The Hiawatha Line -Urban Railroading, and Switching-

[@AndreiTupolev]

GEs are everywhere on the mainline, but on a shortline like this it's quite a change to see an old GE rather than a Geep

[@Realohiorailroadproductions]

On my local short line, (Ohio Central) we have about 10 old GE B23-7r locomotives. Unfortunately, five of them were recently put in a deadline and the other five have a very uncertain future. But the railroad used to have a lot more than that including some GE C36s, a couple old center cabs and a dash 8 of some kind.

[@RailPreserver2K]

Nice to see an ex TTI u boat having another chance at running

[@beeble2003]

It's a Dash-7, not a U-boat. U-boats were the previous generation (essentially, a Dash-6) and there are _very_ few of those in service today.

[@railseast]

I was thinking about building a shelf switching layout, and at 3:50 I may have just found my track plan. Thanks for the great view, much appreciated; best of luck to the MNNR.

[@DelayInBlockProductions]

Another great video!

[@SD457500]

Glad you enjoyed it!, and thank you for the kind words!! :D

[@lexpo181]

Great video Douglas! I liked the history you're telling behind the contemporary footage you did ;)

[@rich_rich90]

That shot at 02:28 & 03:47 are great trackplan inspirations!

[@SD457500]

This area has some neat trackwork! There are even a few diamonds buried in the mud from better days.

[@cthart]

Fantastic video, Doug!

[@gravesclay]

I love seeing the old TTI power still running!

[@SD457500]

Its a nice change of pace from the normal Commercial red! Thanks for watching, and the comment.

[@johngarven2125]

Awesome video and very nice drone work. The tour of Bill Sampsons layout was a bonus!. I now have a greater appreciation of the area.

[@jonathansabatino3987]

great job!

[@BNSF1458]

What a neat operation! I love this type of industrial action, definitely looks like something I'd like to check out

[@clintfroke9353]

Love it. Great views of the ADM trackage.

[@SD457500]

Glad you enjoyed it! This line doesn't have a bright future, sadly. I really wonder how long it will hand around for.

[@RagilAbean]

video kereta api yang sangat bagus dan menarik sekali, saya sangat menikmatinya, terimakasih sudah berbagi salam sehat dan sukses selalu

[@blainenodes8182]

the hiawatha line that remains is 🥶siding...not many left from my 1949 yoot...mhaha falls to ft snelling to mendota,lillydale...princess Depot...150 yrs history on this Milwaukee Rd tracks,thanks so much 👍👍

[@kenzieska9148]

Fantastic quality video production. I really enjoyed some of the scenes on the old mainline you included.

[@DRGW318]

With a TCD member as the engineer! (me)

[@kenzieska9148]

Wow! now that makes it even more special.

[@TruckzNTrainz]

Great video! Love the train horn salutes!

[@SD457500]

Thank you very much, and glad you enjoyed it! The crew running in both instances was great.

[@rickdee67]

Good video! Great format and production. I enjoy the narration. Subscribed

[@SD457500]

Thanks for the kind words, and great to hear you enjoyed watching it!

[@steventurner820]

Nice to see the old TTI engine again, so they did shorten the number!

[@SD457500]

Indeed! It is now running around as their 76, and seems to operate most days as of current. Thanks for watching!

[@Terhaar705]

Fantastic video!

[@SD457500]

Thank you very much; glad you enjoyed it!

