ABOVE: Milwaukee Road 261 steams through the Kenwood neighborhood in Minneapolis on its way towards Glencoe on April 20, 2013. A late-season storm had dumped seven inches of snow on the Twin Cities two days earlier. RALPH PHAN PHOTO RIGHT: Soo Line 4-6-2 2719 and BNSF SD70Ace 9127 were on hand to greet the 261 as the excursion arrives at the former Duluth Union Depot. JEFF TERRY PHOTO
ON MAY 11 AND 12, MILWAUKEE ROAD 4-8-4 261 returned to excursion serv- ice with a sold-out train from Min- neapolis to Duluth, Minn., and return. Organized by the
non-profit Railroading Heritage of Mid- west America (RHMA, better known as “Friends of 261”), the trip capped a nearly five-year effort to return the 1944-built Northern to the rails. The outing, held on National Train Day, was celebrated with a formal reception at Duluth’s Lake Superior Railroad Museum, which fired up ex-Soo Line 4- 6-2 2719 for the occasion.
Number 261 was constructed by Al- co’s Schenectady Works in June 1944 for the Milwaukee Road, one of ten S3 class Northerns built for both freight and passenger service. The Milwaukee
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RAILFAN.COM
Road built the first two S1 class 4-8-4s, Nos. 250 and 251, in the 1930s. These were followed by 40 class S2 4-8-4s (Nos. 201-240) delivered from Baldwin between 1937 and 1940. Due to wartime restrictions the S3 class 4-8-4s (Nos. 260-269) were slightly smaller than the S2s, and were built to a new design that combined a D&H-style boil- er, a Rock Island R67 cast steel frame, and a Union Pacific-style semicylindri-
cal tender. The result was a powerful yet compact locomotive fitted with the latest advancements in steam motive power technology including Franklin adjustable wedges, roller bearings, and Alco lateral motion devices on all driv- ers. The Milwaukee made them their own by adding features such as all- weather cabs and solid cast pilots. For passenger service the S3s were with
fitted Automatic Train Stop
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