The Sunflour Railroad is a

short-line 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 oper ...

which owns trackage in Roberts County and Marshall County,

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...

. The company owns approximately 19 route-miles of track, between the towns of Rosholt and Claire City; the line connects with the Canadian Pacific Railway at Rosholt.

History

The trackage now owned by Sunflour was originally constructed in 1913 by the Fairmount and Veblen Railway, a local shortline which extended from Fairmount, North Dakota to Grenville, South Dakota. The railway was soon purchased by the Soo Line Railroad, and operated as a

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industr ...

; the portion of the branch from Veblen to Grenville was abandoned in 1971. Sunflour purchased the Rosholt-Veblen trackage in 2000, after the Soo Line had requested permission to abandon that portion of the route. In 2012, the trackage from Veblen to Claire City was “abandoned”, even though the tracks and ties were removed years earlier.

Current operations

The Sunflour Railroad apparently operated for only a short time, although the trackage remains intact in 2006. The railroad's only locomotive, an

EMD SW1 The EMD SW1 is a Diesel locomotive#Diesel–electric, diesel-electric switcher locomotive built by General Motors Corporation, General Motors' Electro-Motive Diesel, Electro-Motive Corporation (later Division) between December 1938 and November ...

switcher, currently rests on a siding at

Victor, South Dakota Victor is an unincorporated community in Roberts County, in the U.S. state of South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota i ...

. The line currently serves as railcar storage for other railroads.

Name

The Sunflour Railroad was an optional name in the developing process for the monopoly board game, hence where it got its name.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sunflour Railroad South Dakota railroads 2000 establishments in South Dakota Transportation in Marshall County, South Dakota Transportation in Roberts County, South Dakota Spin-offs of the Canadian Pacific Railway Railway services introduced in 1913 Railway services discontinued in 1971 1913 establishments in South Dakota 1971 disestablishments in South Dakota