PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has signed a bill authorizing $6.25 million in state funding for the rehabilitation of the Sisseton-Milbank Railroad, a 37-mile short line with a badly deteriorated right-of-way needed to move agricultural products.
KXLG Radio reports Noem signed Senate Bill 16 earlier this week. The appropriation from the state’s general fund is contingent upon the railroad receiving federal grants to cover the rest of the cost of the project.
The Sisseton Milbank, a subsidiary of the Twin Cities & Western, serves a grain elevator in Sisseton, but the condition of its track limits it to 263,000-pound cars rather than the current 286,000-pound standard, and allows operations at 10 mph or less [see “South Dakota seeks funds to upgrade …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 13, 2022]. Some of the line has 75-pound rail dating to 1884.
Members of the state’s congressional delegation and the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Sioux Tribe are working with the railroad to secure the $24.7 million federal grant needed to complete rehabilitation funding.
75-pound rails would feel in place on Northern Central Railway in York County, Pennsylvania with a
4-4-0 locomotive and train representative of their period.