wrap a P42 in black ‘mufti’ for these trips! Lightning stripes would be cool., or dress it up to resemble a ‘Bi-Polar’.
In years past the 261 went west to Benson, where the line to Appleton and west breaks off, but the wye there is very tight for the 261, and they had to grease the flanges on the drivers so they didn’t climb the rail. Took quite a while to wye the train I was on at that time. I think it was 1999.