OSCEOLA, Wis. — Trains Magazine is sponsoring a two-day photo charter in September featuring vintage diesel locomotives from the Minnesota Transportation Museum (MTM) collection. Trains will run Sept.11-12 out of Osceola on MTM’s Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway, which operates over Canadian National’s 25-mile former Soo Line Dresser Subdivision. Trains will be pulled by diesels from Great Northern Railway, Soo Line, and Burlington Northern. It will be the first photo charter using the Museum’s restored Great Northern SDP40 No. 325.
No. 325 was built by EMD in 1966, one of six 3,000-hp SDP40s GN purchased for passenger service. Only 20 SDP40s were built between 1966 and 1970 for GN and National Railways of Mexico. Transferred to freight service upon Amtrak’s inception in 1971, No. 325 operated under various numbers for GN successor Burlington Northern and BNSF Railway until it was retired in 2008. BNSF donated the locomotive to the museum in 2009, and it has been a mainstay of the Osceola & St. Croix Valley since its donation wearing BN Cascade Green colors.
No. 325 was professionally repainted in as-built Great Northern Omaha Orange and Pullman Green colors by RELCO at Albia, Iowa. In addition to No. 325, MTM has repainted several streamlined GN passenger cars in their collection to match No. 325.
The two-day event is tentatively scheduled to include the following:
Sept. 11:
No. 325 will pull a five-car matching Great Northern passenger train to replicate GN’s secondary streamliners like the Seattle-Portland Pool Service and the Seattle-Vancouver “Internationals.” That evening, a night photo session will be held in Osceola with No. 325 and Soo Line GP7 No. 559, which is painted in Soo maroon and gold. The night session will be conducted by photographer and Trains Magazine correspondent Chris Guss.
Sept. 12:
Two trains will be operated. A heavyweight passenger train will be pulled by Soo 559, with recently repainted Northern Pacific triple combine (RPO/baggage/coach) No. 1102 and two Rock Island “Al Capone” commuter coaches, which were also recently repainted. The second train will replicate a Burlington Northern local freight of the 1970s, pulled by BN SD9 6234 and vintage box cars from MTM’s Jackson Street Roundhouse collection, trailed by a BN caboose.
Ticket prices include rail fare on the Osceola & St. Croix Valley Ry. for two days featuring the three trains with multiple photo runbys, plus the night photo shoot with professional lighting. A boxed lunch will be provided both days. Snacks and beverages will be available for purchase on board the train. To ensure quality photo opportunities, ticket sales are limited to 50 people.
I would be much more impressed if the locos were an ES44AC, an ET44AC and an SD70ACe, the bulwark of today’s freight operations. But that’s me.
Now how would that qualify as “vintage”?
September in Osceola (Wisconsin) when it sizzles and the three vintage diesel locomotives roar.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Soo Line GP7 No. 559 was built in 1951 and retired in 1997.
Burlington Northern SD9 No. 6234 was built in 1959 and retired in 2003.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
GP7 was the first model in EMD’s GP (General Purpose) series of locomotives. Concurrently, EMD offered a six-axle (C-C) SD (Special Duty) locomotive, the SD7. The GP7 was replaced by the GP9 model in GM-EMD’s GP sequence.
The SD9 was the second model of EMD’s SD line of locomotives, following the SD7. Just as the SD7 was a lengthened GP7 with two additional axles, the SD9 was a corresponding modification of the GP9.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün