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Spring 2001 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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Spring 2001 Issue Hightlights |
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The Dolly SistersSoo’s RS-27 locomotivesBy Fred Headon and Michael W. PolsgroveAdapted from “Those Distinctive RS–27s” by Fred Headon in the summer 1999 issue of CP Tracks, reprinted by permission.They were called the “Dolly Sisters” while operating on the Soo Line, perhaps in part from their model designation of DL-640 or perhaps because they often performed as an identical pair like the Czech Dolly Sisters vaudeville act from the 1930s. The two Alco-built RS-27s frequented Soo trackage from their delivery in April 1962 until their retirement in March 1981. Less colorful than their nicknames, they were unit numbers 415 and 416 (builder numbers 83605 and 83606, respectively).
They were also distinct as the first power to be delivered in the new Soo paint scheme which made its debut in 1962. This was the red nose and light gray body with black lettering scheme. As the initial gray did not set off the black lettering as well as the corporate people wanted, the shade of gray was lightened on the GP30s, which were the next units to be delivered. This new lighter gray became the standard until the era of Candy-apple red. The reason's behind the Soo acquiring the RS-27s are as interesting as the units themselves. Walley Abbey tells us that President Murray, eager to impress stockholders and shippers, wanted to show, the “new Soo,” in its first year of operation, could commit a million dollars to new equipment. The purchase included not only two new locomotives, but a number of frieght cars as well. Alco was one of the only vendors willing to sell an order of just two locomotives. Additionally, immediately following the merger the Soo found itself quite short of power and in need of replacing some first generation diesel locomotives. Regardless of the reason for their arrival, their appearance had an electrifying visual effect on the public and employees and the “new Soo” emerged. Evidence of their stature was the use of the 415's image on the cover of the Soo Line Railroad Company’s 1962 annual report. |
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 Rugby JunctionPart one: the halcyon daysBy Reid Van SluysOne of my favorite places to watch the Wisconsin Central’s trains over the past decade or so has been Rugby Junction, near Slinger, Wisconsin. Located in Wisconsin’s picturesque Kettle Moraine, there doesn’t appear to be very much to what must seem like a rather bucolic scene at first glance. Just the main line, a long passing siding, the Wisconsin & Southern-Wisconsin Central interchange track, and a short house track for bad orders or maintenance-of-way equipment. On those serenely quiet Sunday mornings in mid-summer, one can’t help but be distracted by the local bird population, which includes a multitude of native songbirds, orioles, red-tailed hawks, wild turkeys, and the raucous kingfishers from the nearby wetland. Deer tracks in the soft damp clay abound, and occasionally, a red tailed fox, groundhog or chipmunk will scamper across the tracks to the refuge of the tall grass or cattails on either side. But it wasn’t always this way. At one time, Rugby Junction was a thriving, bustling place of enormous importance to the original Wisconsin Central, a place on an iron road domiciled by iron men.
Surveying and grading for the new Chicago, Wisconsin & Minnesota commenced in the summer of 1885, and actual laying of track south from Schleisingerville was scheduled to begin in November of that same year. A firm by the name of McIntosh Brothers was selected to do the general grading and filling. They in turn hired men and teams of horses throughout Washington County and for a time, Schleisingerville’s beer halls and saloons did a thriving business and the town was anything but sleepy. The Hartford Press of October 16, 1885 noted: “McIntosh Bro’s., R.R. contractors, have opened a supply store in the [Fraternal Order of] Odd Fellow’s hall [in Schleisingerville], where they keep feed, tools of all kinds, clothes and other necessaries for their workmen.” The same issue of the Press, under its Schleisingerville News column reported: “There are rumors that we are to have a round house [enginehouse] and repair shops built there by the W.C.R.R. Co. We hope the reports may prove true.” The excitement occasioned by the construction of the new railroad was beginning to grow. The prospect of a new railroad being added to those already serving Waukesha caused its newspaper, The Freeman, to cautiously observe: “On Monday next, track-laying will begin at Schleisingerville and Chicago. With reasonably good weather, doubtless the iron will be laid by the middle of February [to Waukesha], but with a repetition of last winter’s temperatures only slow progress can be expected.” Almost immediately, problems were encountered in trying to construct a new railroad through the morass of southeastern Wisconsin’s Kettle Moraine. The November 26, 1885 edition of the Waukesha Freeman revealed: “No rails have been laid on the new road yet. The reason is that three-fourths of a mile south of Schleisingerville [in the vicinity of present-day Mud Lake] there exists what is known in railway parlance, (as) a ‘sink hole.’ The track continues to settle as fast as graded, but doubtless the bottom will be found sometime.” As new construction pushed south toward Colgate and Waukesha, it was decided that the Wisconsin Central’s principal interchange point with the powerful St. Paul would be relocated approximately five miles south of Schleisingerville. |
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