Author: twisenor

H.K. Porter Company in Pittsburgh, PA, built this diminutive 18″ gauge 0-4-OCA (Compressed Air) engine in 1910 for the Homestake Mining Company in Lead, SD. It has 6″ x 10″ cylinders. Compressed air was a suitable form of power for mining because it produced no noxious fumes or damp-causing steam. In 1901 the mine started using compressed air locomotives, replacing mules and horses by the 1920s.

This caboose was built in 1955 for the Western Pacific Railroad and then donated by the Union Pacific and repainted to fit Western Pacific color scheme. The Western Pacific Railroad was formed in attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service to California.

This car was built by the Railway Express Agency (REA) in 1918 and was used for small package and parcel transportation on the NPRR. Cars like this were especially helpful during World War I when the government was concerned with getting parcels, money and goods transported quickly and safely.

This car was originally built as a heavyweight passenger car in 1914 by Barney & Smith. It was rebuilt in 1930 as a “Cafe Car” by Great Northern giving it a dining room and kitchen and seating about 50 passengers. All Cafe Cars were a step above normal standard coach. Currently our highest priority renovation project, the 974 was painted in 2021 and is being readied for service on our tour train.

Tank cars are used primarily to transport oil from the field to refineries or out for export. This specific tank car is special as it holds 20,758 gallons of water necessary to feed the Inland Northwest Rail Museum fire system.

Speeders, also called by many other names such as railway motor car, putt-putt, or track maintenance car, are motorized vehicles used for maintenance on railroads. They help work crews move quickly from site to site. Though slower than a train or car, they are called speeders because they move faster than a human-powered vehicle such as a hand-car. They have been around since 1896, but a man named Fred Mahlman Sr. built on this by giving his hand-car a motor to save time he was spending moving it by hand.

Originally built as a heavyweight passenger car, the Great Northern Baggage Car was rebuilt in 1948 at the St. Cloud, Minn., shops and is now used for storage at the Reardan museum site.

This is a 40-foot steel boxcar that was built by the Great Northern in 1948 and was the mainstay of US railroads until the 1960s. These cars were typically used to transport bulk commodities, such as coal or even vehicles.