Minnesota Southern Railroad

I will be spending a week not to far from Worthington, MN at the end of the month and was looking for some info about the Minnesota Southern RR, formerly Nobles Rock RR. Is the railroad still operating? If time and weather permit I would like to take part of a day to get pics of the motive power and anything else of interest.

Terry

They are still operating. They are based out of the depot in Luverne, using 2 Geeps that are lettered for Nobles Rock, painted John Deere colors. Main industry is the ethanol plant in Luverne. They also run fertlilizer into Luverne, I believe. They connect with UP in Worthington and BNSF at Manley. What I hear is 'as needed' on service. Line is mostly paralleled by local highways. Hope this helps.

Yes, that does help. Time did not allow me to do anything this trip but will be out there again this summer. I was with family shopping in Worthingtom and did manage to get some shots of the local UP power at the depot downtown.

Terry

Terry,

I'm affraid most of my MN railroad knowledge is limited to the Southeastern portion of the state (where I grew up and attended my first few years of college). Here's a link to the U of M Railroad Club's Minnesota Railfan's Guide page about the MN Southern...

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~rrclubum/MN-Southern.htm


Hopefully that helps you out a little.

Thought I would post a follow up of my return vist to southwestern Minn. We followed the Minnesota Southern's tracks from south of Wothington to Luverne, did no go any further west. At Adrian there were a bunch of cars apparently in storage. The two geeps, that I was really looking for, were setting near the depot in Luverne still painted for Nobles Rock but with ILSX reporting marks. It would have only been better if there was an operating train that day but I already knew that was unlikely.

Terry