[@douglasskaalrud6865]

The last I read, ADM has no intention of closing this mill. When I worked in pasta, this mill saved our plant now and then when our normal rail shipment of semolina from North Dakota was delayed-a fine example of the danger of being a captive customer of the railroad. You can’t just shut a pasta plant down, turn the lights off and wait for the cars to show up so we would call our ADM backup mill on Hiawatha Avenue to bail us out. They had to truck it over to us in New Hope, which made it expensive, but it kept us running. You don’t realize the cost difference between shipping or receiving by rail vs. truck until you’re forced to use trucks. In the ultra thin-margin pasta business it was the difference between making or losing money. The Milwaukee always seemed to have a funny thing about backing passenger trains into terminals (Seattle and Butte, MT the more famous examples) and the Minneapolis stub-end station on 3rd and Washington was no different. Just to the north of these elevators was the wye that the Milwaukee used to get the trains oriented the right/wrong way into Minneapolis and also a car shop and storage yard. In the immediate aftermath of the Milwaukee’s embargo of the coast extension, every inch of rail in the area was crammed full of dead diesel power. I didn’t know it at the time but the first units I saw there were the two F7/slug/F7 sets used on the tortuous hill out of Tideflats Yard in Tacoma (they were known as “Mr. Clean’s Machines” after the engineer who swabbed out their cabs every day). Eventually all the EMD’s went to Milwaukee and the GE’s were stored at Soo Line’s Shoreham yard. The line south went past the “Princess” Depot at the Minnehaha Falls park. When we did the yearly grade-school field trip to the park thingy in the 60’s, the Milwaukee always seemed to have one or two heavyweight passenger cars parked there, possible in those halcyon pre-graffiti days. Somehow the doors on the cars didn’t lock so the natural wonder of the falls took a backseat to the insides of the six-axle battleships. Try as we might, we kids couldn’t muster the power to move those suckers. If we had looked harder maybe we would have seen the chains the railroad had tacked to the rails to prevent kids from walking off with their cars. I always noticed the funky-looking power line towers and these elevators off in the distance. I remember seeing Milwaukee switchers pulling cuts of covered hoppers past the parkway on those trips too.

[@michaelneale761]

Brilliant video Doug, and for me the best one you've put together so far. Great to see you got the drone up, and some superb shots of the Mills. This is going to be a huge help when it comes time to construct the Nokomis and Atkinson Mills for my shelf layout of this area.

[@Realohiorailroadproductions]

Amazing video and an amazing shortline railroad.

[@HaroldAlexis-bb8sd]

Very good video. I want a model of this engine as shown starting with Ho scale. 👍🎥⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[@SD457500]

Glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for the kind words! This would make for an ideal layout, loaded with switching operations.

[@cthart]

@@SD457500 Yep 😎

[@rodneystewart8958]

Rapido model trains made this engine several years back I have two

[@David-j6u6q]

I would like to see anything you have available. Thank you

[@SD457500]

See more urban and switching videos?

[@minnesotarailfan11]

I heard they are getting a new locomotive

[@SD457500]

That they are! I heard about it this morning; its a former SP B30-7. Thanks for watching!

[@user-qr7ee2cp4y]

Sad how industry has left. When those graineries were in their hey day, I'll bet it was bustling.

[@SD457500]

This area was BUSY back in its day! Now its a shell of its former self, and likely not long for this world. Thanks for watching!

[@jmannelson8206]

Its been a while since ive been back in MNNR territory, is that a new paint scheme? Might be better than the red.

[@beeble2003]

Surprised to see so many Airslides in use for freight. I thought they just used them as buffers, these days.

[@SD457500]

In most cases, that seems to be the case! There is a small number of them in service yet for the customers on this line. Thanks for watching!

[@nightrider6769]

If I'm not mistaken all the mills along Hiawatha avenue are closed down if I'm wrong will someone 's chime in.

[@SD457500]

Only one mill is still open, and in operation. Who knows how long it'll remain in operation though. Thanks for watching!

[@Joe-d7m6k]

Were did 76 come from, as that paint scheme is not familiar??

[@ColeMHusky]

that is a former Transkentucky Transportation Incorporated (TTI) B36-7. I live along that old shortline and sadly it saw the end of its life a while back and the line is now used for car storage and transload for CSX. TTI ended up selling a good portion of their GE B units and this road happened to pick one of em up.

