James Scoggin was a transportation expert

When James Scoggin of Edina was a boy in Missouri, he was entranced watching big steam locomotives roar down the tracks behind his grandfather's general store in LaBelle.

Later, he played a role in national policy on rail transportation as an executive for the former Peavey Milling Co.

Scoggin, whose role in national transportation policy came about after the United States rushed to send grain to the Soviet Union in the 1970s, died of cancer Saturday in Minneapolis.

He was 82.

His family moved to Minneapolis from Missouri when he was a boy, and he graduated from the old West High School in 1944. He served in the Navy on a munitions ship in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

He graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1950, and went to work for the Milwaukee Road, with stints in Chicago and Minneapolis.

"He spent the rest of his life becoming an expert on transportation and transportation policy," said his son Paul Scoggin of Edina.

In 1961, he joined the Peavey Milling Co., rising to vice president in 1964. A big part of his job was to figure out how to get millions of tons of grain to the mills, and to get the flour to the bakers.

When the Soviet Union's grain crop failed in the early 1970s, the United States agreed to allow U.S. agribusinesses to ship the needed food to the Cold War enemy.

It resulted in snarled rail and barge traffic in the United States, and the problem affected movement of other commodities.

So he and 13 others were appointed to a federal commission to solve the problem.

Scoggin represented shippers' interests. That meant he gave regular testimony before Congress. He became the face of Peavey in public forums, according to a 1977 company publication.

His son said the solution was complicated, and the work was exhausting.

"It made him a big believer in deregulation" of the transportation industry, said his son.

John Knip of Brooklyn Park, former treasurer and director of taxes for Peavey, said Scoggin "was a major force in negotiating prices and policies with the railroads and the old Interstate Commerce Commission."

"He was sweetheart of a guy," added Knip. "He never got riled, never got ruffled, and he was an extremely logical and caring man."

The Peavey Co. was part of a corporate merger that became ConAgra Foods, based in Omaha.

He helped lead several professional groups, such as the National Grain and Feed Association, serving as chairman of its transportation committee.

In the Twin Cities, he was active in the Boy Scouts of America and in recent years he led a Kiwanis group.

In retirement, he pursued his interest in English history.

In addition to his son, Paul, he is survived by his wife of 59 years, Ann of Edina; his other son, Jay of Minneapolis; daughters, Sally of St. Paul, and Mary of Arcadia, Calif.; sisters, Jane Parry of Edina, and Georgeann Butterfield of Stamford, Conn., and nine grandchildren.