I am interested in information on little known shortlines such as the Walla Walla Valley, Lee County Central, San Luis Central, Minneaoplis, Anoka & Cayuna Range, among others.
Have you tried http://www.google.com as a start?
E.g. - found some pictures from the Minneapolis, Anoka and Cuyuna Range here: http://www.davesrailpix.com/macr/macr.htm
A few words about the railroad here: http://anokahistory.wordpress.com/category/anoka-county/
This page mentions that the railroad called on the depot of the Northwest corner of 7th St. North and 3rd Avenue North in Minneapolis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minneapolis_Great_Northern_Depot
Google books show that the railroad is described on page 375 in the book “The Electric Interurban Railways in America” by George W. Hilton and John Due: http://books.google.no/books?id=J2zH-zcuU-MC&pg=PA357&lpg=PA357
Looking at the image search on google for “Minneapolis, Anoka and Cuyuna Range”, I find a track map showing connections to other railroads, and several pictures of their rolling stock.
And so on and so forth. Google tends to give you a good start for general background, and then you can dig deeper from there.
Smile,
Stein
Walla Walla Valley Railway site. This includes both prototype and model information, including information on layouts that have been featured in Kalmbach publications.
Incidentally, it’s the first link that turns up on a Google search. [:)]
blairs web site doesnt come up any more he evidentally let the domain name expire so his web site doesnt come up any more on the walla walla valley railroad
i wud just use google 4 your search on all the shortlines like(walla walla and the others u mention u wud be suprised at what info is availible on the internet
if any wants 2 know about the walla walla valley railroad go www.waltwitmancollege.com. Or i myself have saved lots of pictures off of blairs kooistras old web site plus i have saved each page of his old web site.Including all sorts of modeling info and every page that had 2 do with the prototype itself from its beginning 2 when bn abandon it. And u cud also try www.wallawallalibrary.com. Every bit of info on this little shortline i saved on my computer cause i plan on doing a model railroad of the walla walla valley and wanted 2 know as much as possible if u want any info on this shortline send me a message on this web site.
The MA&CR used at least one old oil-electric engine originally built for the Dan Patch Electric Line (Minneapolis, St.Paul, Rochester and Dubuque Electric Traction Co.) in about 1908. These engines are sometimes cited as the first “diesel” locomotives, although they were really electric boxcabs fitted with an oil-burning electric generator rather than a diesel generator. The Dan Patch was intended to be an electric line, and the idea was these engines could be run with the onboard generators while the line was being built; once the electric lines were installed, then they could run on straight overhead wire electricity. However, the RR never added overhead wire.
After owner Col. Marion Savage (who also owned the racehorse Dan Patch) died, the RR was reorganized as the Minneapolis Northfield and Southern, and sold off the boxcabs and became primarily a steam railroad (although it kept some McKeen self-powered cars), noted for buying several “Russian Decapods”
The MA&CR got at least one boxcab from the MNS and converted it to run as a straight electric. The MA&CR (which despite the grand name was really just a small switching railroad) eventually became part of Great Northern IIRC. There’s a railfan video on the GN out there somewhere that shows a shot of the boxcab sitting in a GN yard in Minneapolis around 1960. It eventually was restored to c.1910 paint and is at the Minnesota Transportation Museum’s Jackson St. Roundhouse (near downtown St.Paul) on display.