Hello, Mr. Keillor,

In the monologue last week from Duluth, you made reference to the famed “Prairie Queen” passenger train to Duluth.

As an amateur railroad historian, I would like to know: did such a train exist, or is it a product of your imagination?

Kim William Jones
Anoka, MN

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In the monologue, I said that the Prairie Queen ran in the Twenties and Thirties from San Francisco to Duluth to meet steamships heading for Europe, that it hit speeds of 150 mph in North Dakota and the track was so smooth that passengers were able to play billiards, and that, nearing Duluth, the train slowed so that passengers could troll for walleye in the St. Louis River. I said that the engine now lies at the bottom of Lake Superior.

When I first told the story of the Prairie Queen, back in the late 70s, it ran from Bismarck to Fargo and the engine was lying in the Red River. I got angry letters then from old railroadmen who insisted I had made the whole thing up.

If I tell the story again, I’m going to run that train through Anoka, Minnesota, and give you a first-class compartment with a sofa and a grand piano.

GK