The Ryanfrogz Train Blog

Like a surprising amount of others of this design, this car is currently used as a storage shed. Old aerial photos show that it's been in this exact spot since at least 1957 serving the same purpose. The interior concrete base is badly buckled and certainly shows its age, but the walls and roof are kept in decent condition. The door on the accessible side was replaced with a more modern roller door sometime in the past. Will it last another 68 years? In this state, probably not. It's a good candidate for a restoration project, though.

The small metal hatch on the end was used to load & unload long pieces of lumber that wouldn't fit through the side door. Seems crude, but they didn't have plastic wrap back then...

From time to time I like to browse the Hennepin County Library's collection of old aerial photos just to see what once was. Every time I do, I learn something new. Here's a pretty interesting image from the late 1920s, maybe '27, with some points of interest marked.

The big factory in the center of the photo is the Minneapolis Gas Light Co. The city's last gas light was switched to electric in 1924, but the gasworks provided gas for heating until the 1960s when it was demolished to make way for I-35W. An extensive cleanup of the gasworks was undertaken in the 1980s, but the contamination was so thorough that it's still being removed today. Contaminated groundwater is pumped out and processed before getting discharged into the city's sewer system for further treatment. Coal gasification is a very nasty process and living in the area would've been truly terrible. I don't even want to think about the smell.

Mark #1 is the remnants of the Northern Pacific's "A-Line" bridge. The A-line formed the southern boundary of the U of M's campus, running parallel to Arlington Ave. A good bit of the original grade is still around today, occupied by the U's bus transitway. The bridge was demolished after Bridge #9 (seen below) was built in 1924. The bit seen here was turned into an aggregate unloader for a cement company in the 1930s.

Mentioned above, mark #2 is the Northern Pacific's Bridge #9. As the university grew, train traffic and pollution became increasingly problematic, so the line was rerouted to the north and a new bridge was built. Bridge #9 saw rail traffic up to 1981 and is now a pedestrian/bike path.

Mark #3 (in the top left) is the Milwaukee Road's former coach yard. Passenger trains would get prepared here before making the short trip north to the Milwaukee's depot downtown. This site is now home to Metro Transit's main light rail maintenance facility.

Mark #4 is the 10th Avenue Bridge, a vehicle bridge whose construction began in 1926 and what I used to date the photo. Rather confusingly, there was another 10th Avenue Bridge at the time, located a bit to the west (the new one connects to the north bank's 10th Ave, the old one connects to 10th Ave on the south bank). Not quite as trainy as the others but something fun worth pointing out.

Mark #5 was a small engine house, possibly owned by the Minnesota Transfer RR. Steam engines needed a lot of attention & maintenance, and as such small engine houses popped up all over the place. A 1912 Sanborn map shows it being used as an oil warehouse, with oil tanks occupying the former turntable pit, which would've been in the empty lot left of the number.

Mark #6 is an even smaller engine house, owned by the Minnesota Transfer RR and built in the late 1800s. It didn't last nearly as long, disappearing before a 1945 aerial. That's about all the info I have on it.

Lastly, mark #7 is the north approach to the Minneapolis Western Railway's bridge into the Mill District. MWR was formed in 1884 to provide switching services for the mills, and was acquired as a subsidiary of the Great Northern in 1890. The bridge was built shortly after this in 1891, serving as an important link between the riverside mills and the massive grain elevators of St. Anthony and GN's Union yard.

With milling on the decline and NP's bridge just to the east, this bridge was considered obsolete by WW2 and was demolished in 1952. Unlike most things in this photograph, part of the north abutment still remains, hidden beneath I-35W's river crossing. Special care was taken to not damage it during demolition & rebuilding following the 2007 collapse.

And here's another picture from a few years later. The 10th Ave bridge is complete, the A-Line bridge remnant has been converted to a coal unloader, and the Bohemian Flats are still intact.

In doing research after my previous trip to Mankato, I discovered that I had missed some stuff. Some very cool stuff. And so, I headed back south.

My target was one of CHS's switcher locomotives. They have a big oilseed processing facility on the west side of town, along with a tank car washing facility, where I was supposed to find my little engine. My target was supposed to be parked on the stub track to the left of the picture. Rather than a unique orange locomotive, I found a boring blue one. CHS had recently exchanged their fleet of leased switchers for two of their own, and the old ones were nowhere to be found... or so I thought.

