Editing Austin, Minnesota (section)

====Rail====
[[File:Milwdepot-austinmn.jpg|thumb|Passenger trains once traveled the "Smoky Valley" line between Austin and [[La Crosse, Wisconsin|La Crosse]], and on to [[Madison, Wisconsin]].]]
Austin was once a railroad town. It was a division point and the site of car shops for the [[Milwaukee Road]], five lines of which met in Austin.<ref>Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn, [https://archive.org/details/historyofmowerco00curt <!-- quote=History of mower county, minnesota. --> ''The History of Mower County, Minnesota'']. Chicago:  H. C. Cooper & Co., 1911. pp. 99-102, 221, 236, 242.</ref> The community was also served by the [[Chicago Great Western]]'s north–south mainline for trains between the [[Twin Cities]] and Omaha. All lines served passengers, and the Milwaukee Road Depot was a busy station ferrying travelers to and from Austin. Passenger rail service on the Milwaukee Road through Austin between Calmar, Iowa and St. Paul ended in 1953, and Pullman sleeper service on the Milwaukee between Austin and Chicago ended in 1960. An overnight train on the Chicago Great Western between the [[Twin Cities]] and Omaha called at Austin, with the southbound coming through late in the evening and the northbound train stopping early in the morning.<ref>''Official Guide'', April 1965, p. 688.</ref> This train last ran on September 30, 1965, ending all passenger train service to Austin.<ref>{{cite book | title=The Chicago Great Western Railway| last=Fiore | first=David J.| publisher=[[Arcadia Publishing]] | year=2006| isbn= 0-7385-4048-X | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9oK-GKk71rUC | page=68}}</ref> Freight service continues on the former Milwaukee Road mainline on that railroad's successor, the [[Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad]], a subsidiary of [[Canadian Pacific Railway|Canadian Pacific]], but the Chicago Great Western was abandoned and torn up after the [[Chicago and North Western Railway]] acquired it in 1968.