Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
Originally posted by Boyd Living nearby to MP 186 of the UPRR Austin TX Sub Reply railman Member sinceJanuary 2001 From: Midwest 718 posts Posted by railman on Tuesday, April 5, 2005 8:47 AM They've been fighting about that Stillwater bridge for about 20 years...I don't think they're very close on deciding anything. Terrible that a railroad got caught up in the middle of it. Reply Big_Boy_4005 Member sinceDecember 2003 From: St Paul, MN 6,218 posts Posted by Big_Boy_4005 on Tuesday, April 5, 2005 2:21 PM Actually the rails lost their connection to Bayport, south of Stillwater, many years ago. There is only one small section of rail left, and it has 6" plus tree trunks growing up between the rails. The Zephyr has been land locked since the MTM left the line, but this is no real loss for the Zephyr. The new road bridge has nothing to do with this, as it will be located further down river, and will easily pass over the old right of way. This is more likely about being to use the land in downtown Stillwater, south of Chestnut St, which is the street where the old lift bridge is. I believe the goal is to claim that land for further development. I think this is more of a formality that the city has to go through to reclaim the land. I rather doubt that the Zephyr will even show up in court to fight back. I'm back! Follow the progress: http://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/displayForumTopic/content/12129987972340381/page/1 Reply Big_Boy_4005 Member sinceDecember 2003 From: St Paul, MN 6,218 posts Posted by Big_Boy_4005 on Tuesday, April 5, 2005 2:44 PM QUOTE: Originally posted by railman They've been fighting about that Stillwater bridge for about 20 years...I don't think they're very close on deciding anything. Terrible that a railroad got caught up in the middle of it. The bridge plans are moving forward, though still rather slowly. I live in the area, and receive periodic notices about public hearings being held. They have 4 proposed alignments that they are studying. The road planning is a little extra tricky, since it crosses state lines, and passes over a scenic river. One of the goals of the new bridge is to be high enough so as to not have a lifting span like the old bridge. Another goal is to have smooth traffic flow between MN state highway 36, and WI state highway 35. Here is a link to MNDot's map of the proposed routes. B-1 has nothing to do with the railroad right of way. C and D might have an effect on it, but are not as desirable routes. E is probably not even in the running. http://www.dot.state.mn.us/metro/projects/stcroix/pdfs/sdeis/St.%20Croix%20SDEIS/Chapter%203/SDEIS%20Figure%203-1.pdf I'm back! Follow the progress: http://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/displayForumTopic/content/12129987972340381/page/1 Reply Boyd Member sinceAugust 2004 From: St. Paul, Minnesota 2,116 posts Posted by Boyd on Wednesday, April 6, 2005 2:13 AM The very last time a steam engine was on that line was in 95. I didn't get to ride it, but went down to see it and talk to the engineer, probably annoyed him with too many questions. It left town on a sunday morning. I had left my window open next to my bed in the downtown apartment I was in, so I could hear the whistle. I got up in a hurry with the camera and followed the engine out of town and west into Oakdale by Menards where it got going too fast to chase without getting a ticket. There were talks after that for that same engine to come and run up and down the Zephyr line again but they passed saying the track was in too crappy of shape. And now finally the Zephyr is doing some track maintanance, ripping up at least one siding (the one behind the house I live in) and dismantling the sagging rotting flatcar thats on it. They are also buying the rails from all the track being removed,, about 1 mile of track. The bridge issue seems to be like the energizer bunny,, it almost dies, then it gets revived, almost dies, then gets revived again. We neeeeed a new bridge. If something happened to the bridge to make it unuseable, the Federal Government would step in and say this is whats going to happen "now", and a new bridge would be up in seemingly no-time. I'll be very happy when it finally happens. Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail. Reply Big_Boy_4005 Member sinceDecember 2003 From: St Paul, MN 6,218 posts Posted by Big_Boy_4005 on Wednesday, April 6, 2005 6:32 AM The plans are to spend $5,000,000 to keep the lift bridge functional while the new bridge is being planned and built. It will happen, but if you go to the MnDOT website, and check out the list of organizations who have their fingers in the planning process, you will understand why this sucker is taking forever. One of the reasons that the MTM left those tracks was because the neighbors were complaining about the noise. Pretty lame, if you ask me. They moved over to Osceola Wisconsin, and operate on the ex Soo Dresser line. The Zephyr used to run on the ex C&NW tracks out by Lake Minnetonka. There was a short period of overlap when the MTM and the Zephyr shared the Stillwater tracks. 10 years sounds about right, considering the size of some of those tree trunks growing between the rails. I'm back! Follow the progress: http://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/displayForumTopic/content/12129987972340381/page/1 Reply Join our Community! Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account. 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Living nearby to MP 186 of the UPRR Austin TX Sub
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QUOTE: Originally posted by railman They've been fighting about that Stillwater bridge for about 20 years...I don't think they're very close on deciding anything. Terrible that a railroad got caught up in the middle of it.
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