I used to work at a pasta plant in New Hope on the MN&S. Monday through Friday, the SOO/MN&S brought loads of semolina flour from our mill in Carrington, North Dakota and we made dried pasta from it in New Hope. To be profitable we relied on timely flour delivery by rail but there were more than a few days when the Soo Line and the “Monkeynuts” (MN&S) couldn’t get our cars to us and we had to pay extra to get semolina trucked to us from an ADM mill on Hiawatha Avenue in South Minneapolis. The plant runs 24/7 so shutting down to wait for our flour from the SOO wasn’t an option but it really cut into an already thin profit margin to keep it running with purchased flour by truck. When I started there in 1986 we received the flour in the short single-bay Airslide covered hoppers that we leased. It was really inefficient because we used so much flour that it was a battle to keep switching out the cars to keep up. We switched to the double Airslides which were more efficient but were also more expensive to lease. We then got a lease deal on some cars that were truly one-of-a-kind. The cars looked like stock P-S 4750’s with the standard three compartments but the bottoms of the compartments had the vibrating membrane structure of a typical Airslide. With those cars there was a little more “give” in the flour delivery schedule because the new cars were efficient enough that we could actually get ahead of production, not to mention the ability to cut back to one flour unloader to save money. I haven’t seen the likes of those cars since. In the scene with the two GP38-2’s switching on the bridge, they’re dropping those flour cars from the southbound train into the small yard there before continuing on their way to Bloomington. When that train returns in the afternoon they will tack those cars onto the end of the northbound train to be switched out at the pasta plant. I watched that operation for 20 years and given the sorry state of our siding’s light rail there was a constant risk of a derailment, which would be a semi-welcome break in the monotony of a 24/7 operation. When a car derailed, Soo Line would send out a rescue engine and crew from Humboldt Yard to set things right again. A couple of years before I left we had our siding rebuilt with beefed-up rock and rail so we could ship loaded high-cube boxcars out in addition to receiving the daily flour loads-all on a single track siding and a single track mainline with no passing track. We did see the occasional flying-switch maneuver to get things in the right place but those were pretty rare. MN&S was a shoestring railroad and when Soo Line took over they spent a fair amount of money to catch up on track maintenance including trainloads of Dresser rock to supplement the pitiful pea-gravel ballast the Monkeynuts thinly spread around. You can see some of that gravel starting to show up again around bridge abutments. I grew up in Crystal and saw the Monkeynuts between 5 and 6 p.m. M-F. I’ve been in SLP since ‘94 and things are still pretty much the same except CP runs a train every day now with boxcar traffic seemingly on the increase plus storage cars.
When I was a kid living in Crystal in the 60's it was well worth it to hang out at the GN-Soo crossing for the day. Legions of GN F's and legions of SOO F's. Throw in the Monkeynuts twice a day (or more in grain season) and it was pretty busy. Soo would send out #324 to switch in the industries in New Hope. Only Soo SW in the parallelogram scheme. When we got hot it was a mile walk to the Twin Lake bridge for some swimming.
I used to work at a pasta plant in New Hope on the MN&S. Monday through Friday, the SOO/MN&S brought loads of semolina flour from our mill in Carrington, North Dakota and we made dried pasta from it in New Hope. To be profitable we relied on timely flour delivery by rail but there were more than a few days when the Soo Line and the “Monkeynuts” (MN&S) couldn’t get our cars to us and we had to pay extra to get semolina trucked to us from an ADM mill on Hiawatha Avenue in South Minneapolis. The plant runs 24/7 so shutting down to wait for our flour from the SOO wasn’t an option but it really cut into an already thin profit margin to keep it running with purchased flour by truck. When I started there in 1986 we received the flour in the short single-bay Airslide covered hoppers that we leased. It was really inefficient because we used so much flour that it was a battle to keep switching out the cars to keep up. We switched to the double Airslides which were more efficient but were also more expensive to lease. We then got a lease deal on some cars that were truly one-of-a-kind. The cars looked like stock P-S 4750’s with the standard three compartments but the bottoms of the compartments had the vibrating membrane structure of a typical Airslide. With those cars there was a little more “give” in the flour delivery schedule because the new cars were efficient enough that we could actually get ahead of production, not to mention the ability to cut back to one flour unloader to save money. I haven’t seen the likes of those cars since. In the scene with the two GP38-2’s switching on the bridge, they’re dropping those flour cars from the southbound train into the small yard there before continuing on their way to Bloomington. When that train returns in the afternoon they will tack those cars onto the end of the northbound train to be switched out at the pasta plant. I watched that operation for 20 years and given the sorry state of our siding’s light rail there was a constant risk of a derailment, which would be a semi-welcome break in the monotony of a 24/7 operation. When a car derailed, Soo Line would send out a rescue engine and crew from Humboldt Yard to set things right again. A couple of years before I left we had our siding rebuilt with beefed-up rock and rail so we could ship loaded high-cube boxcars out in addition to receiving the daily flour loads-all on a single track siding and a single track mainline with no passing track. We did see the occasional flying-switch maneuver to get things in the right place but those were pretty rare. MN&S was a shoestring railroad and when Soo Line took over they spent a fair amount of money to catch up on track maintenance including trainloads of Dresser rock to supplement the pitiful pea-gravel ballast the Monkeynuts thinly spread around. You can see some of that gravel starting to show up again around bridge abutments. I grew up in Crystal and saw the Monkeynuts between 5 and 6 p.m. M-F. I’ve been in SLP since ‘94 and things are still pretty much the same except CP runs a train every day now with boxcar traffic seemingly on the increase plus storage cars.
When I was a kid living in Crystal in the 60's it was well worth it to hang out at the GN-Soo crossing for the day. Legions of GN F's and legions of SOO F's. Throw in the Monkeynuts twice a day (or more in grain season) and it was pretty busy. Soo would send out #324 to switch in the industries in New Hope. Only Soo SW in the parallelogram scheme. When we got hot it was a mile walk to the Twin Lake bridge for some swimming.
Great video ......... always like seeing SOO power. Love the quality and content of your videos. Keep them coming. Mike
Thank you for the comment! I appreciate the feedback, and I'll be digging some 'older' stuff out for posting soon.
Excellent video
The Soo had the right colors. Indeed a snow R.R.
Nice! This 4402 led 2-286 earlier this year
Thanks for the comment; I heard about that. That would have been a sight to see.
i love soo line. nice horn too. is that the normel horn for a gp35. our ts a gp38. idk you can correct me
Thanks for the comment! In both cases, each train was powered by a set of GP38-2s. As far as the horn goes, at the time that was a typical Soo horn.
is Humboldt yard a former Milwaukee road yard?
Thanks for the comment! Humboldt Yard is a Soo yard, and always has been.
thanks for the info