The Minnesota Transfer Railway Company, was incorporated in 1883 under the impetus of James J. Hill, who felt a need for a centralized terminal and transfer network to serve the nine major railway lines entering Minneapolis-Saint Paul.
The company was authorized to operate railway lines in Ramsey, Hennepin, and Anoka counties, and to provide terminal and transfer service to its nine owner lines: the Great Northern Railway Company; Northern Pacific Railway Company; Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Company; Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Omaha Railway Company; Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway Company; Chicago Great Western Railroad Company; Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company; Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Sault Ste. Marie Railway Company; and Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Company. In 1898 it purchased the New Brighton stockyards and thereby acquired the Minnesota Belt Line Railway and Transfer Company.
The Minnesota Transfer operated extensive railroad yards in the Midway District of St. Paul, and served a variety of industries there. It was used as a depository for almost all LCL (less than car load) freight that was sent to the Twin Cities. Some twenty million cars passed through its yards between 1910 and 1916. In 1955 the company operated 103 miles of yard tracks and sidings, as well as terminal facilities, in St. Paul, Minneapolis, New Brighton, and Fridley.
A series of railroad mergers beginning in the late 1960s resulted in a major reduction in the interchange of cars among the owning railroads, and Minnesota Transfer's work force was reduced accordingly. By 1982 the company's main activity was shunting cars to and from some 150 industries located on its industrial leads. The Minnesota Transfer Railway Company apparently ceased business around 1987.
From the guide to the Company Records., 1882-1986., (Minnesota Historical Society)
