Tooling down the road one day in May 2012 on a photo drive, I  spied some railroad cars that seemed out of place.  They were off the road a couple hundred yards and seemed to be on their own little spur line next to the main line immediately behind them..

The cars really stood out, these days bright yellow cars are rarely seen and even less so, pink.  The sun was hitting them nicely and the colors popped and got may attention.  I got a couple of photos and started looking around.  There was a gravel road that ran on the other side of the property, so I decided to take a look a little further.

Looking for a place to turn around to go back to that gravel road, I turned into a driveway near a motel on the top of the hill.  Here I found several more railroad cars in various states of repair.

I then headed back to the gravel road.  Once I got there I saw a building and what looked like a building on a dolly.

At the time I didn’t know what to make of all this railroad paraphernalia out in the middle of nowhere.  I thought perhaps it was the work of a train enthusiast and I was right, though I didn’t know it until yesterday.   I had these pictures on my hard drive and had not thought much about them.  I was reading a blog a I follow and that led me to figure out just exactly what I had photographed.   I was reading a blog talking about Willy Wirehand.  Totally unrelated to trains you would think, in that six degrees of seperation way, one thing led to another.

First, Brian Brown’s excellent Vanishing South Georgia blog talked about Willy Wirehand and dropped a link to Willy on Reddy Kilowatt’s site.  While reading about Willy on the Reddy Killowat site, a link caught my eye, Kilowatt as a real Railroader.  The post talked about a locomotive purchased by NSP (Norther States Power, – today known as Excel Energy) from Burlington Northern Railroad in 1973 to switch its St Paul, Minnesota coal-fired High Bridge power plant, where it worked until 1996.  Later NSP donated the locomotive to the Gopher State Railway Museum.  So I looked that up and realized that what I had photographed was actually the Gopher State Railway Museum near New Prague, MN.

From their website they state:

Gopher State Railway Museum is a non-profit corporation that was incorporated in the State of Minnesota in 1990 to educate the public through collection, preservation, restoration, display, and operation of railroad equipment and artifacts.

Our Goal

GSRM’s goal is to educate the public about the railroads that helped create the State of Minnesota we live in today as well as the stories of the people that built, operated and used those railroads.

They’ve been busy and things have changed since the photos above.  The “building” on the left in the shot above is actually an office car, Office Car Manitoba to be specific.  It was built by the Pullman company for James J. Hill of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad which by now he had grown to the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway.   There is a lot of good detail about the car to be found on the Museums site linked above.

 The state of things today

I decided since this museum is less than an hour away, I would make a little photo expedition in that direction and see how the museum had progressed since I’d last been there a couple of years ago.

Above is what it looks like from the road today.

Before [in May, 2012]

After [March, 2014]

They’ve made good progress on the main building and moved some cars that were on the spur line before into the yard.  There is much to be done yet.  The organization is looking for donations of time or money and registered as a 501(c)(3).  So if you feel inclined to lend a hand or a few dollars I’m sure it would be appreciated.  Their “how can I help page” lists many ways to get involved.

So I mentioned Reddy Kilowatt and how it led to my discovering this Museum.  Above is a shot of the locomotive featuring Reddy that NSP donated to the Museum.

Another one of Reddy.

From the GSRM website In the 1980s, NSP sold the rights to Reddy Killowatt and his image was supposed to be removed from all company equipment, etc. The High Bridge crew couldn’t bring themselves to paint over Reddy so they ignored the memo.

Later, NSP briefly revived Reddy Killowatt and officials were surprised to see him still working hard at the High Bridge plant.

Other cars on the property in various states of restoration.

Cars that looked like they served to lend parts to other cars were also on another part of the property.

Gang cars were used to move crews around for maintenance and other things.  They were replaced in the 1990’s with pickup trucks with flanged wheels that could be lowered onto the tracks.  Probably a welcome replacement during bad weather.  Why was it called a Fairmont gang car?

It was called a Fairmont because that was the name of the company that built it and the company got its name because of its location, Fairmont, Minn.  More information can be had on Wikipedia about the Fairmont Railway Company.

I was glad I took the time to go back today and look around and see the progress that has been made.  I look forward to seeing what the organization is able to accomplish they have a lot of ambitious projects listed on their website.  I really hope they get the resources to complete them.

This summer I’m going to make another trip on and try to take a real tour of the cars.  They don’t have regular hours but groups and individuals can call ahead for an appointment or are invited to stop in if you see folks working.

I’ve been to several antique power and threshing shows this summer.  Most of them have other vocations that were in use at the time of the steam engines and antique tractors such as lumber mills, blacksmith shops and printing shops.

It was at the Scott Carver Threshing show in Jordan I ran into a gentleman that used to be a type setter at the Minneapolis Star which was the afternoon paper published in Minneapolis.  The morning edition was the Tribune.   In 1982 the two papers merged into on daily edition that was out in the morning.  Much more history here if you are interested.

At the Pioneer Power Show in Le Sueur they also had a print shop

The Butterfield Threshing Bee also has a print shop where you can get your name printed along with the logo of the Butterfield Thresher’s Association (BTA).

A local farmer rakes hay in the afternoon sun.   This is done to dry the hay so it can be bailed.

In my youth, I bailed plenty of hay and learned it was much better to be out in the sun on the rack as opposed to being up in the barn stacking it.

While at the Scott-Carvers Old Threshers event on the outskirts of Jordan, MN, I came across a country school that had been moved on site and preserved down to the chalkboards, desks and books.  I was interesting to walk through and think about what it would be like to attend a school like this.

All grades were taught together by the same teacher.  Class size was in most cases less than a single section of a grade today.  It must have been quite a learning environment.  If you were bright, you didn’t have to wait, you could listen in on the teachings of the older children.

In the photo below, you’ll see a man, who much like myself, thought the school looked interesting and stepped inside for a closer look.

What the man didn’t realize until he got to looking at the rosters from years past that this was the very same school that he, his eleven siblings and father had attended.  It was quite a “homecoming” for him as he took it all in.

A couple of weeks ago I was out to the Scott-Carver Old Time Harvest Steam & Gas Engine Festival in Jordan, MN.  It was a very enjoyable time.  As a youngster I used to go with my grandparents to a similar event known as a Threshing Bee in Butterfield, MN.  I haven’t been to Butterfield or anything like it since about the 1980’s, so it was fun to see.  I plan to take in another one, the Rice County Steam and Gas Engine Show, the last weekend in August in Dundas, MN.

No sooner had I gotten in the entrance gate when I spied a field straight ahead and over the loudspeaker came a voice announcing the old-time potato digging was about to start.  So I headed down the hill.

I have previously posted that my grandfather was a potato farmer for most of his life.   The equipment being used in this “old-time” potato digging was very similar to what he used.  The potato digger could have been a carbon copy, while the tractor looked newer.  My grandfather used John Deere A and B model tractors, while this was an Allis-Chalmers WD 45.

As can be seen in the photo it was a bit of a lean harvest.  It’s been dry around Jordan this summer, though not as dry as further South in Minnesota.  The lack of rain was probably the biggest contributor to the lack of spuds.

You could bag your own, or buy them prebagged.  The prebagged we’re $3/per bag.  The bags were the size of those little apple bags with the two paper handles.  I wonder what the.  I would think you’d get at least 15 – 20 of those little bags out of the 100lb sacks my grandfather sold for $5 to $7.  No matter though, these were quickly sold out.

The round bales separate the silos and soybeans as the promise of a late summer rain shower passes.  The sun is peaking from the passing clouds and lights up the white barn.