CGW Troop Trains to Saint Paul via Rochester

[wjstix]

Well, first off I can't think of any military installations in Rochester MN so there wouldn't be some big action requiring a dedicated troop train from there to the Twin Cities. Second, Rochester and St.Paul are only 77 miles apart. Don't think you'd need Pullmans for an hour and a half to two hour trip. I think if someone from Rochester MN was going to Washington state they'd just ride on a daytime coach train to St.Paul and then get on whichever NP or GN (or Milwaukee?) train would get them where they were going. If there were a lot of MN soldiers going there, they might meet up at Fort Snelling I guess, or at St.Paul Union Depot first?

[SPer]

What about Great Northern, they serve SPUD, and CGW also handed the Pullmans to GN to Fort Lewis.

[NP Eddie]

My suggestion is e-mail the CNW Historical Society (they handle CNW, CGW, etc.) and they may be able to help you. I don't have 1960's OG's at hand, but a 1936 shows OG shows Fort Lewis, WA on the NP for freight and passenger and the MILW for freight only. 

The draftees could have taken Pullmans to St. Paul where they were handed off to the NP or added to an NP train "main"  for Fort Lewis.

 

Ed Burns

[SPer]

Any Chicago Great Western troop trains taking Rochesterites to Saint Paul for Great Northern or Northern Pacific troop trains going to Fort Lewis, WA before and after December 7, 1941