Minnesota Prairie Line is a

short-line railroad A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that operates over a relatively short distance relative to larger, national railroad networks. The term is used primarily in the United States and Canada. In the former, railroads are ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

which started operations in October 2002. It is a subsidiary of the

Twin Cities and Western Railroad The Twin Cities and Western Railroad is a railroad operating in the U.S. state of Minnesota which started operations on July 27, 1991. Trackage includes the former Soo Line Railroad "Ortonville Line", originally built as the first part of the Pa ...

(TC&W), and runs on of track owned by the Minnesota Valley Regional Railroad Authority (MVRRA). It has been partially funded through federal and state government sources. The tracks were originally built by the

Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway The Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway (M&StL) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I railroad that built and operated lines radiating south and west from Minneapolis, Minnesota for 90 years from 1870 to 1960. The railway never reached ...

around 1880 between Norwood and Morton, and 1884 west of there. From Morton west, the line was built by Wisconsin, Minnesota & Pacific Railway, which was purchased by M&STL in the late 1880s The line connects on its eastern end to parent TC&W at Norwood, and extends westward to

Hanley Falls, Minnesota Hanley Falls is a city in Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 304 at the 2010 census. History Hanley Falls was laid out in 1884 when the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway was extended to that point. The city wa ...

. The Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway was acquired by

Chicago and North Western The Chicago and North Western was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than of track at the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states befor ...

in 1960. C&NW eventually abandoned the Minnesota Prairie Line tracks in 1982. The Minnesota Valley Regional Rail Authority purchased the line in 1984. Subsequently, a new operator, the MNVA Railroad, commenced operations on the line in March 1984. In December 1994, MNVA ceased operations and sold its assets to the Minnesota Central Railroad (MCTA). MCTA experienced little to no success. The line was again abandoned in 2000, and continued to deteriorate for two years. Twin Cities and Western employees took an exploratory journey along the track in April 2002 to determine its condition. The track was rehabilitated over the summer, but could still only support speeds of by the time the first revenue train ran in October. MPLI initially used two former TC&W

EMD GP10 The EMD GP10 is a diesel-electric locomotive that is the result of rebuilding a GP7, GP9 or GP18. The Illinois Central Railroad had three separate rebuild programs to upgrade their old EMD GPs and GPs that they had purchased from equipment d ...

s, which had the MPLI logo applied to them on the long hood side. Currently, MPLI utilizes Red River Valley and Western Caterpillar Generation II locomotives ( GP20Cs and GP15Cs). Trains typically run five days per week between Norwood and

Wood Lake, Minnesota Wood Lake is a city in Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 439 at the 2010 census. History Wood Lake was laid out in 1884, when the railroad was extended to that point. The town took its name from nearby Wood ...

, with service as needed to Hanley Falls. Track condition remained poor as of 2009, still only supporting speeds of 10 mph or less, but the railroad had success in securing state and federal funding that year. The tracks have been rehabilitated with new rail and ties, and train speed are up to 25 mph between Norwood Young-America and Winthrop. At Winthrop, there is an

ethanol Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...

plant that is a large shipper for the railroad. Over the remainder of the line train speeds are only 10 mph. The line meets

BNSF BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide ...

tracks in Hanley Falls. BNSF now owns the ex-M&StL track west of the city, as well as the ex- Great Northern track running northeast / southwest through town. The communities of Fairfax and Belview still have old Minneapolis and St. Louis train stations preserved in their towns, turned into museums. The Fairfax building is still in its original location right next to the tracks, while the one in Belview has been moved.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Minnesota Prairie Line Inc. Minnesota railroads