Minot and Soo Tower: Then and Now

HemiAdda2d Feb 21, 2020

  1. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    So I get to go back thru my posts and annotate more info based on the maps I found.
    That said, the Museum of the Rockies has a few nice views of Minot.

    In a 1947 Ron Nixon photo, we see the new Empire Builder at Minot, looking east on a westbound train:
    http://www.morphotoarchive.org/rvndb/rvnjpeg_img_rec.php?objno=RVN12573

    Also in 1947, Ron Nixon found a steamer undergoing maintenance, but the item of note is the footbridge with a covered bridge over the tracks.
    http://www.morphotoarchive.org/rvndb/rvnjpeg_img_rec.php?objno=RVN12575

    Ron Nixon visited Minot in 1934 as well, with a nice view of the trackwork east of the GN station. The tall, skinny structure is an ice house:
    http://www.morphotoarchive.org/rvndb/rvnjpeg_img_rec.php?objno=RVN03457

    A pair of Nixon views from 1934 show the old yard and shop complex from two slightly different viewpoints atop what is now Broadway bridge. One clearly sees the roundhouse, storehouse and footbridge to the left and the freight house to the right:
    http://www.morphotoarchive.org/rvndb/rvnjpeg_img_rec.php?objno=RVN03482
    http://www.morphotoarchive.org/rvndb/rvnjpeg_img_rec.php?objno=RVN03483
     
  2. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Some newer material that already is unrepeatable. View from GN old yard pedestrian footbridge looking west on an eastbound. The elevator, warehouse and basically everything other than the tracks and 3rd Street overpass is gone. Most of this is under construction to build flood protection works.

    Elliot Omernik, 2013
    "SD60M's Surprise of the day, BNSF 8178 and BNSF 8118 bring their short train of around 30 cars past the Old Yard and towards Gavin Yard. Later this evening they would bring the BN Transfer over to CP's Minot Yard." Elliot Omernik photo, 2013; reposted with permission.

    [​IMG]
     
    Mike VE2TRV, badlandnp and Kurt Moose like this.
  3. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    How does that flood control construction impact the railroad? Is it dikes? Walls? Photo(s), perhaps?
     
  4. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I can take some updated photos as floodwalls are in work to the north of the old shop complex, although not completed. It's a huge mess of cranes and equipment everywhere. I cannot get to the link at work, but the Souris River Joint Board (https://www.mouseriverplan.com/) has details of each phase of the project. I think the tracks on both BNSF and CP are planned for relocation west of Soo Tower for part of the project. BNSF wants elevated ROW as part of the project, but that will require elevating bridges, and that's not cheap. https://www.minotdailynews.com/news...bnsf-railroad-for-more-flood-project-buyouts/
     
    badlandnp, Kurt Moose and BNSF FAN like this.
  5. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Bleh. Seems to be getting messy. Politics and money...
     
    Kurt Moose likes this.

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