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Re: Dakota Southern Railway

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 11:27 pm
by Alex Huff
Speak of the devil and up he jumps. Current update on Dakota Southern Railway operation. A 110 car shuttle grain elevator is currently in service east of Kimball, SD. As is standard, BNSF delivers unit trains of BNSF equipment to the shortline at Mitchell, SD. DSRC crews operate the train with BNSF power, which sometimes includes foreign line power, to the elevator and return. Shuttle trains use distributed power. DSRC normally rearranges power at the shuttle elevator loop as needed so that the receiving BNSF crew at Mitchell will depart with two units on the head end.

Heavy rail has replaced the 65# on the line from Mitchell to Chamberlain. Rail is a mix of #2 relay 115# to 132#. Trestles have had or are having a fourth stringer added beneath each rail to support heavier grain hoppers.

A second shuttle elevator is under construction at Kennebec, SD and expects to ship grain in September, 2016. Bridge work and track upgrades are in progress from the east end of the Chamberlain yard to one mile west of Presho, about 42 miles. Rail is #1 relay ranging from 115# to 132#. The longest bridge on the MILW, the Chamberlain bridge is having all wood replaced including the four inspection walkways beneath the bridge. Slightly less than a mile long, the bridge was placed in service on Dec. 7, 1953.

Active "old" DSRC power consists of recently reactivated ex-MILW SD7m 512 and repainted ex-SP SD9m 4427. Paint scheme is a variant of the red, white and black previously used. Two other units, a GP40 and a GP7 round out the fleet. Most of the "museum" fleet has been scrapped. Remaining M-of-W cars consist of one ex-ATSF 70T ballast hopper with MK gates, one ex-ATSF 30 yard side dump ballast car and one ex-MP 60' flatcar. No locomotives have been scrapped.

Chamberlain deadline consists of two ex-Sisseton Southern GE 70-tonners with cracked cylinder liners plus a GE 70T for parts which came without a prime mover. Ex-Keota & Washington Alco S3 #103 has a bad main generator. Ex-Long Island Alco C420 #213 needs a replacement traction motor which is on hand. Ex-MILW SD9m 506 needs new wheels and paint. Ex-MILW SD7m 522 also needs wheels replaced or turned. Incomplete carcasses when purchased, UP DDA40x #6925 and Soo Line GP30 #719 have been boned for parts.

Alex Huff, DSRC retired

Re: Dakota Southern Railway

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 7:13 am
by AARR
Thanks for the update, Alex. Do you still have the cardboard plant as a customer?

Re: Dakota Southern Railway

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 2:12 pm
by SW
Great update! Thanks for checking in.

Re: Dakota Southern Railway

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 4:20 pm
by AARR





Re: Dakota Southern Railway

Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 2:09 am
by OSRR
Always nice to see a shortline get some love. Hope they fix that ole C420. I read somewhere it was for sale (really wish I had the link to what I read) but, the asking price was on the high side.

Re: Dakota Southern Railway

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 10:55 pm
by trailhub
I realize this thread is several years old, but I wanted to correct some links in a post above, regarding the Mickelson Rail-Trail which runs across 100+ miles of South Dakota. The links above are old and invalid. You can find more current Mickelson Trail info at www.BikeMickelson.com

Re: Dakota Southern Railway

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 10:03 pm
by Alex Huff
On Feb. 17, 2021, the advisory state rail board voted 4-0 with two abstentions due to conflict of interest in favor of selling the line to the Ringneck & Western Railroad, L.L.C. The price is $13 million. It is to be paid $5 million at time of closing and five annual payments of $1.6 million at the anniversary of the closing date.

The railroad is a subsidiary of Watco which owns in excess of forty railroads and/or switching operations.

The ampersand in the corporate name is correct. L.L.C. stands for limited liabiiity company. The company was incorporated in Delaware on Oct. 20, 2020.

No formal closing date was discussed. There are a few loose ends which need to be sorted out between the SDDOT and the buyer. It is expected operations will begin in May. Dakota Southern still holds a lease on the Napa-Platte line where it began operations in October, 1985. The eastern 20 miles has been used solely for car storage since operations ceased in 1991.

Re: Dakota Southern Railway

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 6:50 am
by LansingRailFan
Alex Huff wrote:
Wed Feb 24, 2021 10:03 pm
On Feb. 17, 2021, the advisory state rail board voted 4-0 with two abstentions due to conflict of interest in favor of selling the line to the Ringneck & Western Railroad, L.L.C. The price is $13 million. It is to be paid $5 million at time of closing and five annual payments of $1.6 million at the anniversary of the closing date.

The railroad is a subsidiary of Watco which owns in excess of forty railroads and/or switching operations.

The ampersand in the corporate name is correct. L.L.C. stands for limited liabiiity company. The company was incorporated in Delaware on Oct. 20, 2020.

No formal closing date was discussed. There are a few loose ends which need to be sorted out between the SDDOT and the buyer. It is expected operations will begin in May. Dakota Southern still holds a lease on the Napa-Platte line where it began operations in October, 1985. The eastern 20 miles has been used solely for car storage since operations ceased in 1991.
Thanks for the update. Is business going well?

Re: Dakota Southern Railway

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 6:04 pm
by SW
Yes, I am wondering as well. Have there been many grain trains this year running from Kennebec (or points west) as had been hoped?