At the time of my visit, part of Mankato's downtown was undergoing a repaving project. The road that was closed just so happened to be my way out. I didn't feel like getting stuck in traffic, so I tried to find another way out. One wrong turn later, I randomly stumbled across this old Chicago & Northwestern bay-window caboose, adorned in a custom Mankato Tourism paint scheme. It dates back to 1957 and previously sat near the town's former train station, being moved to this parking lot near the riverfront in the early 2010s. The coolest finds are the ones you don't expect.

Since I was in the area I figured I'd get a proper shot of the Plymouth switcher buried in the weeds. It still isn't great, but better than nothing. I also flew over to the adjacent scrapyard to see their current switcher, and also found a 1947-built flatcar.

ALTX 601 has served the scrapyard since the early 2010s. It's a very heavily rebuilt EMD NW2, only recognizable by the step-down ramp from the nose to the cab. It was originally built for the Peoria & Pekin Union Railway (they had the greenish-grey paint), and later went on to work for the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad (responsible for the blue/white stripes along the bottom edge). The flatcar is a General Steel Industries design, notable for its unique bulkhead walls.

While I was turning onto the main road out of town, something in the distance caught my eye. I saw the distant, sun-lit silhouette of a great machine parked atop a hill, no doubt a remnant of a long-gone limestone quarry.

I promptly found a place to launch my drone and flew over. What a cool machine! I believe it dates back to the 1960s, but I can't find *any* information about it online. Not one bit.

Here's what I do know. The site was once a limestone quarry, one of many in the area. It started operations in the '50s or '60s, eventually becoming a demolition landfill which was capped in the 1990s or early 2000s. I emailed who I believe to be the owner, asking about getting some closer-up pictures, but I haven't received a response yet.

While I was driving back north, a miracle occurred. Sitting on a siding near the town of Kasota were three small, unique switcher locomotives; the ones I had driven all this way to see.

IRSS 1237 is an EMD SW10. By the mid-1970s, the Union Pacific's fleet of switcher locomotives, all built between the late 1930s and early 1950s, were getting rather old. Many had developed issues and the less problematic ones were becoming too expensive to maintain. UP had a choice: throw out all of the old switchers and buy new ones, or rebuild them into something more modern. They chose the latter. And thus, the SW10 was born. 65 EMD switchers made up of TR5As, SW7s (what 1237 started as), and SW9s were selected for rebuild. Upgrades included a newer 645-type engine, larger electrically-driven radiator fans, and a large sandbox on the front of the nose. This space would usually be occupied by the radiator, which was moved to the roof, creating the unique & instantly-recognizable hump.

Okay, no more distractions. On to my actual goal.

This was my first target. GSSX 604 is an ALCo HH660 dating back to 1940. Right next to it is GSSX 9004, an ALCo S4 from '53, and hiding in the weeds behind that is a teeny tiny Plymouth switcher. All three were previously used at nearby Gopher State Scrap & Metal and gradually retired throughout the 2000s in favor of more modern locomotives which are easier to service. The scrapyard currently uses a SW-type diesel switcher.

9004 has a pretty funny story: after a fire in the cab, it was sold to GSS&M for scrap. Rather than cutting it up, they repaired the locomotive and used it for another decade until it got sidelined. This type of thing just doesn't happen anymore!

After my business in Mankato was over with, I drove west to New Ulm. My target here was NUQX 2004, an ALCo S2 which worked for the New Ulm Quartzite Quarry. Very little information on this locomotive is available online. It arrived there in 2004 and was used to load hoppers with ballast & rock for other uses until rail service was discontinued, maybe around 2010. The quarry is isolated from the national rail grid, only accessible via a historic swing bridge which is also out of service. I sent the quarry an email asking if they would let me in to get some ground-level pictures, but I haven't heard back. :(

When most people think of vintage locomotives in New Ulm, they think of the twin GP9s that served a defunct co-op on the edge of town. I visited them earlier in the summer, and that adventure will get its own post eventually. Since I was in the area, I couldn't just not stop by again. Both are being sold for the ludicrous price of $80,000: a locomotive like this in perfect condition averages about a third of that, but these have been sitting around for a while and need some work. There's a reason nobody's bought them yet...

