Soo Line Railroad
standard gauge |
The Soo Line Railroad (
System description
The company's main line begins at
Major branches include a connection from the border at Noyes, Minnesota, to Glenwood and, until it was sold to the Indiana Rail Road in 1983, a line from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky.
Through trackage rights over the BNSF Railway, the Soo Line also serves Duluth from the Twin Cities.[2]
At the end of 1970, the Soo Line operated 4,693 miles (7,553 km) of road on 6,104 miles (9,823 km) of track; that year it reported 8,249 million ton-miles of revenue freight and no passengers.
History
The present Soo Line Railroad was incorporated in Minnesota on October 19, 1949, as the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railroad, as part of the plan for reorganizing the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway (DSA) and subsidiary Mineral Range Railroad. When CP consolidated several subsidiaries on January 1, 1961, it used this company to merge the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad and the Wisconsin Central Railway into, and renamed it to the present name, the Soo Line Railroad. The Soo Line gained control of the Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Railway (MNS), a Twin Cities area shortline railroad, in June 1982.[3]
Passenger service was mostly eliminated by the 1961 merger, but several trains remained for a few more years. These were a Saint Paul to Duluth daytime train known only as Trains 62 and 63 (discontinued June 1961),[4] the overnight Chicago to Duluth Laker and its Saint Paul connection (both discontinued January 15, 1965),[5] the Twin Cities to Winnipeg Winnipeger (discontinued March 25, 1967),[5] and the Saint Paul to Portal, North Dakota Soo-Dominion that during the summer, ran through to Vancouver via a connection with Canadian Pacific's The Dominion at Moose Jaw. It was discontinued in December 1963,[6] and the western Canada cars were handled on the Winnipeger for two more summers before they too were pulled. The Soo Line's last passenger train was the Copper Country Limited, a joint service with the Milwaukee Road inherited from the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic. This Chicago-Champion-Calumet service was discontinued May 8, 1968.[5] In addition, there were several mixed trains, with additional ones created to enable the discontinuance of the Saint Paul to Portal passenger train. Some mixed train services gained notoriety because passengers were conveyed in one direction only.
In 1984, CP incorporated the Soo Line Corporation in Minnesota as a
Named passenger trains
The railroad ran several long distance named trains.
- Laker, Minneapolis, Minnesota – Duluth, Minnesota – Ashland, Wisconsin
- Soo-Dominion, Chicago, Illinois – Vancouver, British Columbia
- Winnipeger, Saint Paul, Minnesota – Winnipeg, Manitoba
Presidents
The Presidents of the Soo Line Railroad were:[9]
- Leonard H. Murray, 1961–1978, previously President of the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway[10]
- Thomas M. Beckley, 1978–1983
- Dennis Miles Cavanaugh, 1983–1986, 1987–1989
- Robert C. Gilmore, 1986–1987
- Edwin V. Dodge, 1989–1996
Remaining locomotives
Preserved
Some of the railroad's diesel locomotives have been preserved:
- 500, an EMD FP7A, on display in Ladysmith, Wisconsin.
- 700, an EMD GP30, at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, Minnesota. Restored for use on their North Shore Scenic Railroad.
- 703, an EMD GP30, and 991, a passenger car, at the Colfax Railroad Museum in Colfax, Wisconsin.
- 715, an EMD GP30, at the National Railroad Museum in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, although it wears a Wisconsin Central Ltd. paint scheme.
- 2500, an EMD FP7A, at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth. Also restored for use on their North Shore Scenic Railroad.
In addition, a number of the railroad's 145 steel cabooses have been preserved.
Rail trails
- The Soo Line Trail in Minnesota was created from former pieces of the railroad which has extended down into the Lake Wobegon Trail. The trails are enjoyed by walkers, runners, and bikers in the area, and are prized for how flat they are.
- The Copper Country Limited railroad lines in Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula, along with former lines owned by the Copper Range Railroad, have been turned into ATV trails.[11] Some, like the 17-mile-long Jack Stevens Hancock-Calumet Trail, are multi-purpose and are enjoyably used by hikers and bikers year-round.[12]
• The [1] Wolf River State Trail was created on a section of the Soo Line’s Shawano Subdivision. Tracks were removed in 2001 by Wisconsin Central between Shawano and Crandon, and a segment from White Lake to Crandon later became the Wolf River State Trail. It is open to ATV’s, Snowmobiles, Hikers and Horseback Riders.
See also
References
- ^ a b Annual Report of Soo Line Railroad Company to the Surface Transportation Board for the Year Ended December 31, 2007, p. 18
- ^ Canadian Pacific Railway, In Motion: 2007 Annual Information Form, February 19, 2008, pp. 5, 7-9
- ^ Moody's Transportation Manual, 1992, pp. 221, 223
- ^ Abbey 1984, p. 97
- ^ a b c Dorin 1979, p. 97
- ^ Abbey 1984, p. 99
- Modern Railroads, February 15, 1988, p. 37
- ^ Steve Glischinski, Regional Railroads of the Midwest, Voyageur Press, 2007, p. 137
- ^ Gjevre 1990, pp. 203–207
- ^ Her, Lucy Y. (December 4, 2001). "Obituary: Leonard H. Murray, 88, Soo Line chairman and CEO". Minneapolis Star Tribune. Archived from the original on September 11, 2012. Retrieved September 18, 2013.
- ^ Burr, Jenni. "Railways of the Keweenaw". National Park Service. Keweenaw National Historical Park. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
- ^ "Jack Stevens Hancock-Calumet Trail". Michigan Trails. Michigan Trails Magazine. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
Bibliography
- Abbey, Wallace W (1984). The Little Jewel. Pueblo, CO: Pinon Productions. LCCN 84014873.
- Dorin, Patric C. (1979). The Soo Line. Burbank, CA: Superior Publishing Company. LCCN 79012204.
- Gjevre, John A. (1990) [1973]. Saga of the Soo, West from Shoreham (second ed.). Morehead, MN: Gjevre Books. OCLC 23244801.