| These ran a dinner train in Stillwater MN on former NP tracks. The train had two F9s, two dome cars, several coach cars, and an NP baggage and hauled over 1 million passengers. Until late 2009, The Minnesota Zephyr operated on the eastern end of the ex-NP St. Paul & Stillwater Railroad branch that originally ran from a junction with the NP’s mainline to Duluth in White Bear Lake to Stillwater. This line was sold to the Minnesota Transportation Museum (MTM) in the 1980s and was the first excursion railroad operated by MTM. The locomotive used was NP 4-6-0 No. 328, which had been on static display in Stillwater for years until MTM was allowed to restore it to service in the 1980s. The MTM was forced to leave the line in the early 1990s. In 1998 NP steam engine #328 ran on the line for LumberJack days in Stillwater. |