Richard (Dick) Heibel was born in 1929 in the Northfield Hospital on then Water Street and has spent all but a few years of his life in Northfield. His vivid memories of the trains and depot activity are based on his childhood and adult proximity to the track. Dick grew up on St. Olaf Avenue and spent time in his father’s harness shop on the west side of town when he was a child and in his own upholstery shop in the same building after his military service in 1949. His memories reflect a broad scope of railroad activity related to those living and conducting business in Northfield.
Squatters on Railroad Land
Dick Heibel talks about the squatters on the railroad land in Northfield, Minnesota, when he was growing up on St. Olaf Avenue.
Streamliners
Dick Heibel talks about when the Rock Island Rocket and the Milwaukee Road passenger streamliners (the predecessor to the bullet train) came to Northfield and how the internal combustion diesel engines roared instead of chugged link the coal-powered steam engines.
Save the Northfield Depot 