Some of you may have seen this before, but just thought I would post this link from Shorpy - well known Swedish model railroader Lennart Elg not long ago (jan 2011) has made a panoramic image of Duluth Railroading by using photoshop to stitch together a series of previously posted photos from Duluth MN in 1905.
Have a look - what an inspirational scene for an early 1900s model railroad!
http://www.shorpy.com/node/9481?size=_original
Grin, Stein
Interesting photo. You can see the Duluth Union Depot to the far left(at least the roof). It appears that the 'Omaha' Depot is not there yet - I think that small wood frame depot may be the original CMO/C&NW depot.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Interesting to see the Northern Pacific cars with the "monad" herald on them, that didn't become common until the 40's. I suspect the railroad tracks are the NP's former St.Paul & Duluth tracks; NP bought the RR in 1900.
The right side of the Duluth picture has quite a bit to inspire scenery on your model railroad -- Including street car tracks and wooden bridge construction. So much of the picture looks like it could be in your hometown, and then you see the horsedrawn wagon on the bridge.
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
Very interesting picture. Must be summer time. No automobiles in the picture and no locomotives that I could see.
wjstix Interesting to see the Northern Pacific cars with the "monad" herald on them, that didn't become common until the 40's. I suspect the railroad tracks are the NP's former St.Paul & Duluth tracks; NP bought the RR in 1900.
Looking at the four images the panoramic obviously are made from:
http://www.shorpy.com/node/6924?size=_originalhttp://www.shorpy.com/node/6990?size=_originalhttp://www.shorpy.com/node/6920?size=_originalhttp://www.shorpy.com/node/6941?size=_original
you must be right - the images was described as Great Northern, but what I see is quite a few cars with Northern Pacific on them, and in the second image above, in the foreground, and engine marked NPR (Northern Pacific Railroad?),
Other things spotted in the full size images at a quick glance - A CNW "Furniture and vehicle car" (lower right hand corner of first image), kids playing on top of boxcars (second image), all kinds of interesting signs on the buildings, flimsy looking trolley poles across the bridge at right (fourth image).
It is just a very neat sequence of images, from a model railroading perspective - chock full of inspiration for modeling - with many buildings etc that would not have had to be made all that much smaller (just fewer) to fit on a layout.
Smile, Stein
Inspiring images from a time long past.
Thank You.
The depot to the left looks like the Great Northerns union depot. I believe this yard was either owned or operated by both railroads. the track charts show some tracks great northern and some Northern Pacfic if its the same yard from my refernce sheet.
Bill
Exactly what I noticed. The NP refrigerator cars, or at least the ones in this photo, had a monad herald but not the boxcars. Also some neat passenger cars.
Yes N.P.R. was for Northern Pacific Railroad. They used "N.P.R.R." in the first decades of the railroad but seemed to have switched to NPR sometime around 1900. (Maybe they were 'reorganized' and as part of the change switched from being a "railroad" to a "railway" so didn't use the "RR" anymore?? It wasn't uncommon for railroads to change like that if they went into (or out of) bankruptcy.)
One of the pics shows quite a few C&NW / Omaha passenger cars. Duluth particularly at that time was pretty much a narrow strip of flat land wedged in between the water and steep bluffs, so several railroads ran right next to each other. Also it seems to me the St.Paul & Duluth and the Duluth & Iron Range had some sort of trackage rights agreement...one of them had to go on the other's tracks for a short distance to reach the depot I think(??)
p.s. I'm not sure if there was a "Great Northern union depot" in Duluth (there was one in Minneapolis)?? There was the union depot that's still there, but I'm not sure if GN used that one or not. I know the Soo Line had their own station.
Awesome...
Note all those classic billboard names on almost every commercial building. There's even a coal-loaded gondola that seems to pop up from John Allen.
Matt
Proudly modelling the Quebec Railway Light & Power Co since 1997.
http://www.hedley-junction.blogspot.com
http://www.harlem-station.blogspot.com
There was no Great Northern Union Depot. The Duluth Union Depot was jointly owned by the Missabe, NP, & GN. The 'Omaha'(C&NW) had their own Duluth depot, and the SOO Duluth depot was used by the SOO/WC/DSS&A. That yard looks like the 'Tri-Party' yard and was used by several railroads. The GN had very little in Duluth proper. Duluth was basically an 'NP' town. The original Lake Superior & Mississippi from St Paul to Duluth later became the NP and came into Duluth(first via Jay Cooke State Park, and later via Short Line Park routes). They also built a like into Superior(lower grade) via State Line Tower and Central Ave Tower to their own ore docks. The GN came into Superior, and ran over to Duluth. The GN controlled a lot of Superior across the bay. They even built steam engines in the shops over their. In later years, they GN passenger engines layed over at the NP Rices Point roundhouse(along with the Milw 'Skally' road power). The Milw had trackage rignts into Duluth over the NP, and their trains for St Paul many times were built in the Tri-Party yard.
