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Winter 1999 Issue IN EVERY ISSUE Soo News STAFF Editor Associate Editor Associate Editor/Soo News Soo News Wiconsin Central News Modeling Editor Contributing Editors Editorial Consultants Technical Consultants Commercial Accounts Advertising Manager Back Issues
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Winter 1999 Issue Hightlights |
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50 Years of Soo Line Covered HoppersPart II (1961-1990)By Guy N. KieckheferWhile all of the covered hoppers purchased or leased by the Soo Line, Wisconsin Central, and Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic during the 21 years between August 1940 and the January 1, 1961, merger of those roads were either of small or intermediate size, the 1960s was a decade of explosive growth for the covered hopper car category, both in the average size and the number of such cars operating on U.S. railroads. While the 3,219 -cubic-foot three-bay covered hoppers delivered to the Soo in April 1959 by Pullman-Standard were considered to be "Super Jumbo" PS-2s, by the end of the 1960s, 4,600 and 4,750-cubic-foot covered hoppers were emerging as the new standard for the increasingly common jumbo grain hopper. The Soo Line, while a Granger road, initially adopted a fairly conservative policy toward equipping itself with larger capacity grain hoppers. During the first half of the 1960s, the Soo secured only 95 new covered hoppers, all of which arrived in the new blue and white Soo Custom Equipped/Custom Service paint scheme designed by the Soo Line's director of public relations, Wallace Abbey, in late 1961. |
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Soo Line Operations in the Twin Ports
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The Soo Line in the Twin PortsA Decade of TransitionBy Patrick C. DorinThe bell is turned on, and the engineer inches out the throttle on the 2501 as he is given the highball for train No. 18, the Laker, to begin its overnight sojourn from Duluth, Minn., to Chicago. It is January 1960, and the next 10 years are to bring some rather dramatic changes. Despite these alterations, the Soo Line was then a very active railroad in the Twin Ports of DuluthSuperior and this trend would continue into 1999, although in the form of two different railroads. The Laker and Other VarnishThe wintertime consist of the Laker (trains 17 and 18) in and out of Duluth was a basic five-car train consisting of one baggage car, an R.P.O.-baggage car, one coach, the fabulous dining club lounge car and a Pullman sleeping car. There were two regularly assigned Pullmans during the summer vacation period as well. The assigned cars ranged from Soo Line six section, four roomette, four double bedroom cars with Pullman sublettering, to Southern Pacific 12 roomette, four double bedroom, one single bedroom cars as well as Pullmans from the Pennsylvania and Chicago & North Western. This made for interesting color combinations on the Laker.
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Soo Line 950At Home in Ashlandby Tom Tardiff Soo Line No. 950 has called Ashland, Wis., its home for 57 years, and is now ready for its second century of service. The restoration of Soo Line's only decapod (2-10-0) steam locomotive was completed in 1998 by a local group. Construction of the decapod by the Baldwin Locomotive Works was completed in July 1900. The engine was ordered and built for the Buffalo & Susquehanna as their No. 113. The B&S canceled its order for this locomotive prior to delivery. The Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie purchased the locomotive from Baldwin and numbered it 600. The locomotive was renumbered to 950 when Soo Line rebuilt the engine in 1912. The locomotive was assigned to Superior, Wis., for ore dock service, as it was ideally suited to the task of shoving the heavy tonnage ore cars. The decapod worked the Superior ore dock until 1929 when the Soo Line retired its own ore dock in favor of a joint operation involving Northern Pacific and its ore dock. |
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Modeler's RoundtableSoo Line second-class depotin HO, S and O scales.by Ray GrosserThe model being built by Bill Banta models, is of the Soo Line standard second-class depot. The depot plans were introduced at the turn of the century, and most of the structures were built on the old Soo west of Shoreham. There were a number of variations of the depot, some were built longer with more baggage room area, some had the baggage room on one end while others had them on the other. The waiting rooms were also built slightly different in some locations. They all had one thing in common, they had living quarters above the depot itself for the agent and operator. Some of the quarters had three bedrooms while most had only two. |
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