[@lnproductions3227]

Very interesting route there! It's really sad that what was once a busy doubletrack mainline has been reduced to a industrial line. Also I like that there is a former TTI B36-7 on this train. Also what are the plans for those ALCOs I saw that the MNNR has in their yard?

[@MartinRiveraPerezGonzale-uk8py]

I'll support this conductors field notes of improvements of its community's need if track and other request in his field notes of improvements continue to send me video feeds thru KZbin as I like or subscribe to any account finding of project start.

[@Belleville197]

That 71 is now in Quebec

[@SD457500]

That locomotive got up and over there FAST! It's nice that its going to a new home where it'll be used. Thanks for watching!

[@25mfd]

@ 5:30... these mills are SO important for our FOOD ECONOMY... all that flour milled there going to make loaves of bread, donuts, pizza dough, burger buns, hot dog buns, bagels, cakes and pies, pasta, cereal etc... we were very close to a rail strike a while back... the country would have been in TROUBLE if that had happened

[@Bob.W.]

Didn't this line service the Minneapolis Moline plant between Lake and 25th?

[@carlfalt174]

Here's what's going to happen in a few years ADM will probably build an ultra modren mill outside of town and the railroad real estate will all be sold for new development. It's all just change

[@douglasskaalrud6865]

ADM says they’re committed to the area. It’s a good location for them-it’s centrally located among their customers. Building a new mill wouldn’t be cost effective. The bright yellow paint on the safety harness trolley says it all; they’re not going anywhere anytime soon.

[@Steven_Williams]

That's what to the ADM mill here in Chicago.

[@beeble2003]

@@douglasskaalrud6865 Doesn't seem any brighter or yellower than the equivalent unit at the closed mill at 2:00 😛

[@chuxproductions1090]

Is that a U23B in your video? Looks like it! How far away from Duluth is Milwaukee?

[@SD457500]

Its actually a B36-7, and was built in July of 1985. I would venture to guess that its approx a six hour drive from Duluth to Milw. Thanks for watching!

[@beeble2003]

The answer to "Is that a U-boat?" is almost always "No, it's a Dash-7". U-boats are super-rare, these days.

[@mike08091]

the train number 76 it this ge b36-7 ?

[@SD457500]

Yes, locomotive 76 is a B36-7. It was built back in 1985!

[@aprilgeneric8027]

can't believe they didn't turn this into light rail passenger line service.....but then again they didn't buy up the BNSF main line that paralleled i-94 on the west side of the mississippi to st cloud so they could run their high sped trains at 120mph and instead cuckolded themselves to upgrading BNSF's line parallel to high way 10 on the east side of the Mississippi so they could go whole 5mph faster at 40mph with freight rail to dodge the entire travel point 24/7/365

[@jameshowitt2463]

What happened to the line that paralleled i-94? (Being UK based I am not familiar).

[@maxrshelltrack7443]

You do know bnsf is a class 1 RR right.

[@douglasskaalrud6865]

@@jameshowitt2463. I think he means the line that goes through Golden Valley, Robbinsdale, Crystal, Osseo, Maple Grove, etc. That line is the west side line and it used to go to St. Cloud but that was years ago. You certainly wouldn’t get trains anywhere near 60 mph let alone 100+. See my follow-up. If you can get to Google earth, it will be a lot easier to see the issues coming in to play.

[@douglasskaalrud6865]

