Here’s more information regarding those Minneapolis and St. Louis (M.&St.L.;) Railroad locomotives with the zebra or tiger stripes featured in the Tribune’s June 29, 2003, issue.

When I wrote this article there were a few details which were still missing. One was the then-popular nickname for the single units consisting of a combination of engine, baggage, railway postal office and passenger compartments which ran on the M.&St.L.; routes for a few years after World War II.

The only name I could think of for those trolley-like short trains was stump dodger, a nickname which doesn’t fit in at all for this part of the nation. Now, thanks to Mark Jones, I have the answer to this and several other questions regarding those GE (Gas Electric) locomotives.

First, those nicknames are &uot;puddle jumper&uot; and &uot;doodlebug.&uot; The railroad men called them &uot;motors.&uot;

I was aware of the fact that the GE initials for those locomotives or motors wasn’t based on General Electric. However, I wasn’t too sure as to their original fuel specifications. With the information obtained from Mark, I now have the proper answer.

The GE units became a part of the M.&St.L.; system in 1930 and replaced coal-burning locomotives on the passenger train routes. The original fuel was either gasoline or distillate. From 1949 to 1951 all the GE motors were re-engineered to use diesel fuel.

Those colorful stripes on the front of these puddle jumpers were intended to serve a safety purpose.

As I mentioned in the June 29 article in the Lifestyles Section, the GE-25 doddlebug was named the Albert Lea. This unit was 75 feet long. The postal portion was 30 feet long, the baggage compartment was 29 feet long, and the engineer’s portion was 16 feet long.

Unlike several other GE units, the Albert Lea was never converted to having a passenger compartment. Thus, it was never used for a single all-in-one passenger train, like a trolley or streetcar, on the M.&St.L.; tracks. It always pulled one or two passenger coaches.

The maintenance facilities for GE-25 were at Albia and Oskaloosa, Iowa, and refueling points were at Albert Lea and Oskaloosa, This particular unit usually made a daily run, except Sundays, between Albert Lea and Albia. Cities on this particular part of the M.&St.L.; system in Iowa were Manly, Mason City, Hampton, Eldora, Marshalltown, Grinnell, Oskaloosa and Albia.

Sometimes the unit with the Albert Lea name on each side was used on other parts of the M.&St.L.; system. On one of those runs, GE-25 was involved in an accident with another train. On July 17, 1953, both locomotives were going five miles an hour when they collided. The information I have from Mark says, &uot;Injuries of an undisclosed nature were sustained by 20 passengers, two Railway Mail Service employees, one Railway Express messenger, and three train service employees.&uot;

Passenger train service between Albert Lea and Albia ended in May 1958, and service between Minneapolis and Des Moines (through Albert Lea) ceased in March 1959.

The Albert Lea was converted into use as weed sprayer in 1957. According to Mark’s material, GE-25 was damaged by fire on July 1, 1963, near Hartland. It was sold for scrap on Dec. 8, 1964, to the Joliet Railway Equipment Co.

This fire was featured in a photo on the front page of the July 2, 1963, issue of the Tribune, GE-25 was pulling a tank car filled with the spraying material which exploded. No one was injured in what was a mighty smoky and likely very toxic fire.

The nickname of stump dodger was used for logging and passenger trains on several small railroad branch lines which ran up into the mountains out West.

A special thank you goes to Mark Jones for furnishing more information about the GE units, especially the one named Albert Lea, on the old M.&St.L.; Railroad.

(Tribune feature writer Ed Shannon’s column appears Fridays in the Tribune.)