Home
Profile
Search For Bridge
Logout
Manage RR Stories
Update RR Story
Update Railroad Story
Story Name
Railroad
Current Railroad
Valuation Section(s)
Subdivision(s)
BNSF Glasston Subdivision
State
South/West Terminal
North/East Terminal
Description
Text
HTML5
<p>In 1881, the The Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway Company (StPM&M) constructed 115 miles of new railroad, extending from Moorhead,Minnesota; through Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota, to a point four miles south of Grafton, North Dakota. This line would connect the StpM&M lines at Fargo to the StPM&M mainline at Grand Forks. In 1882, the line would be extended to the Canadian Border near Neche, North Dakota/Gretna, Manitoba; where it would connect with the Canadian Pacific Railway. This additional extension provided the StPM&M with a second International connection, with the original connection completed in 1879 approximately 16 miles east at Noyes, Minnesota/Emerson, North Dakota. </p>The StPM&M was controlled by James J. Hill, a railroad tycoon who wished to build a railroad network extending from Minnesota to the Pacific Coast. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, the StPM&M acquired and constructed numerous new railroad lines throughout North Dakota, including numerous parallel lines to connect wheat crops in northern North Dakota to the mills at Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1907, the StPM&M would be sold to another Hill company, the Great Northern Railway (GN). The GN utilized this route as a secondary mainline, and the primary connection between mainlines at Fargo and Grand Forks. In 1970, GN merged with rival Northern Pacific Railway and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad to form Burlington Northern Railroad (BN). The International connection would be removed in 1977, and the Glasston to Neche segment abandoned in 1994. In 1996, the BN merged with Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway in 1996, to form BNSF Railway. BNSF leased the Grafton to Glasston segment to Dakota Northern Railroad (DN) in 2006. The DN abandoned the line from Glasston to St. Thomas in 2010. BNSF continues to operate the Fargo to Grand Forks segment as the Hillsboro Subdivision, and the Grand Forks to Grafton segment as the Glasston Subdivision. <p></p>
Update Story