The first week in November 2021 marked two milestones in the history of Northern Plains Railroad. On November 1st, Farmers Elevator of Honeyford became the first U.S. shipper on the Canadian Pacific Railway to load and ship an 8,500-foot grain train. Of course, the 8,500-foot train is the premium grain transportation product now offered by CP to its qualifying shippers throughout western Canada and the U.S. Midwest. This longer train design creates operational efficiencies that can result in movement of up to 40% more volume vs. the historical train lengths, and was selected as the preferred product by the same percentage of CP’s origins during 2021.

NPR’s Chairman Gregg Haug, along with Honeyford’s Kevin Peach, led the celebrations at the elevator that marked this special occasion.

“NPR was incredibly pleased to be part of this achievement in modern grain marketing,” remarked Mr. Haug. “Kevin and his Honeyford elevator staff have been long-time valued customers. We would hope this first 8,500-foot train will be followed by many others of the same length, using some of the 5,000 new grain cars now in active service on CP. It’s a great example of the strengths shared by short line and class 1 carriers, and we were proud to provide the resources to efficiently originate and move the train prior to handing it off to CP at Thief River Falls for the journey to the end customer.”

Not only did NPR operate a 142-car 8,500-foot grain train for the first time, but by the end of the week, “We had spotted a record 997 cars at elevators across the system,” said Jesse Chalich NPR President. “Thanks are due to Todd Gullickson and his train and engine service staff, who not only had an incredibly busy week running trains, but continued to do so safely without incident.”