Fall 1998 Issue

IN EVERY ISSUE

Soo News
WC News
Editor's Report
Executive Report
Gallery
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Letters
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STAFF

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

Technical Consultants
Stuart J. Nelson, Wallace W. Abbey

Commercial Accounts
Joe Lallensack

Advertising Manager
Burnell Breaker

Back Issues
John Strenski

Fall 1998 Issue Hightlights

Soo 2719: Back in Steam

by Steve Glischinski

Picture a pair of Soo Line steam locomotives blasting west out of Chippewa Falls, Wis., with a passenger train. It has been decades since this last happened, but on the afternoon of July 30, 1998, you could once again witness this scene as Soo 2-8-2 No. 1003 joined a newly activated partner: Soo 4-6-2 2719, in steam once again.

The 1003 has been active since late 1996, courtesy of the Wisconsin Railway Preservation Trust. At about the time 1003 was being completed, the Locomotive & Tower Preservation Fund (L&TPF) was about to begin the work to restore 2719. Displayed since 1960 in Eau Claire's Carson Park, 2719 holds a rare distinction: it was the very last Soo Line steam locomotive to operate. On Sunday, June 21, 1959, it pulled a Minnesota Railfans' Association round trip from Minneapolis to Ladysmith, Wis.- the last run of steam on the Soo.

Fortunately, Soo management saw fit to save her, one of seven Soo 4-6-2s preserved. In the early years of this century, the Soo and Wisconsin Central found the 4-6-2 "Pacific"-type engine much to their liking. The Pacifics were the backbone of the passenger locomotive fleet until subplanted by larger 4-8-2 "Mountain" types. Eventually 62 Pacifics were acquired and placed in the "H" class. Engines 700-737 were Soo-owned, while 2700-2717 were owned by WC, following the Soo practice of numbering WC locomotives in the four-digit 2000 series. Locomotives 2718-2723, delivered in 1923 as Class H-23, were Soo-owned despite their numbers.

The six H-23s were the largest Soo Pacifics. They were primarily intended for use in passenger service between Chicago, Duluth and Minneapolis. Locomotive 2719 was purchased from American Locomotive in May, 1923, at a cost of $47,091.64. The 2719 develops 36,833 pounds of tractive effort, weighs 140 tons and has a top speed of 80 mph. It traveled three million miles during its service life.

Savoring the Soo

A Philadelphian travels the Soo Line

By James R. Steel

When Japan finally surrendered in August 1945, I felt free to take a week's vacation and, being a rail buff, to ride some trains far beyond my Philadelphia home. Mere pleasure travel during the war was considered unpatriotic on long-distance trains, which usually were very crowded with armed-forces people. My only rail travel then consisted of weekday commutes on the Reading Lines behind a 4-6-0 Camelback (cab astride the boiler), an oddity that steamed primarily around eastern Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey.

I chose as a destination Duluth, Minn., partly because of its being on Lake Superior so prominent in Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha," a poem I loved. Then, too, I thought it was sufficiently remote, both north and west by far of any place I had been previously.

I bought a round-trip ticket to Chicago for about $45(!)-coach, because my pockets weren't deep enough for Pullman travel. My train was the Midlander, which left at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. I sat in a very pleasant reclining-seat coach, had a most enjoyable ride and arrived on time at Chicago's Dearborn Station at 5:55 p.m. Central Standard Time-just five minutes short of 24 hours. Reality, as it turned out, revealed that the Erie's 999-mile main line was delightfully absorbing.

I decided to sightsee in Chicago on my return trip, so I set about now in advancing my journey to Duluth. It happened that I had picked up a Soo Line timetable, and although it showed a direct train to Duluth, I was too late: Soo train 17 had departed Chicago's Grand Central Station five minutes before I arrived on the Erie. Nonetheless, I discovered that Soo train No. 1 would be leaving Chicago at 1:15 a.m. for Minneapolis, where I could catch a train to Duluth. Number 1's leisurely schedule would ensure me a good look at this exotic "bird." As an avid timetable collector since 1938, I hadn't missed Soo Line's timetables, but basically like the Erie, the road remained an enigma.

At the ungodly hour of 1:15 a.m. (2:15 Daylight Saving Time), seated in the main coach (the other being the smoker), I experienced a mild thrill as the wheels began to move and the train glided out of Grand Central. As I recall, I didn't have many companions. The conductor eventually claimed my ticket and exclaimed, "Oh, all the way to St. Paul!" No doubt he ever received many tickets like mine with the likes of the "400's", Hiawathas and Zephyrs making the Chicago­Twin Cities run in less than half the time. Soo No. 1 wasn't really meant to compete with them, of course, but to serve the many local communities along the Soo Line's 460-mile Chicago­Minneapolis main line. It was in fact the all-stops local on the route, complementing the faster overnight Chicago­Twin Cities run, train 5, which was combined with No. 17.

Since the lights were not dimmed (probably because of the frequent stops to entrain and detrain passengers) and I could see very little outside, I studied the interior of the air-conditioned coach. The seats were the reversible stiff-back kind (I never experienced reclining ones on the Soo) and there was a row of center ceiling lights-nothing unusual. But, near the front I saw a dining area with a table for four on each side of the aisle. Adjacent was a concealed space I later learned contained a tiny kitchen. Under equipment in the timetable, the car was designated as a coach-café. Coffee or any other refreshment could not be obtained during the wee hours, however.