I found this Kansas City Southern geep idling in the New Ulm yard while leaving town. KCS power seems rather out of place in south-central Minnesota, but it's not entirely unexpected after CP took them over. Right next the yard is a big, beautiful, antique grain elevator, and the golden hour sunlight made for some wonderful photography!

After the disappointment at Henderson Station, I continued on to Mankato. Northern Mankato, specifically. But not the town of North Mankato.

While looking for a spot to launch my drone, I happened across this beautiful Jordan spreader. I knew they were parked in this spot from time to time, but satellite imagery hadn't shown one here in a while.

Jordan spreaders are real multi-purpose machines. The design came about in 1890, and they were originally used for shaping ballast around track beds. These were made out of wood and weren't good for much other than light work, but the switch to steel around 1910 really made things take off. All of a sudden, spreaders were being used to excavate ditches, clear brush, and most importantly: move snow.

Snow clearance is by far the most common use for spreaders nowadays, although they do see some occasional use in roadbed maintenance. X11989 was originally fitted with a much smaller front plow, visible on the lower part of the machine's front. The big winged plow was bolted on at a later date and can be removed. Ironically, this machine which wasn't designed to move snow is one of the C&NW's most normal plow designs. They did have a few actual plows, but most of their snow-moving fleet was comprised of big plows grafted onto gondolas, steam locomotive fuel tenders, and even diesel locomotive bodies.

The big plow's nice and all, but the most important parts of the spreader are the spready bits, called wings. Each side has two sets: a smaller two-segment wing directly behind the front plow, and the massive three-segment wing on the side. Each segment can be moved individually for precise placement of whatever is being spread. The wings & front plow are moved with massive pneumatic cylinders, with air provided by a diesel generator mounted at the rear.

Some people say good things don't last, and the spreader spits in their face. X11989 was built in 1980, an entire human lifetime after the design was first patented. And they're still being made! Special order only, though. Modern road diesels are powerful & heavy enough to punch through snow that would have previously required a plow to clear. Despite this, it's impossible to truly triumph over nature, and large snow drifts can & do still make lines impassible from time to time.

Mankato is a city located 60-some miles south-southwest of Minneapolis. It's not all that big, but it definitely isn't small. That being said, there are some pretty cool trains there. Unfortunately, said trains are not easy for the public to access. The easiest way to see them is with a camera drone, which I just happen to have recently acquired. And thus, my journey began.

Henderson, Minnesota is a small town about 25 miles north of Mankato, located on the west bank of the Minnesota River. Henderson Station, Minnesota is an unincorporated community directly across the river from Henderson, and as its name suggests, it was home to the town's train station. Henderson Station is most well known for being home to Lake Minnetonka, a purifying body of water featured in Prince's film Purple Rain. Also an abandoned grain elevator. I stopped here to photograph said grain elevator because I'm a total sucker for historic grain elevators.

Directly adjacent to the elevator is a nature preserve & public park with access to the river, separated only by an active rail line and historic spur track. The spur track, once a short siding, passed between the former depot and the mainline. Boxcars full of goods for Henderson would be parked & unloaded there. In the modern day, it's occasionally used to store maintenance equipment. As I was pulling into the park to park, I noticed a green signal by the tracks. Train time! Soon enough! After walking around the grain elevator, I took to the spur. It was night & day compared to the well-kept mainline: the ballast was made of oily sand and fine gravel mixed with shards of long-gone ties. Loose spikes and unidentifiable pieces of rusty metal littered the area around the tracks. Two long sticks of 1937-made rail sat off to the side, awaiting installation (or conversion to spoons).

The rails complimented the spur quite well, with all the ones I could read dating to the 1920s and 1930s. I also found a joint bar from 1919, and some tie plates from the early 20s. Most of the rail sticks were made by Lackawanna Steel, with a handful of other (unrecognized) names thrown in as well. Halfway down the track lay a big, heavy-duty brake shoe for something railroad related. Alas, the part number was too far gone to find out what exactly.

