Work starts on Minnesota Prairie Line

$6 million project will transport farm commodities

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

FAIRFAX -- Where there was once abandoned track, a railroad is rising.

After a 21-month absence of rail traffic, 94 miles of track connecting Norwood and Hanley Falls in Yellow Medicine, Redwood, Renville, Sibley and Carver counties are being rehabilitated to become the newly-formed Minnesota Prairie Line.

Contractors of the $6 million project have begun installing 80,000 new cross ties, crushed rock ballast and other material on the rail line that meets the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway at Hanley Falls and the Twin Cities & Western at Norwood.

It was a welcome sight for South Central Co-op General Manager Eugene Lutteke in Fairfax. He is also the Minnrail Shippers Association treasurer.

"It's tough to lose a railroad," Lutteke said. "Interest in it is rising again as workers, equipment and supplies move through the area. I wish it was up and running already, but the sooner, the better."

The railroad will be important to the co-op and other firms along the railway, providing another transportation mode to markets in Chicago and both coasts.

"It will give us better access to fertilizers and other things," Lutteke said. "There is a place for trucks and railroads to haul granite, kaolin clay, dairy products and other things in this area."

Partial railroad operation could happen as soon as late summer, railroad officials said. Track work in phase one of the project, which would allow trains to operate at 10 mph, is scheduled to be done by November.

Phase two will strengthen the track to allow to freight cars up to 286,000 pounds and allow 25 mph train travel.

The line will handle 8,200 cars per year, the equivalent of more than 30,000 trucks, saving wear and tear on area highways. Railroad employment will increase 15 to 20 jobs.

Meanwhile, officials from the Minnesota Prairie Line are meeting with shippers, arranging freight car leasing and getting two locomotives.

Project funding included a $4.8 million loan from the Minnesota Department of Transportation Service Improvement Program. Shippers on the line and the Minnesota Valley Regional Rail Authority each contributed $600,000. Twin Cities & Western Railroad will provide repair service, for the most part.

Another $1 million will come from a federal appropriation obtained through the efforts of the Minnesota congressional delegation of Sen. Paul Wellstone, Sen. Mark Dayton, Rep. Mark Kennedy and Rep. Martin Sabo.

The Minnesota Valley Regional Railroad Authority owns the track that will be leased to Minnesota Prairie Line, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the 229-mile Twin Cities & Western Railroad based in Glencoe.

The TC&W began on July 27, 1991, over what was formerly known as the "Ortonville Line" operated by the Soo Line (now Canadian Pacific Railway) between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Milbank, S.D.

Prior to the TC&W and Soo Line operation of the line, it was part of the Milwaukee Road's main line to the Pacific Northwest. The main line was originally built in the 1870s by the Hastings & Dakota Railway.

The TC&W usually operates six days per week between the Twin Cities and Renville, with two- or three-per-day service as far west as Milbank. Additional trains are run during periods of peak demand.

The TC&W's traffic base consists largely of grains (corn, wheat, barley), soybeans, sugar, beet pulp pellets, lumber and other forest products, canned and frozen vegetables, edible beans, clay, fertilizers, coal, crushed rock, and agricultural machinery.

The railroad employs about 50 people, many with previous railroad experience. Most employees work at the Glencoe terminal. Nearly half are trained transportation specialists.

The railroad has nine Caterpillar Generation II (GP20C) locomotives and three CF7 slug units. The car fleet includes 430 owned and leased covered hoppers, (most with 4,750 cu. ft. capacity); 16 air slide cars (4,180 cu. ft. capacity); 47 RBL boxcars and five gondola cars. More equipment is brought on line as needed from connecting carriers.

The line has access to the Mississippi River through the Minneapolis River Terminal at Camden Place in north Minneapolis and through facilities at Savage. Through other carriers, the TC&W has access to all other major river facilities in the Twin Cities.