MSTL GP-9 Two-Pack

These Lionel O-scale models of Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway (MSTL) EMD GP-9 diesel locomotives 8866 and 8867 were on sale at the Greenberg hobby show (Dulles Expo Center, Chantilly, Virginia).  No. 8866 is powered, and No. 8867 is an unpowered dummy.  I checked for pictures of the MSTL GP-9, and they were indeed painted red with white stripes and blue cab roofs, which made them a distinctive sight on MSTL trains.  The MSTL billed itself as the Peoria Gateway, as its main line ran from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Peoria, Illinois.   Its revenue was slim, and it was often under bankruptcy protection and the threat of takeover from a larger railroad.  It managed to remain independent from 1870 to 1960, when Chairman Benjamin W. Heineman, an early "corporate raider" who focused on increasing shareholder value and profitability over service, sold the railroad to the Chicago and North Western Railway (CNW), which later abandoned most of the MSTL lines and pulled up the tracks.  The Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway therefore became an early casualty of the railroad mergers that would eventually leave North America with a mere seven Class I common carrier railroads.