After waiting for more than an hour, I decided to get back on the road. I checked the signal one last time before pulling away: still green. I looked down at my phone to check the time, and when I looked back up, the signal was RED! This signal was double-sided, and I thought I might be able to see the other side from the park. I drove down to a closer entrance gate, and just as I opened the car door, I heard a horn. A close horn.

For the final part of this mini-series, I'll be focusing on a few miscellaneous, specialized machines used in the track maintenance process. Each one's role can be done by other, less specialized machines, but it would be a good deal harder.

This is a Mineral Products Inc. Multi-Purpose Machine. It's a mechanical jack of all trades, used for everything from trenching to blowing snow off of tracks. Its most common use is as a 'yard cleaner': the big broom mounted to the front picks up material between the rails and loads it onto a conveyor belt, which can dump it off to the side or into a towed railcar. Another popular job is snow removal: the broom is exchanged for an auger system, and the rear-most conveyor can be replaced with an impeller fan and chute. MPI's website says the machine can move 2000 pounds of snow per hour, and the blower can fling it up to 150 feet away from the tracks. Because it's not limited to just the rails, it can also be used on yard roads & parking lots. Other attachments include a trencher, air blower, rotary broom, and a hydraulic arm which can be fitted with its own range of attachments. I'm starting to sound like a shill here... but it is a pretty cool piece of kit.

The next piece of machinery is Herzog's ACT, or Automated Conveyor Train. It's a special set of cars which uses a conveyor system and swinging boom to "precisely" drop ballast where it's needed. The yellow thing seen above is the train's main power unit. I don't know if it uses hydraulic or electric motors, but this car powers them. Each train set has up to 30 cars, which are just high-side gondolas with conveyors in the bottom. Each car has its own conveyor, which dumps into the next car's conveyor through a small hopper.

A closer look at the connection between cars. I don't know if the water is from recent rains or the train's dust suppression system.

And here's the 'front' of the train, which is really the end. It features the operator's cabin and the most important bit, the unloading arm. It can move ballast 50 feet from the center of the tracks, according to Herzog's website. Conveyor trains like this one are mostly used for filling in washed-out track beds, but can also strategically place piles of ballast for future projects. As of writing this post, the control car is still less than a year old. It really is the cutting edge of ballast-dropping technology!

The last machine is another Herzog product: the creatively-named Rail Unloading Machine. It looks complicated, but is actually quite simple. A crane arm feeds sticks of continuously-welded rail (CWR) into a roller system, which feeds it forward (backwards, really) through two clamps and onto the ground.

A view of the other side. Same deal, but all folded up. Check out the flex on that arm!

Just about a month after the last post's events, I caught the work crew replacing more ties a few tracks over. Unlike the last time, I got to actually see them in action!

The first thing I saw was a Kershaw tie crane picking up old ties, and giving them to a big CAT front loader. When the pile couldn't hold any more, the loader would drive a few hundred feet to the right, and dump them in a pile right in the middle of the yard road.

Machine #2 is a Nordco TRIPP tie inserter/puller, seen here doing the latter part of its name.

Fun to watch, not so fun to be around: this ballast regulator was actively regulating the sorry excuse for ballast found beneath it. It's like they built the tracks on a beach. It's a little-used yard track so it gets a pass, but ballast this bad would never fly anywhere else.

During the summer of 2024, I got to watch one of BNSF's track gangs replace worn-out ties in their Northtown yard. In this 3-post series, I'll show off some tie replacement activities, some machines that are used to do it, and some other oddities

The first machine of the day is a Nordco TRIPP tie puller/inserter. Like the name implies, it pulls out old ties and slides new ones in. The contraption in front of the 'hand' is used to lift the rails for easier tie-moving.

Machines #2 and #3 are ballast regulators. They spread and shape ballast using a number of different tools. The big thing with the rubber skirts is a broom, or more accurately, a bunch of rubber bits that spin around and knock rocks into place. The three-paneled device on the side can extend and fold in a number of ways, channeling ballast to wherever it's wanted.

The next machine is a Kershaw tie crane. These are mostly used to pick up old ties and drop new ones, but can also insert new ties under rails.

Lastly, this is a spike puller. It does exactly what its name suggests: pulls spikes out of ties. It does this with hydraulics and a device that's pretty much just the claw end of a hammer.