Caledonia, Missippi & Western Railroad 321

[Ted Miles]

This little 57-mile short line was in Minnesota from 1879 to 1901 when the Milwaukee Road converted it to standard gauge.

It is remembered by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum at Duluth, Minnesota. They have #321 box car; but they do not know who it was built by in 1879. The body of the box car was found by Gary Tufford at Wabasha, Minnosota  around 1970 and he alerted the museum about the body. The body is the oldest railway car in Minnesota. 

Ted Miles who likes narrow gauge railroads

[Dave Buczkowski]

Ted,
Was it 3 foot gauge?
Dave

[Mike the Choochoo Nix]

Yes it was three foot. There were two narrow gauge common carrier lines in Minnesota. Both were in southeast Minnesota and ran from the Mississippi to the west. The river had cut a valley in that area, and to go west you had to go up the valleys that went west. Where both of them ended the land was pretty flat.
M. Nix