Volume 47 #4 Northstar Railway Historical Society April 2016 Publishers of the Minnesota Rail Calendar #261 to Steam Again This Year #261 will Steam to Du- luth on June 4 2016 and return to Mpls on June 5 2016. Info at 261.com Photos: 2007: #261 on Kettle River Br in Sandstone and at Brook Park MN By R Tubbesing Table of Contents Meeting Notice Meeting Notice Page 1 Next business meeting will be held on Officer Contact Directory Page 1, 2 Saturday April 16th 2016 6:30 pm, at Roseville Lutheran Church at 1215 Roselawn Avenue, midway between Lexington and Editors Column Page 2 Hamline Avenues in Roseville. See map on page 2. March 2016 Meeting MInutes Page 2,3 John Goodman Interview Page 3 Program after the meeting – St Paul Union Depot Days Update Page 3 Historic Railroad Slides by Greg Smith from his vast slide collection. Suit Against CP Page 4 Greg has worked on various railroads during his career. Many slides have been acquired and shot by Greg over the years. Greg has present- LSRM Dome cars Page 4, ed programs in the past and has been very well received by our mem- BNSF Restores Dome Car Page 5 bers. MINN and WISC explore 2nd Amtrak Train Page 6 Northshore Resumes Taconite Operation Page 6,7 There will be a pre-meeting get-together April 16, 2016 at the Keys RR Bridge to Return to Operation Page 7 Cafe and Bakery at the northeast corner of Lexington and Larpenteur starting about 4:45 pm. PLEASE CALL Bob Clarkson at 651-636- C&NW 1946 Passgenger Specs Page 8, 9 2323 and leave a message with your name and the number of persons Gary Rumler and Barney Olson Vintage Photos Page 10 coming with you. Barney Olson and John Cartwright Vintage Photos Page 11 UP Improvements on Hold Page 12 Last Cantilever Signal Br in MN Page 12 Twin Cities Rochester High Speed Rail Status Page 13 What is was like on Amtrak in the 1970’s Page 13,14 Railfan Events Page 14,15 DVD’s For Sale Page 16 Northstar Chapter Officers President Richard Tubbesing [email protected] 763-757-1304 Vice President Dan Meyer [email protected] 763-784-8835 Past President H Martin Swan [email protected] 612-961-1684 National Director Jim McLean [email protected] 612-747-8541 Treasurer Russ Isbrandt [email protected] 651-426-1156 Secretary Dave Norman [email protected] 612-729-2428 Trustee Gary Rumler [email protected] 651-385-8752 Page 1 Northstar News April 2016 Volume 47 #3 Northstar Railway Historical Society March 2016 Staff Program Chairman John Goodman [email protected] 612-839-0905 Newsletter Editor Committee: Richard [email protected] 763-757-1304 Tubbesing, Dawn [email protected] 763-784-8835 Holmberg Newsletter Distribution Richard Tubbesing [email protected] 763-757-1304 Calendar Committee John Goodman [email protected] 612-839-0905 Dawn Holmberg [email protected] 763-784-8835 Russ Isbrandt Trip Director John Goodman [email protected] 612-839-0905 Chapter Librarian/ John Cartwright [email protected] 651-481-8479 Historian Web Master Dan Meyer [email protected] 763-784-8835 Chapter Mailbox Northstar Chapter NRHS PO Box 120832 St Paul MN 55112 Library Data Base Ad- Russ Isbrandt [email protected] 651-426-1156 ministrator Meeting Location: From the east or west take MN 36 to Lexington From the Publisher: Avenue. Drive south on Lexington Avenue to Roselawn Avenue and 2016 Dues are OverDue! IF you have not renewed your local turn right. The large lighted parking lot is on your right as you travel chapter dues, You are dropped from newsletter list. Membership west on Roselawn. Use the lower entrance to the church and turn left for 2016 is $18 for NRHS membership (+NRHS membership through the commons area. We’ll be in room 40, The Diamond dues of $50, billed separately) and $21 for subscriber. NRHS Room. dues for 2016 can be paid online by credit card. If you are a current member of the NRHS and the NRHS has your email address, you should have gotten an email from ‘Amelia.com’ to renew your NRHS dues via secure payment by credit card. If the NRHS does not have your email address, you should have by now received a letter in the mail to renew your dues. If you have received notification by either method, please renew your NRHS dues promptly. The NRHS is now in the Black due to great Leadership which has turned around this or- ganization from debt ridden status. Thanks to John Kennedy for his Slide Presentation. His slides mainly from his duties as operator at the Hoffman Interlocking Tower in St Paul brought back many memories and awes from the meeting at- tendees His slides from the tower of St Paul railroading in the early 1970’s was fantastic. We look for more presentations from him in the