A now rare high-nose Geep still serves a local industry in New Ulm, located northwest of the old CNW depot in town.
Scanned from a print taken by my friend Wes Rupe during a railfan trip up north.
A profile of the 124 from the long hood end.
Long hood view of New Ulm's ex-Soo Line duo.
The nose of GP9 124 is adorned with the names of two railroads: I&M Rail Link, and Soo Line. What a sight to see these days, given how both roads are a long time gone.
This photo begs the question, where are we? Down by the mills in South Minneapolis, or at a mill in New Ulm? It is the latter, of course, but this wonderful sight calls to mind the former!
No, this isn't any dream. Two veteran Soo Line geeps, complete with "torpedo tubes" (tubes for steam boilers they were once equipped with), can be found at a mill in New Ulm in 2024!
IMRL 124 (GP9) and IMRL 123 (GP9) in New Ulm, MN at the Hanska Co-op.
Crew is blowing out the carbon on 3 high-nose Geeps, heading into the yard. Fav shot of mine. Date is really approximate-didn't write down when I took this.
Sister unit 123 also is available.
After wanting to shoot these units for years, I got my chance, and it decent light too! It sure was nice to see a former Soo Passenger GP9 still in active service more then 50 years after it was built.
Two consecutively numbered IMRL GP9's sit at the elevator awaiting their next call. Pretty neat to find them still lettered IMRL as well.
The co-op rail fleet, 2 GP-9's and a Trackmobile 5500
shoving loaded cars up the hill
Coming down with emptyr while fulls sit and wait.
Waiting for the emptys to get shoved in to load before running fulls up the hill
124 shoves a string of 10 loaded cars up the hill
Two former IMRL/SOO GP9s now work at an elevator in New Ulm, MN.
The Soo Line heritage of these GP9's is obvious!
Near an elevator in New Ulm.