The photo charter benefited both museums by helping pay for expenses related to displaying No. 2500A at Union Depot Train Days in St. Paul, and for transportation of the MTM equipment from Union Depot to Osceola. Trains Magazine correspondent Steve Glischinski organized the charter, patronized by nearly 40 railfans from around the U.S. and featuring over 30 “photo ops” on ex-Soo Line track once traveled by 2500A.
“Our continuing relationship with the Minnesota Transportation Museum allowed for this new, collaborative venture using the 2500A on the Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway,” said Ken Buehler, executive director of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum. “Working together opens the door for similar events in the future. It worked out fabulously.”
EMD built No. 2500A as a demonstrator in 1949; Soo Line purchased it in 1950. In 1986 Soo donated it to the Lake Superior museum, based in Duluth, Minn. Museum volunteers restored the locomotive to operating condition and repainted it in its original Soo maroon and gold colors.
“For years we’ve been expanding our non-profit museum and railroad partnerships across the area. Working with commercial railroads such as BNSF, CP, CN and Amtrak was just the beginning for us,” said Erik Johnson, Minnesota Transportation Museum’s executive director. “Being able to partner with LSRM on this event allowed us to show the local community that we’re all in this together — to captivate your historical railroad interests.”
Organizers of Union Depot Train Days, held April 30-May 1, asked the museum to bring the locomotive to the event, since No. 2500A once pulled trains out of the depot. Canadian Pacific moved No. 2500A from Duluth to St. Paul. The Minnesota Transportation Museum brought ex-Great Northern SDP40 No. 325 to Train Days, along with Northern Pacific RPO/baggage coach No. 1102 from its Jackson Street Roundhouse in St. Paul. Twin Cities & Western Railroad furnished transportation for the MTM equipment to the depot.
The Osceola & St. Croix Valley operates over CN’s former Soo Line Dresser Subdivision and is based in Osceola, Wis. The Dresser Sub was part of Soo Line’s original main line from Minneapolis to Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., and was sold to Wisconsin Central in 1987. It became Canadian National property when CN acquired WC in 2001. Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway trains operate thanks to an agreement Wisconsin Central made several years before it was sold to CN.
