Minnesota Dakota and Western Railway is a

shortline railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

operating 4 miles of track between International Falls and Ranier,

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

as well as between International Falls and Fort Frances,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

via the Fort Frances – International Falls International Bridge, which is jointly owned by MDW and Abitibi Consolidated. The railroad served the paper mills in both International Falls and Fort Frances until the Fort Frances mill closed in 2014. The railroad interchanges with

Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN ...

at Ranier. In 2005 the railroad handled 11,841 carloads of wood pulp, pulpwood, chemicals, raw materials and finished paper. The railroad has a fleet of more than 3100 railcars. Originally a subsidiary of

Boise Cascade Boise Cascade Company (), which uses the trade name Boise Cascade, is a North American manufacturer of wood products and wholesale distributor of building materials, headquartered in Boise, Idaho. with sales over $7.9 billion in 2021, it is trad ...

designed to serve its paper mills, the MDW was created in 1910; the company had been incorporated in 1902 as the International Bridge and Terminal Company . The Canadian company, however, retains that name. In August 2006, Boise Cascade announced that MDW would be sold to

Watco Watco Companies, L.L.C. (Watco) is a transportation company based in Pittsburg, Kansas, formed in 1983 by Charles R. Webb. Watco was composed of four divisions: transportation, mechanical, terminal and port services, and compliance. Watco is t ...

, a company specializing in shortlines; however, the sale was never closed. In February 2008, Boise Cascade spun off its paper, packaging, newsprint and transportation operations, including MDW, to a new company, Boise Inc.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20070928171557/http://www.minnesotarailroads.com/MNRRs2005A.pdf {{Minnesota railroads Minnesota railroads Ontario railways Railway companies established in 1910 American companies established in 1910