Milwaukee Road 261

Built in 1944, the Milwaukee Road 261 operated in service with the railroad for just a dozen years before being retired. Donated to the museum in Green Bay, the locomotive was selected for excursion service in the 1990s and returned to operating condition in 1993. Since then, its travelled over 25,000 miles under steam and gone through quite a lengthy journey, from adventuring to the east coast for the inauguration of Steamtown to a triple-header event with a pair of Chinese-imported steam engines, but it's biggest test was the financial and legal disputes in the late 2000s that resulted in it finally leaving the museum collection officially and becoming independent with the Friends of the 261 group. Alongside the recently acquired and even more recently repainted MILW 32A, an EMD E9A, as well as a plethora of unique coaches, from the legendary Milwaukee Road Skytop Cedar Rapids to the Super Dome to the California Zephyr dome Silver Palace, the Milwaukee Road 261 operates excursions out of Minneapolis and along the Twin Cities & Western Railroad.

Since 2017, I've made it to at least one excursion each year, always in the fall. Due to the pandemic, there were no 2020 excursions, but in 2021, the 261 and the new 32A returned for a long weekend of excursions. With coal soot raining across us and the howl of the S2M atop the 32A in our ears, a plethora of chasers flocked to the route from Chanhassen to Glencoe, making quite the trip to remember.