The Minnesota Transfer Railway will be very loosely based on the operations and locations of the prototype Minnesota Transfer Railway in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Transfer trains from a variety of Twin Cities area railroads will enter the railroad from staging and proceed to the Minnesota Transfer yard. At the yard they will pick up cars left for them by other railroads and drop off cars for those railroads. The trains will then proceed to various industrial switching locations where they will pick up and spot cars. Once the trains have completed their industry switching they will return to the transfer yard, drop off cars destined for other railroads, pick up any cars destined for their home road, and return to the staging yard where they began.

The industries served by the Minnesota Transfer will include grain elevators and flour mills, a produce yard and produce terminal, numerous manufacturing and warehouse facilities, a freight house and other urban destinations.

I'm also hoping to include the approach to the Minneapolis depot. This will allow switching of head end cars from passenger trains. The depot itself will not be modeled. A freight house, produce terminal, small coach yard, engine and car cleaning facilities and such will be modeled and add to the operation.

The railroads using the Minnesota Transfer yard will include the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Burlington Route, Chicago Northwestern, Milwaukee Road, Soo Line and other twin cities area railroads. The railroad will be set in the ‘60s with first and second generation diesels.

I expect the railroad to keep about three operators busy for a session. That’s about all that will fit in the railroads 10 X 10 space. The first benchwork has been installed. When the rest of this will happen, I am not sure.

The railroad will be n-scale, DCC, and use car cards and waybills for car forwarding (unless I change my mind!).