Railroading, winters, and relocation to st paul area from CA (St. Paul: real estate, rental)

[BigP66]

I'm going to be relocating to the MSP area in the next month or so from Southern california. I know this is probably an opposite trend from what most people are doing, but I have a good career getting started and am looking for some insight on the way things are up there. I currently have a 1 bedroom apt for 1350/month, and am looking for housing that is similar or cheaper. Also, I have noticed there are alot of duplexes that offer good rental prices and i was wondering if anyone has an insight on how those are and what areas would be good to check out. I've been the to MSP area once and checked out most of St paul but i didn't look much into the real estate/renting market, nor was I concerned with the local areas because I wasn't considering moving there at the time.

Now one of the biggest issues with moving to the midwest is definitely the winters, and I wanted to get some insight on things to get prepped for next year as it would be my first major winter in a place other than CA. CA doesn't experience much of a winter besides some rain, colder weather (40's would be the minimum in CA), and barely enough to wear a jacket/long pants. My other question is with transportation. I currently have a 2wd newer chevy truck and was hoping that I could get some insight on whether or not that would make it through a winter or if I would need to get a 4wd. I know for sure I would need some tires more suitable for the weather (snow tires or some allterrains). Would there be a more suitable vehicle for such weather?

So, my last question, I recently got a job with one of the railroads that operate up in the MSP area, does anyone have any idea of the traffic mix in the MSP area and where the major routes are. The job is with CP and i know most major RR's have hubs up there (UP, BNSF, CP, etc.) I have experience working with the RR so I'm familiar with how railroads operate but with new territory comes new styles of the job. Anyway, if anyone works for the railroad or is familiar with the traffic, can you give me a little insight. Is there mostly yard/road work up there? Anyone familiar with the SOO lines as they were purchased by CP. Thanks.

[wamer27]

I don't work for or know any details of rail work, but I enjoy trains and the two big yards in town are one is directly southeast of downtown St. Paul, the other massive one is between northeast mpls and Columbia Heights along University Ave. All trains seem to run through both places.

Depending on what you enjoy doing for fun, northeast mpls is a fun area to live. It's full of dive bars and unique restaurants. And if you worked in the rail yard near by, it's perfect for location. I used to live in that area with 4 tracks 75 ft from my backdoor, I'd put a chair up and drink beers watching trains go by looking for unique ones like military or planes, windmill trains. One big thing coming through and it's on the news a lot, is oil from North Dakota. Railroads are using lines that usually were seldomly used to get the oil trains through faster and not have to deal with the yard in NE Mpls, just like a line in Little Canada near my work that went from one train a day to 10/15. UP stays along the Mississippi River through St Paul and stays in south metro. SOO I'm not familiar with. If you end up working for Minnesota Commercial (or something like that) you'll have to let me know if you get the line running through Roseville along County Rd C as it runs behind my shop delivering to all the businesses around.

Winter tires are recommended with a truck, but 4X4 is prefered. I don't know anyone with a 2wd truck and I know many people with trucks. For our weather, it would be like living up in the high Sierras for something close to temp similarities.

[StanleyVegas]

I moved here from southern CA and I have a small 2WD truck. It's not ideal and I don't rely on it as a daily driver, it's mostly for hauling stuff. You can make it work though. I got a separate set of cheap steel rims and mounted winter tires on those. You don't want to use them above 40° - the softer rubber will wear quickly. I just swap out rims every November and March, give or take a few weeks.

I also carry sand tubes in the bed by the wheel wells to add weight to the back. That's the biggest problem with a 2WD truck - not enough weight over the drive wheels. It's pretty flat here but even a slight incline will make you spin, and you don't chain up here like you would in the Sierras.