How about a railroad car for your sweetie on Valentine’s Day? Mary Divine of the PiPress writes: “The Andersen Corp. in Bayport agreed last summer to store six Minnesota Zephyr dinner-train cars for 15 days. Fifteen days turned into five months. Now, Andersen says it is owed $250,000 by Zephyr owner Dave Paradeau and has been forced to turn the cars over to the Washington County Sheriff's office for public auction. The auction is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23, at the rail spur area just north of the plant. ‘After five months, the cars have become an impediment to our business and must be removed,’ said Laurie Bauer, a spokeswoman for Andersen. ‘We've been very patient and have tried to help (Paradeau) out, but, unfortunately, it's just been too long.’ ”

<http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_22427670/bayport-minnesota-zephyr-train-cars-be-auctioned-wednesday>

Canceled:

http://www.twincities.com/ci_22432212/z ... n-canceled

"The Andersen Corp. in Bayport has reached an agreement with the owner of six Minnesota Zephyr dinner-train cars, nixing the public auction originally set for Wednesday, Jan. 23.

The agreement with Dave Paradeau resolves storage fees and allows Paradeau until March 1 to remove the railcars from the Andersen Corp. property, according to Laurie Bauer, vice president of corporate communications for Andersen.

Legal notices advertising the auction have been running in the Stillwater Gazette since December, Bauer said.

Among the cars for auction: The 1938 dome lounge car known as the Grand Dome; the 1949 dome car known as the St. Croix; and three 1949 Pullman Coach cars known as the Northern Winds, Stillwater and Lakewinds.

The amount that was due to Andersen on the date of the sale was $250,653 -- $249,000 for rent and storage and $1,653 for site preparation before storage.

If proceeds of the orginally scheduled auction were less than $250,000, Paradeau would have been liable for the remainder."

> Fifteen days turned into five months. Now, Andersen says it is owed $250,000
> $249,000 for rent and storage

$50K per month for railcar storage? Wow, I never knew the market was that lucrative. Gotta run, I'm off to build a siding!

I expect that this delay was foreseen by Andersen, and they tried to head it off by financial urging.

Quite possibly the short term storage terms were quite agreeable, or possibly Paradeau was caught in a bind when he had to park them there.

You can see them in the Google Satellite View: http://goo.gl/maps/T8JPa

James

The auction didn't happen!

Apparently Andersen Windows, in whose rail yard the cars were stored, has come to an agreement with the owner for payment of at least some of the back rent. The owner is also supposed to move the cars from the Andersen factory yard in Bayport, MN across the St. Croix River to Hudson, WI in the next 90 days. Can't wait to see what happens next in this ongoing saga.

Andersen had a railroad department up until the 1980's and operated its own switching locomotive. The factory receives almost all of its raw materials by rail and, up until the 1980's, shipped almost all of its windows by rail. There is still an extensive rail yard at the factory. When the company converted over to shipping by truck it donated its 1949 SW1 No.3110 to the Minnesota Transportation Museum in St. Paul. The locomotive is operable and is undergoing extensive sheet metal restoration at this time.

Here is a news item from the Hudson (Wisc) Star-Observer about the train:

http://www.hudsonstarobserver.com/event ... /id/49585/