South Dakota Selling State Owned Railroads (Former Milwaukee)

[Jeff Smith]

https://www.progressiverailroading.com/ ... nes--58390

...
The lines to be sold include:
• the 285-mile Mitchell-to-Rapid City Line (MRC);
• the 77-mile Britton Line, which runs from Aberdeen to Geneseo Junction Connection, North Dakota, and Jarrett Junction to Britton, South Dakota;
• the 83-mile Napa-Platte Line, which runs between Napa Junction and Platte, South Dakota;
• the 68-mile Sioux Valley Line, which runs between Elk Point to Canton, South Dakota, and Beresford, South Dakota, to Hawarden, Iowa;
• the 15.3-mile Yale Line between Huron and Yale; and
• the 4.2-mile Wolsey, South Dakota, interchange.
...
The state government bought hundreds of miles of track in the late 1970s, when the Milwaukee Road went bankrupt, according to the news station.

[BR&P]

Our group was retained to do a study of most of those lines back in 1980. I drew the Mitchell - Rapid City line. Interesting, scenic, but man, SO many miles of track to maintain for not a lot of traffic. Now 40 years later most of that line is still in place. Amazing!

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[Jeff Smith]

Wow!

[cjvrr]

There are extensive track maps available at the link to the State website. Pretty neat.

[vermontanan]

The lines are not all former Milwaukee Road. Hawarden to Beresford is ex-C&NW.

Only the part of the Britton Line from Jarrett Jct. to Britton is ex-MILW. The rest is ex-Great Northern.

Huron to Yale is ex-Great Northern.

For the most part, these ex-GN lines and other GN lines within the state which were abandoned experienced their respective changes in status due to the desire by the Milwaukee Road to exit the state completely by 1982. The state then requested that Burlington Northern assume operation of several primary lines within South Dakota; they were accessed through existing ex-GN lines at Aberdeen, Appleton, Sioux Falls, and Sioux City.

Had the Milwaukee Road not pulled out of South Dakota, or had the state of South Dakota chosen not to save these former Milwaukee Road lines, it's logical to think that some of these abandoned or now-owned-by-the-state ex-GN lines would still be around or would be more vibrant than they are.

[Shortline614]

South Dakota has sold the largest segment from Mitchell to Rapid City to Watco's Ringneck & Western Railroad.

Trains Magazine: https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2 ... short-line
Mitchell Republic: https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/busine ... e-approval

[dsrc512]

Here are the locations of two of the three photos of the Mitchell to Kadoka line
I cannot identify the location of the long tangent.
The Ford crewcab hyrail is parked at the 1953 built Chamberlain depot. The shot is looking southwest. The track curves to the south beneath the King Street overpass (aka Old US 16). Going forward, the truck will soon cross the Missouri River bridge, the longest bridge on the Milwaukee Road. It was opened for service on Dec 7, 1953 as was the depot.
The grain elevator is on the east leg of the wye in Kadoka. It has since been torn down. There are three wyes west of Mitchell. Chamberlain, built in 1953, Murdo Mackenzie (aka Murdo) snd Kadoka. The latter two date back to the original construction of the line to Rapid City.
Alex Huff