| This is quite a historical novelty as being one of the first GE gasoline/electric locos built for the Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester & Dubuque Electric Traction Company. GE built this loco in June of 1913 to fit the non-steam engine requirements of the traction company.The company's nickname was "Dan Patch Line", after the owner's prized horse of the same name. After the Dan Patch Line went into bankruptcy, its sisters went to a California traction company while 100 was sold first to the Central Warehouse Company of Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1917, who converted it to a simple electric locomotive. It was then sold to the Minneapolis, Anoka and Cuyuna Range Railroad (MA&CR) in 1922 for $12,000. The MA&CR owned the locomotive until that railroad was bought by the Great Northern Railway in 1966. In the meantime, the MA&CR had removed its trolley wire and converted 100 to a diesel-electric system, using a Waukesha diesel engine. In 1967, the Great Northern donated Dan Patch #100 to the Minnesota Transportation Museum. |