Summer 1998 Issue

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Editor
Rick Johnson

Associate Editor
Ken Soroos

Associate Editor/Soo News
Jason Korth

Soo News
tom Mastoras

Wiconsin Central News
Galen Fromm

Modeling Editor
Chuck Derus

Contributing Editors
Andy Roth, Guy Kieckhefer, Doug Fleming

Editorial Consultants
Jack Witmer, Gregg Condon

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Stuart J. Nelson, Wallace W. Abbey

Commercial Accounts
Joe Lallensack

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Burnell Breaker

Back Issues
John Strenski

Summer 1998 Issue Hightlights

Stevens Point

Part II: the Soo Line years

by Andrew Roth

Stevens Point has always benefited from its geographical location on the railroad. When the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Saint Marie leased the Wisconsin Central in 1909, the new management quickly realized Stevens Point's attributes. With the completion of the Owen–Spencer Cut-Off in 1910, Soo Line decided to close Abbotsford, Wis., as a division headquarters and chose Stevens Point over Owen, Marshfield, Ladysmith and Medford for the new location.

After talking with Mayor Walters, Mr. E. Sellers-a local entrepreneur-secured land on both sides of the main line from Michigan Street east to the Plover River. Sellers purchased 69 acres and proposed to sell 52 to the railroad in the amount of $4,600, which was the exact price he paid for the land. Mayor Walters brought Mr. Seller's offer, along with a petition signed by city officials and business leaders, to the meeting with President Pennington. The Soo Line Board voted the next day on July 19, 1910, to make Stevens Point a division headquarters once again.

Stevens Point's renewed status brought many changes to the Soo Line facilities. Land north and south of the main line from Michigan Street east to the Plover River was graded to accommodate five miles of yard tracks. The yard was intended to have a capacity of about 500 cars. Ten new yard tracks were built to handle the projected volume of cars. The roundhouse underwent major changes beginning in late 1910. Six of the original stalls were kept while the remaining ten were demolished and replaced with eight new wider and longer stalls (Nos. 14-22) in early 1911. It was discovered in May 1911 that the new stalls were about eight feet too short for the just-purchased H-21-class Pacifics (Nos. 2704-2713). The stalls were 80 feet long and the Pacifics were 78 feet long with their tenders. The lengthening of stalls 21 and 22 by 10 feet in 1912 solved this problem.

A new sand house was completed just west of the coaling tower in 1911. A new 75-foot-long turntable with a concrete pit was installed that year while the old 60-foot turntable was moved to Spencer, Wis. A new two-pocket McHenry coaling tower was also built in 1910, just west of the Michigan Street crossing.

A new ice house was built just south of the freighthouse and east of Church Street; it opened in February 1910. The building was 40 feet wide, 180 feet long and had 24-foot high walls with sawdust insulation. A second ice house, built to the same dimensions, was constructed next to the 1910 building and opened in 1912. A third duplicate ice house building was completed in February 1918. Finally, a fourth addition, measuring 40 feet x 90 feet, was completed in March 1920.

The depot received many improvements for its renewed role as division headquarters. For example, the entire second floor was converted to offices for dispatchers and division superintendent forces, 31 people total.

These improvements and the town's new status brought many railroad jobs back to Stevens Point. Most of the employees and their families transferring to Point came from the closed division headquarters at Abbotsford, although a few came from other locations such as Fond du Lac. Some of the employees who had been forced to transfer out of Point in 1900 when it was closed as a division point were now returning.

Stevens Point was the heart and brain on the former WC lines. The dispatchers for the Stevens Point Division were in the Stevens Point depot, and telegraphers were assigned to the NI telegraph office-the main message-relay center for the division-in the depot. Two telegraphers worked the day shift and one worked each of the second and third shifts. One of the daytime telegraphers also performed the duties of the wire chief, who was responsible for checking telephone and telegraph lines for problems, patching wire routes between two stations and coordinating repair services with linemen in the field.

Some of the last major changes in Stevens Point facilities happened around 1955 when a new ice house was built on the south side of the east yard tracks to replace the 1910-1920-built buildings. Ice car W1011 was reassigned to the new ice house, the old freight- and ice house land was sold and a concrete-block company was built on this land.

