The was a small
Railroad that was created on
May 26 1870 . Its main purpose was to carry
Freight between the
Twin Cities and
Peoria, Illinois . It ran through
Mason City, Iowa , and that city became an important traffic center for the railroad. The Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway had spurs that ran into various parts of
Iowa and also ran a line into
South Dakota . One of the major attractions of the railroad was that it allowed freight bound for Illinois to by-pass
Chicago .
Its sister railroad, the
Iowa Central Railway began in Iowa in
1866 and merged with Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway in
1901 . By
1916 the combined system had become stable and was absorbing other, smaller railroads.
In the early 1920s the railroad was having financial problems and in 1923 went into
Receivership . Despite calls for the railroad to be sold to a larger operation,
Lucian Sprague took over in 1935. He streamlined the company and its assets by selling off scrap and increasing its efficiency. By 1942 Sprague was chairman/president and orchestrated a reorganization that year. The effort was a success and in 1943 the receivership was terminated and ownership was returned to the railroad.
The Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway also ran
Passenger Train s but could never compete with the larger carriers. The line tried several equipment combinations but never succeeded in making the passenger service profitable and by 1958 was out of the passenger service completely.
In
1960 the
Chicago And North Western Railway bought the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway. Most former M&StL trackage has since been abandoned.
