Enjoy FREE Admission to the Museum on:
Friday, May 11 10am to 4:30pm
Saturday, May 12 10am to 4:30pm
Sunday, May 13 10am to 4:30pm
AND
Saturday, May 19 10am to 4:30pm
Sunday, May 20 10am to 4:30pm
After being saved by purchase in 1980, this is the former Milwaukee Road rail line under re-construction for continued service in 2011 near Kimball, South Dakota.
From TRAINS Newswire:
Bill Janklow, savior of Milwaukee Road’s South Dakota rail lines, dies
Published: January 12, 2012
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Bill Janklow, a 16-year governor of South Dakota who pushed through a sales tax that paid to save much of Milwaukee Road’s rail network in his state, has died. The controversial and brash former Republican governor was 72, and died today of brain cancer.
With most of Milwaukee’s network in the state under embargo, Janklow called the state’s legislature into special session. He tasked the body with identifying rail lines critical to the state’s infrastructure, then finding a way to purchase them. The legislature created a temporary 1 percent sales tax to fund a $25 million rail purchase program. On Nov. 13, 1980, the state purchased 760 miles of secondary trackage from Milwaukee’s trustee for $18.75 million.
In an interview with TRAINS author Jerry Huddleston prior to his cancer diagnosis, Janklow recalled how he convinced Burlington Northern President Dick Grayson to operate the lines.
“We had some BN lines in the state, and they were cripples and dead-enders. And so as we talked, I said, ‘You know, Grayson, you’re running coal trains just as fast as you can run them across North Dakota. You ought to return your cars through South Dakota.’”
After negotiations at BN’s St. Paul, Minn., headquarters, Grayson agreed to become the designated operator of the state’s newly purchased routes. The first train ran June 6, 1981. BN-operated routes included Aberdeen-Mitchell, Chamberlain-Mitchell, Canton-Mitchell, and Elk Point-Mitchell. In 2005, BN successor BNSF Railway purchased all but the Chamberlain route, and operates them to this day.
A year after BN began operating the so-called “core lines,” the state acquired 480 miles of track from Ortonville, Minn., to Terry, Mont., formerly part of Milwaukee’s transcontinental main line. Janklow again convinced the legislature to purchase the line, and leveraged his relationship with BN, convincing the railroad to operate the line under contract. It purchased the line outright in 1990.
Greetings from Hill City!
Here is a great commemorative gift for the HO model railroader or
collector on your Christmas list, or for yourself.
SDSRM 2011 commemorative HO scale 50′ box car – Limited edition of 50
Manufactured exclusively for the SDSRM by Accurail Models
$24.95 each
SD residents please add applicable sales tax – $1.87 per car
USPS First Class shipping – $6.00 (1 car); $11.00 (2 or more)
Available at the Museum after December 7, or by check at:
SDSRM
Attn: 2011 Commemorative Car
PO Box 1070
Hill City, SD 57745
Own a piece of our Museum history with out first commemorative, as
well as support the Museum.
November 30 – December 23
(Wednesdays through Sundays)
10AM to 4PM
EXCEPT on December 10, 17, and 23 10AM to 6PM*
* Holiday Express trains operating on the 1880 TRAIN – Please call 605-574-2222 for reservations
December 27-30
10AM to 4PM
MUSEUM CLOSED
December 24 and 25, December 31, January 1-3, 2012
Admission: Adults – $5 each * 12 and under – FREE
Questions? Please call 605-574-9000 or 605-877-6629
You Are Invited!
South Dakota State Railroad Museum Gala
and Railroad Hall of Fame Ceremony
October 22, 2011 – 6:00PM
Sylvan Lake Lodge Ballroom –
Custer State Park
Join us for an evening of elegance and entertainment
to benefit the South Dakota State Railroad Museum
An outstanding menu, excellent wines,
live and silent auction items, Hall of Fame ceremony,
new exhibit announcement, music and dancing
Generous co-hosts: Custer State Park Resorts
Cost: $75 per person – seating is limited!
call 605-574-9000 to reserve tickets and meal choices
(Chicken, Shrimp, or Vegetarian)
Dress: Business attire – black tie or vintage dress optional
Custer State Park passes supplied free to ticket buyers.
