UP track upgrades

[Anonymous]

I saw a nice picture this past Friday while returning to work from a
trip to the hobby shop over lunch.

I work on the west side of the Twin Cities and while travelling north
on I-494 I noticed a UP MOW crew parked on the end of the former
C&NW trackage near the intersection with County Road 6. I've
included a link below to the map:

http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?ed=M7tNO.p_0TqT&csz=Plymouth%2C+MN&country=us&new=1&name=&qty=

I believe this former C&NW trackage may be a remnant of the old
M&StL's line that went out to Lake Lillian and points west (which was
before that the Minnesota & Western). The former M&StL main ran further
south at Hopkins. I'm guessing on the Lake Lillian line, working from a
1965 Railway Guide. If anyone is more familiar with the region I'd like to
hear!

I pulled-off and found my way over to the work site and the crew (nice
bunch of guys) said they were starting work on replacing ties and laying
ribbon rail over the ROW, which is now a UP industrial spur serving
several industries in Plymouth. Further east near Xenium Lane, a
westbound UP local pulled by what appeared to be two GP15s was
stopped while the crew was at lunch as well. That train was pulling
gondolas carrying metal and a number of coil cars, having probably
originated at Hoffman Ave. Yard.

It was nice to see the UP maintaining their industrial spurs and to my
pleasant surprise the line was not being pulled-up (that's what I
thought at first when I saw the MOW crew).

[West Coast S]

Seems UP has be busy my way as well. My local drive takes me along former Pacific Electric trackage, lo and behold UP has relaid with salvaged welded rail, new ballest ,tie replacement and some alignment improvements, UP timetables list this section as the Torrance industrial branch. It amazes me this survived not only the demise of the PE but SP as well, long may it prosper.