Winter 2003 Issue

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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

Winter 2003 Issue Hightlights

Soo Line's U30C locomotives

By Bryan Alden

In that tumultuous year of 1968 the Soo Line Railroad took delivery of ten U30C model diesel-electric locomotives from General Electric. These units represented the Soo’s first acquisition of heavy six-axle road locomotives for main line freights and what turned out to be the only venture with GE locomotives by the Soo.

There were two important developments in the 1960s that laid the foundation for this decision. The first was an industry-wide trend to acquire six-axle locomotives. Under the unit reduction concept, trains were being assigned fewer units of higher horsepower and it had become apparent that the additional tractive effort from six traction motors was required to handle increasingly heavier trains. That trend was well underway by 1965 and the Soo had shown interest in six-axle power, having hosted EMD SD45 demonstrator units in the spring of 1967.
The second development was that General Electric had expanded on its role as a specialty builder and supplier of locomotive electrical systems and had become an independent builder of diesel-electric road units for the North American market. In the Soo Line’s service territory the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Burlington, Milwaukee Road and the Rock Island had already acquired sizeable numbers of the new GE locomotives. Moreover, the Chicago and North Western had just placed an order for seven of the U30C engines, which would find a home on the former Omaha lines through the Twin Cities.

These were neither the first six-axle nor even the first six-traction motor locomotives on the Soo roster. When steam was replaced by diesel power, six-axle locomotives were generally purchased for service where there were special requirements. There were several Alco RSC locomotives assigned to Bismarck for the lighter rail and bridge ratings of the Missouri River Division. These six-axle locomotives didn’t have a traction motor suspended over the center wheelsets. The Soo also had acquired one six-axle, six-traction motor SD9 in 1954 with the special duty of the Manitowoc and Milwaukee branches in mind. Sixteen six-axle six-motored Baldwins came to the Soo Line with the merger with the DSS&A in 1961 but they would be largely confined to their previous haunts in Michigan’s upper peninsula.

MECHANICAL SPECIFICATION

The U30C model was introduced in late 1966 and was contemporaneous with the EMD SD40 and Alco C630 models. The ‘U’ was derived from Universal, the 30 denoted 3000 horsepower, and the C denoted three-axle (three-traction motor) trucks. The U30C was a fairly common unit, with 600 having been built for about twenty different railroads in the United States and Mexico from 1966 to 1976.
The Soo Line units were manufactured as the basic U30C model. They weighed a nominal 365,000 pounds when fully supplied and were not provided with additional equipment and ballast that would have increased the weight to the 385,000-390,000 range favored by many railroads. This comparative lighter weight would permit their operation over many of the Soo’s secondary lines where lighter rail and bridge ratings were a consideration.

The trucks were the newer 3-axle floating bolster design adopted in 1966. General Electric during this time had two sources for the truck castings, General Steel Castings and Adirondack Steel Castings, and the Soo units were to come with two side frame designs that differed visually from one another. Although interchangeable, each locomotive was built with trucks having the same casting pattern. Instead of the more modern sealed tapered roller bearing on the axle journals, the Soo, as did a number of other railroads, elected to have these units fitted with conventional 61&Mac218;2 x 12 Hyatt oil-filled roller bearing journal boxes.

INITIAL OPERATIONS

Delivery of the ten locomotives came at a pivotal time of the year. The Soo often had to lease additional locomotives during the winter months and the 1967-1968 season was no different as ten Great Northern F7s (from the 311ABC-317ABC series) and a handful of DM&IR SD9 and SD18 locomotives had been called upon. Come March-April they would be needed by their respective owners for seasonal iron ore traffic.
Along with the arrival of spring would come the Soo’s new locomotives. The ten U30C’s came off the production line at Erie, Pennsylvania during April, May and June and were shipped dead to Minneapolis for setup. At Shoreham several specialty items were added to enhance safety and crew welfare. A fiberglass bay window (Prime model BW-131-2) was installed on the right (engineer’s) side of the cab. On the left (fireman’s) side of the cab a metal awning (Prime model SC-977-31) was mounted above the windows, along with two windshield wings (Prime model SC-871) which were positioned front and back of the sliding windows. A reconditioned butterfly style rerailing frog (Nolan model DW-5) and bracket were placed beneath the frame on each side along the rear trucks. Inspection card holders, fusee and torpedo holders, tools and supplies were added and the units prepared for service.