Special room rates are available at Sylvan Lake Lodge -
please reference SDSRM to receive a discounted room rate
Phone (605) 574-2561 * info@custerresorts.com
South Dakota Railroad Hall of Fame
2011 inductees
Railroad employee (active or retired)
Alex Huff
Railroad employee (posthumous)
Jerome M. (Jerry) Drager
Friend of Railroading
Mildred Fielder
Paul Redfield Preservation Award
Lynn A. Anderson
Friend of the SDSRM
South Dakota Wheat Growers Association
Thanks to SD Public Radio’s Victoria Wicks for an outstanding profile of our Gene Jackson and his incomparable HO layout creation that resides at the SDSRM! Take a listen to the audio file at the link:
http://www.sdpb.org/tv/shows.aspx?MediaID=59933&Parmtype=RADIO&ParmAccessLevel=sdpb-all
Can it be! Yes, American celebrated its Bicentennial 35 years ago this month!
How many of you were around to witness the red, white and blue that America’s railroads displayed on its locomotives and cars? Here are three locomotives that visited South Dakota on multiple occasions during that celebration – Enjoy the sights, but enjoy and be thankful for your freedoms every day!
Here are some details on the upcoming rebuild of the upcoming Dakota Southern Railway’s ex- Milwaukee Road line between Mitchell and Chamberlain from former DS principal Alex Huff:
Bids have been let. Rail will be a mix of #2 relay 136#, 132# and 115#. Heaviest rail will be laid west of Mitchell, stepping down to 115# into Chamberlain. Material has begun to arrive, as has track machinery for the prime contractor. Contractor was expected to begin work, putting in relay 9′ x 7″ x 9″ ties with spike holes plugged, this past week. There may have been some delay due to rain the first part of the week. To my eye, the ties appear to be changeouts where concrete ties replaced wood. Two competing elevators are proposing to build 110 car shuttle facilities at Kimball. Investment will include 8,000′ turning loops, 2.5 to 3.5 million bushel elevators, etc. at an estimated cost of $26 million each. Kimball is about 40 miles west of Mitchell. Estimated carloadings is 6,000/year. Big change from 65# rail and grass track.
Here is a mystery location and date photo here at the Museum – does anybody have any ideas, or guesses?
My own guess? Somewhere west of Mobridge on the Milwaukee’s main to the Northwest – maybe around 1910…
The “Best Friend of Charleston” was built at West Point, New York, and delivered by ship to Charleston, South Carolina. She was the first locomotive built entirely in the United States. When she made her inaugural run on Christmas Day 1830, she became the first locomotive in the US to operate in regularly-scheduled passenger service.
“The one hundred and forty-one persons flew on the wings of wind at the speed of fifteen to twenty-five miles per hour, annihilating time and space… leaving all the world behind. On the return we reached Sans-Souci in quick and double quick time, stopped to take up a recruiting party – darted forth like a live rocket, scattering sparks and flames on either side – passed over three salt creeks hop, step and jump, and landed us all safe at the Lines before any of us had time to determine whether or not it was prudent to be scared.”
On this date in 1831, she became the first locomotive destroyed in the USA.
180 years ago today, her fireman became annoyed by the sound of steam escaping from the safety valve, and tied the valve shut. According to some accounts, he placed a board atop the valve and sat on it. The resulting explosion killed the fireman, scalded the engineer, and destroyed BFOC.
Southern Railway constructed a replica of BFOC in 1928, using the original blueprints. That replica now belongs to the Charleston chapter of National Railway Historical Society. It is currently displayed at Norfolk Southern’s corporate headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.