Minnesota Commercial Hugo Line

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MNNR switching at Nor-Lakes in Hugo (2007).

Operated by the Minnesota Commercial Railway the 16 miles of track running between Belt Line Junction and Hugo, Minnesotais known as the Hugo Line. It consists of a route originally built by the St. Paul and Duluth Railroad for their Skally Line from Minneapolis and St. Paul to Duluth.

Minnesota Commercial operated on the track under local trackage rights from Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSF) until April 24, 1998, after-which it became the exclusive operator of the line assumed all maintenance and carrier duties.[1]

The main goods shipped along this line have been plastic, lumber, and petroleum and lubricants.

A map detailing the MNNR Hugo Line has been created on Google maps.

Contents

Route

The Hugo Line uses the St. Paul and Duluth Railroad Skally Line which went north from St. Paul to Duluth. Specifically, it uses the Minneapolis branch which joins the Skally at M&D Junction in White Bear Township and several miles of track from the Skally extending from I-694 north to 140th Street in Hugo.

The train travels only two or three times a week at speeds of about 10 miles per hour.

Locations Serviced by MNNR Hugo Line

Current and former locations serviced by the MNNR on the Hugo Line are listed below. Some locations may or may not currently use rail service. If rail service was at one time used by the company, or a new company occupies the location, the company that originally received service at that location is in parenthesis. Not every business on this list currently receives service, it just means they have, or had had a dedicated spur or siding at that location. For some companies service information is only available for the year 1996.[2] (from east to west):

Items to be moved to their own pages

84 Lumber (2006?-2007) had a track installed (not visible on Google Maps as of 5/26/08) and received service until the company closed their Hugo operations in 2007 due to a slow construction market.

Interstate Lumber established itself in Hugo at the turn of the 20th century. [4]

In 1995, Interstate Lumber Company was sold to Stock Building Supply, which operated a lumber supply yard at the site until June 2002. The property then stood vacant until June 2003 when a portion of the property was leased to Schwieter’s Building Supply. Schwieter's, whose operations focused on their site on Fenway Bouldevard, used the Interstate site for the purpose of unloading freight, and then trucked it to Schwieter’s main business operation.[3][5]

JL Schwieter's Construction Schwieter's Construction installed a spur in 2005 so they could receive lumber directly at their plant instead of trucking it from the Interstate Lumber spur. They held an open house to the community on December 15, 2005.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Federal Register Vol. 63, No. 69, Friday, April 10, 1998 (PDF). URL retrieved on April 11, 2009.
  2. ↑ Minnesota Commercial Railway operating guide, Fall 1996
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Sheehy, Kathleen D. (December 9), "3-3000-15605-2", State of Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings for the Commissioner of Transportation, December 9, 2003, http://www.oah.state.mn.us/aljBase/300015605.rt.htm, retrieved January 31, 2010 
  4. ↑ "Washington County Historical Society: History of Hugo". http://projects.wchsmn.org/communities/hugo/. Retrieved January 31, 2010. 
  5. ↑ Barnes, Deb (April), "Schwieters Companies Are Expanding in Hugo....Again: New Rail Spur Will Eliminate Need For Stock Lumber Site", Your Neighborhood News and Report: A14, April 2005, http://www.jlschwieters.com/articles/business_spotlight.pdf, retrieved January 31, 2010 
  6. ↑ "JL Schwieters Hosts Open House Press Release". http://www.jlschwieters.com/articles/hosts_open_house.pdf. Retrieved January 31, 2010. 
Retrieved from "http://rrwiki.chadleighkluck.net/wiki/Minnesota_Commercial_Hugo_Line"
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