261
Steams to Duluth
BY JEFF TERRY/PHOTOS AS NOTED
LEFT: Big crowds came out to see the newly rebuilt Milwaukee Road 261 all along its route, including Duluth. JEFF TERRY PHOTO
261 logged nearly 30,000 miles in ex- cursion service. Memorable outings in- cluded jaunts on the DM&IR’s ore lines in northern Minnesota; a trip to Penn- sylvania for Steamtown’s grand open- ing; BNSF employee appreciation runs that covered much of the central Mid- west states; and outings on Canadian Pacific’s ex-Milwaukee Road main line between Minneapolis and Chicago. In 1995 the non-profit Friends of 261, based in Minneapolis, took over the op- eration of the locomotive.
equipment for use on the Milwaukee Road’s high-speed Chicago-Twin Cities main line, and were able to access Chicago Union Station because of their lighter weight and close-clearance de- sign, something the S2s could not do. Displaced by diesels in the early 1950s, the 261 was bumped to freight service on the Milwaukee-Savanna line, then was retired in 1954 after just ten years on the roster. After being stored for sev-
eral years it was donated to National Railroad Museum of Green Bay, Wisc., and placed on static display in 1958. In 1992 the 261 was leased by the museum to North Star Rail, Inc., and moved to Minneapolis for rebuilding and use in excursion service. It re- turned to steam in the fall of 1993 and pulled its first revenue trip over Wis- consin Central rails on September 18 of that year. Over the next 15 years the
By the late 2000s the 261’s boiler was coming due for its federally-mandated 1472-day inspection and rebuild, a ma- jor job that would entail a complete boiler overhaul but would also allow it to operate for another 15 years as per FRA rules. Its final trip was a rain- soaked excursion from Minneapolis to La Crescent, Minn., on September 14, 2008, after which it was pushed inside the Minneapolis Junction shop – 261’s
59
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68