I grew up in Minneapolis and the GN depot was always referred to as the GN depot by everyone who lived here. The GN did not operate between the Twin Cities and Chicago but you knew the GN depot was the place to catch the Zephyr and 400. GN depot was a generic term for the station for people. If the NP wanted to serve the Minneapolis downtown area it had little choice but use the GN Depot. It would have had to reach downtown Minneapolis using someone else's tracks even if it built its own station downtown. The NP had to use Soo Line trackage to reach home rails in Northeast Minneapolis. GN was more that happy to collect the money from the other railroads that used the GN Depot. The GN Empire Builder arrived five minutes before the NP North Coast Limited eastbound, there was an intense rivalry between the two.
ALL:
Everyone I knew from the NP Operating Department used the term "GN" Depot. Not sure why the passenger department said "Hennepin Avenue Depot".
There was and still is a lot of joint trackage in the Twin Cities. I originated and later keyed MTCE of WAY timerolls the area. "J:" was the prefix for labor distribution of time spent in the affected areas. As information the entire line from Coon Creek to Superior is "Joint" trackage between the BNSF, UP, and CP. The St. Paul Sub and Midway Sub is all joint trackage. The Wayzata sub from Harrison Street to Cedar Lake Jct is joint with the TCW and UP (UP to Lyndale Jct and on the Monti line to MW Jct).
The Staples sub from University to Coon Creek and parts of the Northtown Yard (as the 603 switch) are also joint.
As roadmaster's clerk I had to keep on top of the distribution of labor so that each foreign railroad was billed correctly. I did not know the percentage that the foreign roads paid the BN/BNSF as the local people did not have access to those contracts..
A slight correction on ARICAT's earlier post regarding the NP/SOO trackage. The NP passenger did use joint NP/SOO tracks from GN 1st Street to 14th Avenue North where the SOO went straight and the NP curved to the right and across the Mississippi River to Northtown. I only saw one eastbound SOO passenger train in the few nights I worked at NP Lower Yard.
Lots of memories and I really enjoy the many posts on this thread.
Ed Burns
Many thanks. I've heard that the current route via Midway to SPUD is very slow trackage, with hand thrown switches, but if you do the sums, a back up move would likely take more time and lead to an additional movement through a busy junction, so Amtrak probably has it right!.
Thanks for the history lesson above, which explains a lot.
Love the story about Hennepin Avenue station!
I wonder how much a taxi to the GN station would have cost the unwary?
I don't know the answer to Dreyfusshudson's question. All the Minnesota Commercial trackage is considered yard limit. This means the movement needs to stop in one half the range of vision.
Can someone else tell us about a running track from CTC St. Anthony to CTC Merriam Park, through the Midway Depot? My estimate is that the EB is moving about 10MPH.
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