The Hiawatha Line -Urban Railroading, and Switching-

The Hiawatha Line is a former Milwaukee Road route operated by The Minnesota Commercial Railway. This line has a spectacular bridge over the Mississippi River, switches out a grain elevator, has some car storage, and has a rich history in Minneapolis. Its a neat operation that might not be long for this world.
In this video, we'll chase a Hiawatha Job as it makes its way over to ADM and an extra storage move. This once busy route, only see's trains as needed, an extras as called upon. Along the way, we can see how the route is slowly fading away, and new buildings taking its place. Power for these trains is MNNR 76, which used to be MNNR 5884.
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Copyright 2024 Douglas Hildebrandt, all rights reserved.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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 👍👍

[@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.

[@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.

[@lexpo181]

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

[@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!

[@cthart]

Fantastic video, Doug!

[@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.

[@BNSF1458]

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

[@justn2trains]

Great video!🎉

[@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.

[@jonathansabatino3987]

great job!

[@DelayInBlockProductions]

Another great video!

[@SD457500]

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

[@Terhaar705]

Fantastic video!

[@SD457500]

Thank you very much; glad you enjoyed it!

[@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.

[@TruckNTim80]

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!

[@RagilAbean]

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

[@Realohiorailroadproductions]

Amazing video and an amazing shortline railroad.

[@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.

[@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

[@user-vw8cr2gc4w]

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

[@SD457500]

See more urban and switching videos?

[@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!

[@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?

[@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!

[@jmannelson8206]

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

[@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!

[@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 😛

[@user-mr3ct1dm9p]

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.

[@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).

[@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.

[@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!

[@Bob.W.]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.