As of 2006, the Northern Plains Railroad employed 43 people and handled approximately 17,000 carloads per year.

The Northern Plains Railroad was formed in January 1997 after the Soo Line Railroad, under control as a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway, decided to lease 388 miles (624 km) of branch line trackage in Minnesota and North Dakota.

[3] The BNSF Railway agreed to sell its track to the Mohall Central Railroad.

[5] Part of the roadbed had become submerged in the steadily increasing water level of Devils Lake.

The Northern Plains Railroad operates around 25 locomotives, mostly largely rebuilt EMD GP35s of various heritages.

Many of the locomotives operating on the Northern Plains Railroad continue to wear the colors of their former owners.

The facility contracts with other railroads, shippers, industries, processors, owners, and lessors to make either small-scale or large-scale repairs to freight cars or provide new paint to locomotives.