Canadian Pacific #2816 and Milwaukee Road #261
Doubleheader Steam Excursion

On Saturday September 15, 2007 the Canadian Pacific #2816 and Milwaukee Road #261 coupled up to pull a doubleheader steam excursion from Minneapolis, MN to La Crosse, WI and return.  This trip would recreate the 2004 Grand Excursion doubleheader in almost every way except one, the weather. 

The weather in 2004 was not nice. The day was overcast and about half way through the return trip it started to rain and rain hard.  In 2007 that was not the case.  The weather was AWESOME !!   The skies were deep blue with temps in the morning in 40's and low humidity.  Everything came together for what might be the steam event of 2007. 

Below are some photos from the trip which almost didn't happen due to some severe flooding in the Minnesota City, MN area.  Over 17 inches of rain fell there about a month ago.  CP crews worked day and night and put in a "Shoo-fly" bridge so trains could run. 

Click on the thumbnail photos to see larger images. The larger image is not the actual size of the photo it is only about 20% of the actual size. Original Photo size is 3072x2048 pixels.

Amtrak #8 at Hastings, MN
CP #2816 steams across the lift bridge at Hastings, MN
CP 2816 and Milw 261 steam past the depot at Hastings, MN

2816 and 261 with the Cedar Rapids on the rear south of Red Wing, MN

Doubleheader steams south at MP 324 near Weaver, MN

The "Chase Que" on Hwy 61

Flood Damage on the IC&E at Minnesota City, MN 

Where the ICE used to cross the river
Missing a section of Highway bridge
Shoo-Fly bridge on CP at Minnesota City

Southbound at Dresbach, north of La Crescent, MN 

Flooding east of CP bridge at Minnesota City, MN

Southbound CP freight at Minnesota City, MN

Northbound Intermodal Train

IC&E southbound on the shoo-fly bridge

The "Steamers" on the temporary bridge

All of the above shots were taken as the train was northbound at Maple Grove.  I like to call it "Reflections on a Doubleheader" 

Actual Size of photo file is 3072x2048 pixels or about 1 to 1.5 MB per photo. Of course photos on the CD will not have the "Steam Trains and Tractors" watermark printed across them.

All Photos above were taken by Keith Schmidt Copyright 2007

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