I just thought I would post some pictures I took last week of the Minnesota Commerical Railroad. C-424 #62 (ex-D&H 462) at Midway yard ex-LS&I RS-3 and an unknown RS-3 m-630 #73 (ex-CP Rail) at Roundhouse MC #83 another Canandian Alco. Just behind 83 is the cab of another RS-3 that is used as a slug. Also the cab of their M-636 can be seen. Coupled to the nose of 83 is #80, a Canandian built Alco switcher. The MC has 4 Canandian Alcos, the rest are all American built.
I don't know the plan for those two old RS-3s. My friend knows the owner of the MC and I will ask him if he could find out what the deal is with them. For anyone that is interested, there is a small sign on the front battery box door of the M-630 that reads "4573" (I assume the old road number) "THE LAST M-630 ORDERED AND OPERATED BY CP. MAINTAINED WITH PRIDE BY THE ST. LUC SHOPS, MONTREAL QUEBEC". I'm sure they would be happy to see how good it looks, I know I am. It seems that every time I see this or the M-636 on the lead of a train i don't have a camera. The good news is that I usually see them both running together. They sound great.
I hope that MC plans on keeping these beauties around a while! They are a refreshing break from the main line little boxes mostly the same. Have been trying to figure out where that second stored RS3 could have originated. But just can't place it. Hope you can find out! Curiousity is getting the best of me! Boxcab E50
What a fascinating selection of locomotives! Makes me want to hop on a plane and come over to Minnesota What route does the MC run, so I can locate it on a map, please?
Minnesota Commercial roster, photos, timetable, route map, etc. This should give you most of your info. For the record, the Minnesota Commercial is a switching and transfer railroad in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Besides all those Alcos, it also sports some EMD switchers as well as some GE power- ex-ATSF six-axle diesels and some B23-7s. That M636 is also supposed to be re-engined with a Caterpillar prime mover.
Thanks Bob. That is a fascinating railroad, and crying out to be modeled, if only we had models of some of those Alcos. I wonder if there are any decals available?
Thanks for the MC site, I learned some stuff I didn't know. Although there are some errors, I suspects because the site has not been updated. The "Commerical" owns two RS-27s both from the Green Bay and Western (ex-cnw). When the WC purchased the GB&W the Commerical bought quite a few of the Alcos, three C-424 (i think all ex-conrail), two RS-27, and the RS-20 (rs-3 with a 251 and a chop nose). You would think that a Model railroader owns the Railroad, wait...one does and he shops at my friends hobby shop. They have tons of old locomotives around. If you can rent a copy of Pentrex "Twin City Hot Spots" there is a section on the Commerical. The commerical has more going on these days the the site does not talk about. The Commerical operates more traffic into Fridley were the new customer on the end (name unknown to me) has their own swithcer (another Alco, S-6). Watching a 20 car train crossing Rice creek with an Alco on the point is awsome, can you say notch 8 and smoke. They also travel more to White Bear Lake, I think almost every day now. There is a new industry north of WBL the receives lots of tank cars. there is also a couple new industries in WBL, one unloads hoppers on the old mainline south of WBL the other at the wye in WBL. The Commerical also goes out to Bayport and Stillwater Minnesota and I think it switches the large Anderson Window plant (they have a few of there own switchers also, EMD type). The commerical also runs a train down to CP's Pigs Eye yard and this train can have two or three of the bigger locomotive on the point. There is also a train almost every morning (early, in the dark most of the times i see it) that goes up to New Brighton, and it always has either three GEs or a mix of GE and the big Alcos. There seems to be lots of activity on the commerical these days. I remember when it was just the 4 EMD switchers. And when you went to railfan it you would usually find all the locomotives just sitting at the round house. Now it is hard to see the round house behind all of the power. This would be a great line to model, and believe me I have many times thought to give up my layout and build one of the commerical. Because they now paint everything kind or like the GBW, painting a MC locomotive would be easy. The checker board along the walkway could come from a Miller decal set. Miller also makes the end nose stripes in white. Microscale makes alphabet sets that could be used to letter the sides.
This is a slide I scaned. I took this shot December of 1992 when the Commerical just purchased it's first Alcos. These two locomotives were D&H (ex RDG). The Commerical repainted these two in the same blue and yellow with Minnesota Commerical lettered on the side in yellow letters. I'm not sure, but my guess is that when they got all of those GBW Alco it was easier to repaint all of their existing locomotives in GBW paint than it was to paint the few that they had at the time because these two and most of the rest of their stuff got painted red like the GBW locomotives. Here are a few other older shots of non-Alco stuff one of the SW-1500 traded to WC for the GBW Alcos (Fair trade to me) CF-7 in the short lived (thank God) "Brown Bonnet" Here are some I took yesterday The MC roundhouse, Lots of GEs in the back ground. To the Left is the road power from the morning run from New Brighton. On the Turntable (being turned when I shot the photo) is #62 ex-D&H. MC #313 and just behind you can see the handrails of their cut down slug they named "SLUGGO". This power they moved out of the way so they could turn #62. Getting photos around the roundhouse is not as easy as it once was. There are more fences and "NO TRESPASSING" and "NO PARKING" signs around. There were too many cars around 313 to get a good side shot.
Nice site. A lot of info there. But I didn't see anything for the one yellow/gray RS3. It has me rather curious as to heritage! Boxcab E50