near future! : Northstar Chapter NRHS Meeting Minutes March 19 2016. The meeting was called to order by chapter president Richard Tubbesing at 6:32 pm at the Roseville Luthearn Church with 24 members present. Those present were asked to introduce themselves. Treasurer Russ Isbrandt gave the treasurers report. We have money in the treasury. Russ had sent out invoices to those in the chapter that had not paid their dues. Dan Meyer reported that he had arranged for a donation to the chapter from Ericson Company, his employer. Dawn Holmberg reported on the calendar project, we have totally sold out. John Goodman reported on planned programs, John Kennedy this month, Greg Smith next month, and Minnesota Railroad promotional films from the 1950’s in May do- nated by the Minnesota Streetcar Museum. John reported that June 18 is our Metro transit trip and July 9th is our picnic at Maiden Rock WI, and our August trip will be a bus trip to ride behind the Steam engine #28 at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum (if running by that time). John reported on the NRHS Convention July 19th to July 24 in Denver. Many activities at the convention are filling up. In addition to the Convention BOD meeting, a fall BOD meeting is scheduled for Portland OR. Richard Tubbesing sends out about 40 newsletters in the mail, and about the same number electronically and is planned for publication the first Wednesday of the month. Participation in the spring flea markets are still to be decided by the BOD. Most likely, we will only do the Fair Grounds train show, and do two or three more in the fall when our calendar is available. Dan Meyer reported on the Chapter web site. Continued on next page. Page 2 Northstar News March 2016 Volume 47 #4 Northstar Railway Historical Society April 2016 Continued from previous page. Cheer Committee, we sent a card to Marty Swan who has been ailing, but was returned due to an invalid Address. We will make an effort to get Marty the card. The St Paul Union Depot 50th Anniversary celebration will be April 30 and May 1 and for a nominal fee, one can attended RR slide shows by many prominent photographers. A night photo session is planned. Otherwise the Event is free. John Goodman announced that we have a lot of slides at the library, mostly commercial. Announcements: None Presi- dent Tubbesing motioned for approval of meeting minutes of the last two months in the March newsletter. Members approved. President Tubbesing stated that in the next two meetings, we need to create a search committee for nominating officers for the 2017 year. Marty Swan stated that 3 members are required and only one can be a current BOD officer. Meeting was adjourned at 6:57PM , Seconded by John Goodman. Respectfully submitted: Dave Norman Secretary. John Goodman Interview 2016 March This editor interviewed John Goodman about his duties at Westminster Tower in St Paul. Here is the interview. “I always worked Westminster in the afternoon. I came in at 2:30 pm and left at 11:30 pm. I sat in front of what was a small CTC-Board and you controlled the line which is now under I35E which went into the Toni Plant (Gillette).I don’t believe the Toni Plant exists anymore and that is where the new St Paul Saints Ballpark is. Whenever they came up with a passenger train to wye, before they put it in the Mississippi Street coach yard for the Great Northern, you had to align the switches form mechanically on your board so they could wye it. The tracks in front of the tower, there were four of them, the first two tracks next to the tower were the passenger main, the furthest two were freight mains, they stayed that way to St Anthony where they Crossed over, the passenger mains 1 and 2 crossed over track 3 and 4 to go into the Minneapolis passenger station. The freight mains crossed over to go into Union Yard. We always had contact with the E St Paul yard master of the Northwestern because we controlled the entrance from their line coming out of East St Paul down to what they called Buckley, to enter the Great Northern. You crossed them over to tracks 3 and 4 and CNW trains went to St Anthony where they crossed over to East Minneapolis yard. You had trains coming at you that would call you on the radio and once and awhile the dispatcher would call you for a ‘19’ order but not very often. I was there after Amtrak Started but they had not taken over the Minneapolis depot yet, and we would get just one Amtrak train a day each way, and then the Northcoast Hiawatha got put on we got two trains a day.” Editor, “what were the years you worked at Westminster?” “It was 1970, 1971”.