Hard Cover DM&E Book Available

A limited number of hard cover Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern - A Modern Granger Railroad books are now available.

A total of 200 were printed, but half went to the railroad leaving only 100 available. The books have a blue cloth hard cover with yellow script and a four-color dust jacket.

Please indicate if you would like Andy and myself to sign your book.

The price including shipping is $50. I can accept checks, money orders or PayPal. Mail check or money order to the following address or contact me by email for PayPal.

Jerry Huddleston
4854 Birch Street
Hampton, MN 55031-8749

ph. (651) 437-4208

email jhuddlestonatvisidotcom (replace "at" with @ and "dot" with .)

Soft cover DM&E books are also available for $30 including shipping.

Book Announcement: Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern: A Modern Granger Railroad

From the announcement by the authors:
Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern

A Modern Granger Railroad

Andy Cummings & Jerry Huddleston

This is the inside story of how a routine abandonment in western South Dakota led to the nations longest regional railroad. The story begins along the west bank of the Mississippi River in the mid-1850s and ends with the Powder River Basin project in 2005. It’s told by the businessmen, politicians, shippers and employees who were there. In the end, this is about railroads and provides evidence of the hubris and hard work of its backers.

136 pages, more than 100 color photos, 10 ¼” x 8 ½”, soft cover

$30 includes shipping through 10/31/05.

Mail check or money order to:

Jerry Huddleston

4854 Birch Street

Hampton, MN 55031-8749

Ph. (651) 437-4208

Email jhuddlestonatvisidotcom (replace "at" and "dot" with @ and .)

A limited number of hard covers with dust jackets will available in mid October. $60 includes shipping. Please email to reserve a copy.

From the back cover of the book:

Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern tells of a success story in the modern railroad era. Created in 1986 from former Chicago & North Western Railway lines in South Dakota and Minnesota, DM&E had struggled and prevailed to become part of the largest regional railroad system in the United States. The DM&E, extending from the Mississippi River to the Black Hills, has long been an agriculture-based or “granger” railroad.

Now, DM&E is again making history as it strives to become the newest railroad to haul coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming in order to fuel power plants of the Upper Midwest. How DM&E has reached this milepost is told in the words of those responsible for its creation, and of those who have kept the trains of the DM&E moving despite natural disasters and equipment failures. This 136-page book includes more than 100 photos in color and a current DM&E locomotive roster

Yes, we're still alive!

Just getting back to blogging here, folks. Stay tuned for an announcement in mere moments.

Welcome!

Welcome to Prairie Land Barge!

The print news media is becoming less and less relevant each day. This is especially true when it comes to the railfan news media. CTC Board, a magazine for which I was the DM&E news editor, recently decided to cease including a news section in their magazine.

It is via this medium, the weblog (or "blog"), that we will attempt to provide timely aggregation of news, commentary, first-hand reporting and other content of interest as it relates to Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad and its affiliates.

I'll tell you more about the editorial team here at Prairie Land Barge in the future. I can tell you that they're certainly no slouches when it comes to producing quality content with regard to railroads in the region served by DM&E.

Matthew Frahm

SD sells Core Lines to BNSF

Via PRNewsWire, the State of South Dakota has reached an agreement to sell the state-owned ex-Milwaukee Road "Core Lines" to BNSF.

DM&E operates on a few miles of these lines in order to reach the Redfield & Mansfield Subdivisions, and also Aberdeen.

Notably, the release includes the following:

In addition to the purchase of the Core line, BNSF has agreed to allow certain access rights to the Core line by smaller, South Dakota based railroads. While all of these access rights are important, the most notable is expanding access through the BNSF transfer point in Aberdeen. This agreement will allow agricultural product shippers in South Dakota access to additional markets.

(Emphasis added)

This bodes well for DM&E's past attempts at interchange in Aberdeen with Dakota, Missouri Valley & Western via the Britton Line and ultimately to CPR.