My seat wasn't very conducive to sleep, but I dozed fitfully and could hear the conductor call out Wheeling, Mundelein, Lake Villa, and Antioch, all in Illinois. Dawn broke around Burlington, Wisconsin, not far into that state. We were 72.7 miles from Chicago and it had taken two hours and 40 minutes-a less-than-strenuous carding to be sure. Long stops were made at Waukesha and many more at stations like Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Neenah, Waupaca-Wisconsin names which seemed a bit odd to this Pennsylvanian.

Because of its seasonal existence, the Soo-CPR Mountaineer was a rarely photographed conveyance. However, photographer E. Bruce Miller was on hand for No. 4's passage through Minot, N. Dak., on a gray day in the late 1940s. Three sleepers are being deadheaded at the head end of the train. Behind them is the usual train consist as well as additional tourist sleepers. Note "The Mountaineer" name plate below engine 4016's headlight--Stuart Nelson Collection.

50 Years of Soo Line Covered Hoppers

Part I (1940­1961)

By Guy N. Kieckhefer

August 1990 marked the 50th anniversary of the first appearance of the covered hopper on Soo Line's freight-car roster. In August 1940, five "cement hoppers" bearing SOO reporting marks rolled onto Soo property. These five cars, assigned numbers 6901­6909 (odd numbers only) of the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste Marie Railway Company, represented American Car & Foundry's then standard 1,958-cubic-foot two-bay covered-hopper design, developed originally for cement-hauling Eastern roads.

The cars' arrival on the Soo was hardly noteworthy; after all, it was a mere five cars out of its 1940 capital spending program, a budget that authorized the purchase of, among other items, 700 40-foot 6-inch and 200 50-foot boxcars as the Soo Line desperately tried to re-equip itself to meet rising traffic demands occasioned by then-impending World War II.

The concept of using covered hoppers to more efficiently handle bulk cement and other mineral products was hardly new to Soo Line management, since the road had been hauling such cars-owned by other roads or private shippers-for some time. Only a small amount of bulk cement traffic originated on the Soo, so need for this car type on its roster was hardly urgent. Who, however, among the Soo's marketing and planning executives could have predicted that during the 50 ensuing years the covered hopper would come to reign as the predominant car type on the road? The covered hopper would revolutionize not only the transport of cement and other mineral products but also of grain and flour-historically two of the most important commodities handled by the MStP&SSM.

The covered-hopper category in Soo's roster grew from 0% in April 1940 to 49.1% in January 1990 while the boxcar category fell from 65.3% to 19.2% during the same 50-year span. During the same years, several car categories-notably stockcars, ore cars and tank cars-disappeared entirely from the Soo roster, to be replaced by covered hoppers and piggyback flats as the Soo's car fleet responded to massive changes in its traffic patterns and the way it handled certain traffic. Most dramatic was the ultimate replacement of Soo's 6,417 remaining Fowler-patent 40-foot 2,720-cubic-foot outside-braced boxcars by 4600­4785-cubic-foot covered hoppers that not only increased each car's grain-carrying capacity by approximately 75%, but also substantially reduced the time spent loading and unloading the car at grain elevators and terminals.

Stevens Point

Back to the Future
Part III: WC in the Point, 1998 style

by Andrew Roth

Soo Line's 1985 purchase of the Milwaukee Road signaled another change in Stevens Point's role in railroading. After that date, Soo Line redirected its overhead (bridge traffic) business to its new Milwaukee Road route between the Twin Cities and Chicago. Not surprisingly, freight-car volume through town-and railroad shop activity in town-diminished accordingly. Local and regional traffic continued to pass through town.

Soo Line's interest in its former, original Wisconsin Central lines-as well as the original Minneapolis, St. Paul & Saulte Ste. Marie-diminished and sold the original Soo Line Railroad property east of the Twin Cities to the Wisconsin Central Limited in October 1987. Talk about a strange twist of fate!

Railroad activity at Stevens Point increased with the change of ownership. "Location!, Location!, Location!" are the three most important words in real estate, and Stevens Point had all three for the new WC. Stevens Point was a natural as a gateway for the new carrier, funneling all the traffic to and from WC's Western Division. Train operations during the early WC years followed a "hub-and-spoke" method, often popular in transportation. Locals and way freights brought eastbound traffic to Stevens Point where it was collected at the yard and forwarded east. Conversely, westbound traffic was dispersed at the yard to their destinations via locals and wayfreights. Initially, the WC was not permitted to handle bridge traffic. If a shipper had a car to forward from St. Paul to Chicago, it could not put it on the WC.

Operations in 1998

By its tenth anniversary, WC had gained the right to handle overhead bridge traffic out of the Twin Ports and the Twin Cities, leading to a significant increase in business and activity in Stevens Point. Present WC traffic over the former Soo Line and the other adjacent railroad properties WC owns was described in the Fall 1997 issue of THE SOO. A respectable amount of this business moves through Stevens Point.

As of spring 1998, WC employed 462 people in various departments in Stevens Point. An average of 29 trains a day passed through, originated or terminated in town, not including any Extra trains or non-daily coal trains nor the Canadian National run-throughs added in late summer 1998.

WC road trains keep the yard switch jobs hustling. Three yard jobs-the "East Job," "West Job" and the "Tramp"-operate each of every three shifts seven days a week. This follows a pattern once used by the Soo Line, with the same basic assignments: The East Job works the East Yard, the West Job the West Yard and the Tramp Job, when called to duty, works either yard depending on demand.

The new WC contract with the Canadian National to forward the latter's trains from Superior to Chicago has increased the mainline train volume through Stevens Point markedly. The WC is progressing on many projects to handle the new traffic, including the construction of a bypass mainline track along the south side of the Point yard.

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