The Met council thought that BNSF would just automatically bow to the logic of light rail running on their track up to Monticello, just like they thought TC&W would bow to the logic of having their railroad used for the SWLRT while not providing a new line as a replacement. TC&W got everyone excited when they said they would reroute their trains through St. Louis Park if they didn’t get it and ultimately the county built a new railroad for TC&W. Although they would never admit it, BNSF probably had a little score to settle with Hennepin county and that is likely the reason they will not host light rail on the west side line. That west side line has hosted a single out-and-back train to the NW suburbs M-F, every week since the creation of Burlington Northern. Its original owner, Great Northern, had used it for secondary traffic to St. Cloud. It was originally built to keep the Northern Pacific from paralleling GN’s line on the east bank of the Mississippi and it also proved a useful thorn in the side of the Soo Line, which had brazenly paralleled GN’s first sub to Willmar. It’s a nice line with deep ballast and heavy stick rail but it’s grossly underused. With the increase in oil sand production, Canadian Pacific was looking for a faster and safer route to get oil trains from the old Soo Line through Northtown Yard. BNSF and CP came up with a plan to route CP’s oil trains over a new connection to be built at their crossing in Crystal and onto BNSF’s west side line to Minneapolis. The trains would then go on to the normal route that CP’s trains use to get to St. Paul over BNSF. It would be faster for CP and BNSF would make some money on an underutilized line. Some concerned citizens in Crystal got wind of the scheme and Hennepin County stepped in to stop it for them. Soon afterward, BNSF, in a surprise move, took back their unused right-of-way in northeast Minneapolis from homeowners who had slowly moved out onto it with their gardens. The railroad claimed that it was their property and they would be building another track on it-the track would take the place of the connection they wanted to build in Crystal. This new track nearly sits on top of these houses that suddenly had a much smaller back yard. BNSF also told the Met council that as part of the light-rail deal the project would be required to include a tall concrete wall to separate their property from the light rail line from Cedar Lake to the terminal by Target Field. Supposedly this wall had been agreed upon when the project started but it wasn’t included in the budget and so this was added to the massive cost overrun of the project. BNSF’s seemingly third strike of revenge was the revelation that it would not host any light rail trains on their west side line to Monticello. All of the plans that the designers of that light rail track had envisioned BNSF’s line as the route to be used but somehow they forgot to ask the railroad. All of their plans and studies were rendered useless by BNSF’s refusal. Just to propose to build a light rail line from scratch in this area may be enough to sink the council. After the cost debacle of the SWLRT, count on there being an attempt by lawmakers to make the members of the Met Council face re-election instead of being appointed. Who says railroad skullduggery is dead?

[@brianjanes4393]

What’s up with the lack of honking for the crossings? That makes absolutely no sense to me. They’re definitely not FRA spec crossings for a quiet zone…

[@DRGW318]

They're grandfathered in because Minneapolis had been whistle free way before the FRA quiet zone stuff came about.

[@johnrichards1063]

So Elevator T and the scrap dealer are no longer active shippers? 2015 was the last time I was in MN and took pictures in the Hiawatha District . At that time the ADM Nokomis/Atkinson mills and the scrap dealer were active shippers. I could be mistaken but I believe Elevator T was an active shipper as well. I knew that ADM shut down the Nokomis Mill a couple of years ago but I'm surprised to hear that the scrap dealer and Elevator T are inactive as well now. The City of Minneapolis has lusted after the property along this corridor for many years. I guess the Minneapolis socialists are achieving their goal of driving all these heavy industry businesses out this area after all.

[@DRGW318]

Elevator T and Leder Brothers are still very much active.

[@Weninchina]

If anything this is pure and simple capitalism at work - the corridor's real estate is much more valuable as housing and retail, and high-volume milling is such a low-margin business with costly logistics (I used to work for ConAgra in that function) that most facilities have consolidated where land is cheap and rail access to wheat-growing areas is simpler. Nothing nefarious going on here, mills have closed in small towns all over the country as well.

[@beeble2003]

@@Weninchina You forget that "communist" is just an insult-word for Democrats from people on the other side of the political spectrum. It's easier for them to blame "communism" than to accept that their own economic ideas might have something to do with it.

[@pauludulutch4353]

Nice footage but so sad what a dump of a city Minneapolis has become.

[@beeble2003]

Industrial areas by the railroad look like a dump in any decent-sized city anywhere in the world.

[@nightrider6769]

Was sad to see is all the industries going belly up.

[@justn2trains]

Great video!🎉