Hinckley Subdivision

Rail traffic has fluctuated on the line. Around 2012 and 2013, about 14 trains per day used the route. Data from 2019 indicates the line is down to six trains per day. As of January 2023, this line sees around 2 to 5 daily trains. The Hinckley sub mostly sees manifest, grain, coke & taconite trains. It occasionally sees potash and coal trains. The Hinckley Local runs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays. It serves industries in Cedar, Cambridge, and Hinckley. There are nine sidings on the Hinckley Subdivision, located in Andover, Cambridge, Grasston, Brook Park, Hinckley, Askov, Bruno, Nickerson, and Foxboro. The longest sidings are in Andover and Grasston, each with a length of 9,000 feet (1.7 miles) As of 2009, the Hinckley Subdivision used a combination of track warrant control (TWC) and automatic block signaling (ABS) for managing train movement authorization, which prevents trains from being visible on applications such as ATCS Monitor, although communications can be overheard with radio scanners. Distances along the line are measured north to south, with Boylston at milepost 11.8 and Coon Creek at milepost 136.9. == Passenger service ==

There is currently no passenger service on this line. Passenger trains used this route until 1985 when Amtrak's North Star stopped operating. The Northern Lights Express (NLX) between Minneapolis and Duluth is in planning stages, with $195 million appropriated by the Minnesota Legislature in 2023, expected to be the local match for an 20%/80% split between state and federal funding for the service. While the previous train was limited to between , the Northern Lights Express would run at up to . The North Star stopped in Cambridge and Sandstone, and the NLX is expected to stop in Cambridge and Hinckley. The Union Pacific Big Boy #4014 also hosted a steam excursion in 2019 that ran on the Hinckley Subdivision up to the Union Depot in Duluth, Minnesota. ==External links==