Hi
The depot is still standing and is a stop on the North Shore scenic railway the web site is here http://www.duluthdepot.org/. It was built by the Northern Pacific and St. Paul & Duluth railroads in 1890. This is not the yard I was referring to earlier. That one was further south and west of this one. But I think this was the terminus point for the Great Northern Badger and the Gopher. They were pooled trains early on with The N.P. and the G.N. providing cars.
Bill,
The GN Badger/Gopher did terminate at DUD. - there were about 7 or 8 tracks in the depot, and a coach yard to the south. And as you mentioned, there was a 'pool' service with the NP/SOO for Twin Ports-Twin Cities service. By the 50's, the SOO was down to a round trip up to Duluth and back in the afternoon to the Twin Cities. The NP portion of the 'pool' was an over-night train(mostly mail). The GN had the best trains and they included parlor/lounge service up through the 60's. The interesting part was you could buy one of the pool 'excursion' fare tickets at DUD, and walk over to the SOO depot and catch their early afternoon train back to St Paul. The GN train(Gopher) did not leave for the Twin Cities until after 5 PM. The big yard that the GN passenger engines lay ed over at was Rices Point(NP's main yard in complex in Duluth). Most of the elevators in Duluth were served by the SOO/CMO/NP off of the 'Bird tTwn Lead'. IIRC, the GN at one time used the old Interstate bridge, but later switched over to the Minn/Wisc draw bridges to get into Duluth. The old DSSA used the Interstate bridge as well, but passenger service was long gone by that time. The NP used their own depot in Superior, and then ran over the NP and crossed into West Duluth using the Grassy Point draw span. There was a connection just after the Grassy Point bridge that got the SOO onto their own trackage to their Duluth Depot.
I’m interested in the Great Northern car spotted in front of the Zenith Paper Company.
It looks to be 50 foot car with 8 hatches on top and part of the bracing partly exposed. The building next to it looks like I might have the word fruit on it maybe it’s a ventilated boxcar?
What did Milwaukee Road do in Duluth? Or was it just revenue traffic from St. Paul going back empty from Duluth?
To see what immediately caught my eye, look just to the right of center for a classic example of what happens when a wood framed truss rod car (in this case, a gondola) is overloaded. I suspect that car went straight to the rip track as soon as it could be moved, to have the turnbuckles tightened.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with steel framed cars)
I’m interested in the Great Northern car spotted in front of the Zenith Paper Company. It looks to be 50 foot car with 8 hatches on top and part of the bracing partly exposed. The building next to it looks like I might have the word fruit on it maybe it’s a ventilated boxcar?
That's a horse car. The hatches are hay ricks for the horse to be able to eat enroute.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Thank you for your detailed response it changes my understanding of how the pool worked. I thought i had read somewhere that the G.N. had provided the power and the cars were made up from the group of available cars from the three railroads. But it sounds like they provided whole trains. My refernce sheets dont go into the earlier train movements to much.
Dave
Thank you for the information i would not have guessed it was a horse car. Since it was partialy sheeted it threw me off. Horses must have been more prone to be nervous in a regular stock car.
BAmos Thank you for the information i would not have guessed it was a horse car. Since it was partialy sheeted it threw me off. Horses must have been more prone to be nervous in a regular stock car.
And were more valuable. Many horse cars, especially those that lasted into the 1950's, looked like regular baggage cars only with vents along the top of the sides.
The Milw Road had trackage right between the Twin Cities and Twin Ports over the NP. IIRC, it was a 99 year lease written about 1901. The exact reason I am unaware of, but the Milw ran road trains to Duluth, but did not handle any 'short' traffic on the NP Skally line(except that they could drop off/pick up traffic for the paper mil in Cloquet a Carlton). They also did set outs/pick ups in Superior at the NP Belknap yard if the train was routed via State Line Tower.
The lease expired after the SOO bought the Milw and a new lease was written up as C&NW(UP) and SOO(CP) started running their Twin Cities - Twin Ports over the ex-GN line(BNSF).
The Milwaukee objected to NP's purchase of the St.Paul and Duluth RR in 1900, as the SP&D "Skally" lineit gave NP the shortest line between Duluth-Superior and the Twin Cities. They dropped their objections when they were granted (freight only) trackage rights on the route . This agreement stayed in effect even after the BN and later BNSF mergers, and Milwaukee Road's purchase by the SOO (and Soo Line's takeover by Canadian Pacific)...in fact, even after the old Skally line was taken out of service. Still today CP trains use BNSF's line to Duluth from the Twin Cities.