BOOK REVIEW
St. Paul Union Depot By John W. Diers. Published by University of Minnesota Press, 111 Third Ave. South, Suite 290, Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520; 612/627- 1970;
www.upress.umn.edu. Hardcover, 328 10″×11″ pages, dust jacket, 235 b&w images; $39.95; available through website, by phone, or through your local bookseller.
Released just in time to mark the return of long-distance passen- ger service later this year, this authorita- tive book begins with a brief description of the nine railroads that served St. Paul Union Depot:
the
Burlington, Chicago Great Western, Mil- waukee, Rock Island, the Omaha Road, Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Min- neapolis & St. Louis, and the Soo Line. Diers then discusses in detail the evolution of pas- senger service in the city, including early commuter services, along with SPUD’s pred- ecessor depots. The construction of the cur- rent Union Depot is covered thoroughly in a separate chapter which includes a fine selec- tion of photos and drawings. He also outlines the development of each railroad’s passen- ger service, while three maps depict the growth of Minnesota’s rail system between 1870 and 1910. Smaller depots in the region are also pictured such as Winona, Wayzata, Hubert, Solway, and Redwood Falls. Another chapter details the operating agreement between the depot and its nine tenants, which includes a discussion of the op- eration’s six “zones” and the allocation of oper- ating expenses and revenues. The reader will also learn about the arcane practices that once were involved in making reservations and purchasing transportation in the days be- fore the internet allowed the customer to make his own arrangements. A three-page chart outlines a typical day in June 1941 when nearly a hundred trains called between the 5:55 a.m. arrival of Northern Pacific train 65 from Duluth to Minneapolis and the 11:59 p.m. arrival of its counterpart, NP train 66 be- tween Minneapolis and Duluth. St. Paul Union’s mail and express busi- ness also merits an extensive discussion, with descriptions of Railway Post Office cars and the facilities and techniques used to sort and distribute the mail at St. Paul. Three maps show main line RPO routes serving the Twin Cities, along with the northern and southern branch line routes. The privately- owned Railway Express package delivery service is described in equal detail. After dis- cussing the mail and package services dur- ing their heyday, Diers also talks about the diversion of mail and express to airlines and trucks, the loss of which helped speed the de- cline of rail passenger service. Wrapping up, a discussion of the decline of Minnesota’s passenger service ends with the closure on St. Paul Union Depot at the dawn of Amtrak in 1971. To illustrate the reasons for rail’s decline, two pages of charts illus- trate that for the most part, rail service could not compete with the speed, much less the convenience, of travel by private auto. An ap- pendix lists passenger train discontinuances in Minnesota by railroad, from Chicago & North Western trains 131-132 in May 1950 to the last run of the Milwaukee Road’s Fast
Mail at the dawn of Amtrak in March 1971. The book is well-written and thoroughly
researched and also cleanly laid; it features a fine selection of historic photos nicely printed on good, glossy paper. Photos this re- viewer enjoyed include the Soo depot at Pierz, Minn., with a “Dollar $ign” logo paint- ed on the roof and a windmill to fill the wa- ter tank; an early photo at Wayzata showing the transfer of passengers from rail to a small lake steamer; an 1866-vintage Min- nesota Valley steam motor car; a view of the Dayton’s Bluff area before the riverfront was filled in; a nice shot of Mississippi River boats tied up with the original Union Depot in the background; and a Chicago Great Western commuter train powered by a diminutive 2-4-2 tank engine.
This book offers a very thorough look at not only St. Paul Union Depot but also Min- nesota’s passenger service from its inception through its decline into the Amtrak era. Any fan of the passenger train’s “classic era” will enjoy it. — WALT LANKENAU
VIDEO REVIEW Rutland Remnants 6:
SAVE YOUR BACK ISSUES
Make your RAILFANcollection easy to find, organized, safe, and ready for instant use. Handsome official deep red binders are stamped in gold and hold 12 issues. . . . . . $12.95 + s & h
order on-line at:
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Tale Productions, P.O.
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dvd.com; 802/862-3407. 127 minutes; DVD only. $25.00 postpaid
Over the decades, railroads across the country have been abandoned, torn up, and converted to oth- er uses. This is partic- ularly evident in places like New Eng- land, where railroads proliferated early and/or were built out too broadly. The me-
andering branch lines of New England pro- vided picturesque scenes as they served small towns and small industries, separated by short distances and served by small trains. While economics did in many of these branches, clues to their existence can still be seen, and a few of the people who recall the operations are still here to talk about them. The Tell Tale Productions series entitled Rutland Remnants includes this volume on the “Corkscrew” line, which ran south from Bennington, Vt., to Chatham, N.Y., with pas- senger service to Troy, N.Y. using Boston & Maine trackage rights. The program is nar- rated by Jim Shaughnessy, who extensively photographed the Rutland in the late steam and early diesel days and shares his first- person perspective.
The Corkscrew served small industries and the milk business, provided local trans- portation (imagine taking the train to and from school), and connected with the Boston & Albany main line and the New York Cen- tral’s Harlem Division at Chatham, N.Y. (Milk off the Rutland ran down the Harlem to New York City.) Ultimately, the milk traf- fic died due to government regulation and the Corkscrew was ripped up south of Ben- nington circa 1953. The Rutland eventually was shut down after several strikes, but was resurrected a few years later as the Vermont Railway and the Green Mountain Railroad. Several Rutland stations remain today and some are lovingly renovated and inhab- ited; one is home to a piano restoration busi-
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