The engine facilities were also changed to accommodate the retirement of steam in 1955, 13 years after the first diesel nosed its way into town in August 1942. The coaling tower was removed first and a new locomotive sanding facility was completed in 1957. Diesel fueling facilities were installed and expanded as the diesel fleet grew.

The new ice house was retired around 1968, ending its relatively short career of 13 years. The building was purchased by a Soo Line employee who used its thick boards to make a house.

One of the last facility modifications at Stevens Point was accomplished in 1958 by some creative employees who procured a car heater from Schiller Park, rocks from Lake Superior and lumber and copper pipes for a special project: the conversion of a storage room in the basement of the depot annex to a sauna. Six men could occupy the sauna comfortably, and it was a popular way to wind down after bowling on league nights. The Soo Line even fielded a competitive local bowling team, which won a number of trophies.

The railroad facilities at Stevens Point were created with the construction of the original Wisconsin Central. The facilities have been altered many times over the years to serve the changing needs of the railroad, but the geographical location of Point's facilities almost guarantees that they will continue to serve the railroad for as long as trains roll through Stevens Point.

Maroon and gold power in passenger service once again

By Nick Modders

Minnesota Transportation Museum operates excursion passenger trains on Wisconsin Central's Dresser Subdivision. In September 1992, the museum acquired trackage rights on the entire Dresser Sub, which at that time extended from Withrow, Minn., near St. Paul, to Amery, Wis. Regular passenger trains operated Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, and irregular operations took trains to Amery and Withrow. Power for the passenger trains was the Museum's Electro-Motive SW1200 switcher-Northern Pacific 105-and NP 328, a 1907 Alco Ten-Wheeler steam locomotive.

In early 1998 MTM made contact with WC's Superintendent of Locomotives, Terry Corson, and began negotiating over the sale of a high-nosed Geep. In due time we narrowed the choice down to WC 4159 and agreed on a price. The 4159 was acknowledged to be the best runner of the high nosed Geeps.

After a day trip to North Fond du Lac to inspect 4159, the purchase was agreed upon and the locomotive moved into the WC's shops for an annual inspection. After the inspection was complete, 4159 went to Wisconsin & Southern's paint shop in Horicon to be painted.

The paint job, or choice thereof, could be a separate story in itself. Among any group of rail historians there will be as many choices for a paint scheme on a locomotive as there are members in the group. As delivered to the Rock Island, it wore that railroad's famous red/white/ black "barber-shop pole" color scheme. On the C&NW, of course, it wore yellow and green. North Western transferred ownership to the Fox River Valley Railroad when the FRVR was formed in the late 1980s to operate C&NW spinoff lines in Wisconsin's Fox River Valley, but it retained its yellow and green livery. WC acquired the FRVR but the yellow and green colors remained.

With advocates for any of the above paint schemes pleading their case, a majority vote went, nonetheless, for geography, Dresser Sub heritage and the sentiment of having a paint scheme from the 1950s: MTM would do a Soo Line paint scheme. Numbering was agreed to be one number above the Soo Line's GP passenger series, hence 559.

Some additional liberties were taken. Since the locomotive will be running long-end forward half the time, the "pine tree" striping was added to the long end, a la Soo (WC) 2555, for visibility.

The 559 arrived at Osceola on a WC freight train on Friday, Aug. 21, 1998, and quickly entered service on the regular passenger trains of MTM's Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway. It will also power Dresser Sub freight trains, hauling pulpwood and other commodities between Withrow, Osceola and Dresser.

A Soo Line Telegrapher remembers

By Harry C. Dahlin

My father, Charles Dahlin, ran the only restaurant in Park Falls, Wis., on the Soo Line (original Wisconsin Central). All the Soo Line crews ate at his beanery, so he knew many of the employees. In 1920, my father retired from the restaurant business and became a warehouseman on the Soo Line.

One evening in 1926 when my father came home from work, he asked me if I would like a job as a messenger boy delivering Western Union telegrams around town. I said that I sure would, so the next morning before school I reported to John Kubiak. He said the telegraph business had shot way up, as all the business people used Western Union to order their goods.

