The Sioux Falls branch was a relatively interesting bit of the old Bow
and Arrow lines. It served the communities of Midland, Rock Rapids,
Lester, Larchwood, Granite and Sioux Falls. There was one other little
berg just east of the Falls and I can't recall the name.
The line was constructed to tap Sioux Falls and its growing economy.
There was also indications that the Cedar Rapids Road wanted to build
further west to gain a foothold in the Black Hill.
One old timer told me once that the passenger business on the line boomed
early with couples seeking to break their marriage vows because of the
Dakota's lax divorce laws. I'm not sure if that is true but it's a great
story.
At one time the line had several passenger and freight trains regularly
schedule but that passed relatively early on. The last full passenger
service ended about 1951 with the last runs of the motor car powered
train. However, I have seen a photo of the train with a nice light
pacific and sizable consist. It even boasted a Pullman at one time.
During your projected period of time mixed trains 53 and 54 were the
regular service. Passenger were carried either in a coach or caboose
behind the units. And the train kept close to its schedule.
A typical train consisted of two units, the coach, mostly box cars with
tankers for the Rock Rapids oil terminal, some coal, cement and lumber
thrown in. To the back was the LCL car or cars and just ahead of the
caboose would be one or more John Morrel refrigerator cars.
When I was just little they were traditional ice bunker cars but later
one of the company's new mechanical cars took over. On a rare occasion
you would even see a leased Western Fruit Express car.
For a short time they even carried some TOFC but the real oddity was the
occasional mobile home from Winnebago Industries.
The Mixed came off sometime in 1964 and until the end 53 and 54 were
every other day trains. Traffic remained fairly good until the last
couple of years when it fell off to the point that the ballast traffic
out of Granite was about the only thing left.
Rock found an excuse to stop service when a series of wash outs occurred
in the early '70s. Oddly they could run train to the Falls to retrieve
equipment but not serve customers.
Anyway they cut it back to Rock Rapids then back to Little Rock in late
1976 early 1977.
There isn't a lot left at Ellsworth, Midland you can't find, Rock Rapids
has its depot along with the bridge and some track with a outside bracket
caboose. Lester still has its depot along with Sioux Falls. There is
still grade there to follow and you can get a good feel for the line.
I hope this helps. Rich Wilkinson ==============Original message
text=============== On Wed, 24 Jun 2009 8:46:18 am CDT "Brian Shumaker" wrote:
In my endless quest to find interesting branchlines to possibly model I
have turned my attention to the far flung and never mentioned Sioux Falls
line from Sioux Falls to Ellsworth, Mn, where it meets the line to
Luverne. Terra Server shows a tiny yard in Sioux Falls, typical small
towns to Ellworth which also has a small yard and turntable. Can anyone
give me a run down on operations on this portion circa 1958-1970?
Also I'll request the usual need for track charts and ETT scans. Thanks,
Brian ===========End of original message text===========