Northern Lines Railway is a

shortline railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

operating of track in and near St. Cloud in central

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. The railroad was formed in 2004 to operate

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC is the parent company of the BNSF Railway (formerly the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway). The company is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, which is controlled by investor Warre ...

trackage in and near the St. Cloud area and started operations in 2005. Interchange is made with BNSF in east St. Cloud or at the rail yard in central St. Cloud.

Lines

From the connection with BNSF in east St. Cloud Northern Lines Railway's mainline crosses the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

on the 1892 St. Cloud Rail Bridge, passes through the northern part of downtown St. Cloud, and reaches the large rail yard in central St. Cloud. After the rail yard the line continues west into

Waite Park Waite Park is a city in Stearns County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 8,341 at the 2020 census. It is part of the St. Cloud Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Waite Park was incorporated in 1893. The city was named for He ...

where it splits. The St. Joseph branch continues westward, through the site of the longtime

Great Northern Great Northern may refer to: Transport * One of a number of railways; see Great Northern Railway (disambiguation). * Great Northern Railway (U.S.), a defunct American transcontinental railroad and major predecessor of the BNSF Railway. * Great ...

car shops, through an industrial area, crosses the Sauk River and continues on to a industrial park in

St. Joseph Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers ...

, approximately beyond the split, where the line now ends. This line once extended through to

Moorhead, Minnesota Moorhead () is a city in and county seat of Clay County, Minnesota, United States, on the banks of the Red River of the North. Located in the Red River Valley, an extremely fertile and active agricultural region, Moorhead is also home to several ...

and the northernmost portion of the once through line continues to be operated by Otter Tail Valley Railroad. The Rockville branch extends from the split in Waite Park southwestward and terminates in Rockville, approximately beyond the split. In 2012, Archer Daniels Midland constructed a shuttle loading grain elevator on the Rockville line between Waite Park and Rockville, joining Wenner Gas's propane terminal (expanded in 2014) in Rockville and Martin Marietta Materials's aggregate quarry in Waite Park as customers on the line. This line once extended through to Willmar but was abandoned in the 1980's by BNSF. In addition to the main line and the two branches the railroad serves several customers in east St. Cloud via trackage rights on BNSF track.

Traffic

As of 2021 traffic from approximately 20 customers consists mainly of aggregates, building products, chemicals, coal, food products, grain, lumber, manufactured goods, paper, propane, scrap, steel and stone. According to the railroad it handles approximately 10,500 carloads per year. The railroad is owned by Anacostia and Pacific Company, Inc and has its local headquarters in the old Great Northern depot at the rail yard in central St. Cloud.

Abandoned Trackage

Until the rail was removed in 2018, the East St. Cloud branch extended from the connection with BNSF in east St. Cloud, crossed U.S. Route 10, and terminated at the former Quebecor World printing plant in east St. Cloud, approximately . Until 2012 the Cold Spring/Rockville branch extended southwestward from its connection in Waite Park, passed through Rockville and terminated just west of Cold Spring, approximately . However, in 2011 Northern Lines applied to discontinue of service between Rockville and Cold Spring and in early 2012 track owner BNSF received permission to abandon the westernmost of track and convert an additional between Cold Spring and Rockville to industry track. Track was removed in Cold Spring and the last train, loaded with ties, left Cold Spring on August 22, 2012.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Northern Lines Railway Minnesota railroads Switching and terminal railroads Spin-offs of the BNSF Railway