I had about 150 telegrams daily to deliver after John would phone them first. One Saturday while sitting in the depot with John, I heard the telegraph instrument ticking the same thing over and over and asked John why they were sending the same message over and over. He asked me what it sounded like and told me to punch it out on a key-which I did. It was three dots, a dash and a dot; three dots a dash and a dot; and after a long time it would be a dash, two dots and two dots and a dash. John smiled and said, "Good heavens, boy; that's Duluth DU calling Prentice SN, the Western Union relay office in Duluth." Then he said "If you can pick it up that easy, I'll bring you a practice set tomorrow and give you the code. You can study it and learn to be an operator." And this he did. After about six months of practice, I could send pretty good messages, although I still was a little rough on copying incoming messages. But, after another six months, I did fine and copied everything and anything.

One day John Kubiak reported off sick, and the Soo Line sent a relief operator to take his place. He really looked like a hobo, and I wasn't sure he could fill John's place, so I kinda stuck around. Then I heard the dispatcher calling PF PF PF [Park Falls] signing S... He didn't seem to hear the dispatcher, so I asked "That's the dispatcher calling you?" The relief operator looked at me and said, "Oh, is it? Gosh." So he went over and answered PF on the key. The dispatcher sent a 19 Order with instructions for three copies. The relief operator just took out some cigarette paper and began rolling a cigarette. I told him that the dispatcher wanted him to copy a train order. He didn't seem to pay any attention to me, and the dispatcher was halfway through the order before the operator sat down to copy it. I had already done this myself, just in case. Well, when it was his turn to repeat the order back to the dispatcher, he was still writing it! So he opened the key and finished writing, then repeated it in the best Morse I had ever heard! I sure felt foolish, and I often wondered what he thought of a green kid, wet behind the ears, telling a pro what to do.

Pat called every evening to find out how I was doing. I told him that I thought everything was o.k. as no one had said anything to me yet. Then on the fourth day Pat came back to work, and when I walked in the yard office that Friday, I heard the dispatcher asking if I was there yet. Pat said, "He just walked in." The dispatcher gave him this message: "To H.C. Dahlin: Report to my office at 10 a.m. tomorrow." It was signed E. A. Schwahn. I told Pat, "What the heck am I going to do? I'm only 16 years old."

Soo's "Kitbashed" Covered Hoppers

By Guy N. Kieckhefer

One of the little-noted covered-hopper car types added to the Soo Line's car fleet in recent times is the 250-car, 3,148-cubic-foot capacity, two-bay covered-hopper series leased by the Soo from Pullman Leasing Company in 1988. These cars were intended to replace the smaller 2003- and 2006-cubic-foot capacity covered hoppers originally purchased by the Soo Line in the mid-to-late 1950s. These cars were already 30–35 years old by the late 1980s and hardly competitive, capacitywise, with the newer 3000-cubic-foot covered hoppers offered by Soo Line competitors for the shipment of minerals, cement, roofing granules and the like.

The original 4,427-cubic-foot PS2CD covered-hopper design came in two distinct versions, and early 4-3-4 spaced 11-rib model built in 1964–65 with low (off the railhead) sides and a later model with higher sides and 13 evenly spaced ribs. The older 4,427-cubic-foot car design is best represented by Soo Line's 4,427-cubic-foot covered hopper series 70151–70249 built in September 1964. The later-model car commonly built in 1966, 1967 and later was never bought new by the Soo but resembles Wisconsin Central's 4,427-cubic-foot covered hoppers in its 82000–82119 car series.

PLC originally concentrated on cutting and splicing available later-model cars and all of the lower-numbered cars were fabricated from such cars originally built in 1966 or 1967. Apparently PLC ran out of the later-model cars as it finished the last two groups, and some of the lower-sided (earlier) cars had to be used to finish the order. The photos of the Soo Line 3,148-cubic-foot covered hopper 100188 included on the preceding page illustrate just how the rebuilds that utilized the lower-sided, earlier 4,427-cubic-foot design differ in appearance from those derived from the later, high-side variation.

Luckily for the HO modeler, both variations of the 4,427-cubic-foot car are now available to serve as starting points for either prototype. Life-Like Proto2000 is currently releasing models of the high-side variation which should be an easy approach to the majority of these cars. For the higher-numbered sub-series, the Walthers 5700-series low-side model will work well for a starting point. Once all major cutting and splicing is completed, the modeler must also replace the roof hatches with five round ones, such as those from a Walthers two-bay cement hopper.

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