Since the main lines had been almost the exclusive domain of 4-axle EMD power for nearly five years, the sight and sound of the GEs would catch ones attention. “They’re an overgrown Alco,” remarked a machinist, recalling the FA-1s and RS-27s he was familiar with. In their mechanical arrangement the GEs had much in common with Alco locomotives and at 67 feet in length they were indeed large locomotives when compared with the more familiar F7s, GP9s and GP30s.

About midway through their careers the U30Cs underwent a major restyling. In 1974 a new corporate symbol was adopted to replace the traditional dollar sign. The new emblem placed a slanted SOO within a parallelogram and this image was to be used on all literature, forms, and on rolling stock. Although twelve new SD40-2 locomotives were on order with EMD and were to arrive with the new image, a few of the U30Cs were the first to get the remake.

After six years of hard service many of the 800s were looking a little ragged. In September the 804 and 805 were repainted in the familiar red and white, but with the new reflective emblem over the engine room doors. The Soo parallelogram emblem was front-slanted, however on the left (fireman’s) side of the 804 and 805 a back-slanted parallelogram emblem was employed, matching the alignment of the red that now had a 30 degree angle with a 12-inch radius curve at the bottom (the 804 and 805 were the only Soo units to have back-slanted emblems on the left side). No Soo Line lettering was placed on the front end, and the rear end of the long hood was painted white. The road numbers were relocated to the lower rear part of the long hood, similar to the location on the F-units.

The remaining GEs were repainted similarly, except the parallelograms on both sides of the locomotives were the standard front-slanted version. That is, all except 806, which was the last U30C to be repainted. By mid-1975 it had become apparent that the reflective parallelogram was not only difficult to apply and maintain, but visually wasn’t as popular as the original. The 806 was repainted in a return to the traditional SOO lettering with the road numbers at their traditional location on the cabs, only without the Soo Line name on the front of the hood. All the other 800s would have their road numbers applied to the cabs, in addition to the numbers at the lower end of the long hood, except for the 802 and 804, which had both the left and right side numbers painted out, and the 808, which had the number painted out on the right side only

A Patriotic Locomotive

Condensed from the March 22, 1996, edition of the Neenah Citizen.

by Nate Wauda

After the invention of the telegraph, Western Union and Postal Telegraph entered our nation’s communications operations. Neenah was fortunate to have both services available during business hours.

Our nation’s railways preceded all this with their own telegraph systems. This system of communication offered incomparable assistance in the critical functions of train control from lines connecting major cities and small communities. Theirs was a 24-hour operation, seven days a week, including holidays.

The concerned American citizens waited to learn what was happening in the conflict in Europe. News from the battlefields reached them mostly by newspaper accounts, weeks late. This true story describes a most unusual method of communication, involving a passenger train and the telegraph operator on duty in the early morning of Monday, November 11, 1918.

The setting is the Soo Line’s division point at Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Soo Line crack passenger train no. 4, running two hours late, was eastbound from the Twin Cities to Chicago. It stood panting in the Stevens Point station. Veteran locomotive engineer, Jim Dollard of Fond du Lac, was seated in the cab of his engine waiting for the “high ball” telling him to leave. He was thinking of his twenty-one year old son, Gordon, serving in combat with the 32nd Infantry Division in France.

Veteran engineer Jim Dollard was impatient about the war and the delay in moving on toward Fond du Lac, his home, and his train continuing on to Chicago. Proud and anxious he was—and about to experience a sudden shock.

Inside the depot, clerks and workers moved about hurriedly. The rattle of the telegraph key at the desk of the dispatcher was the most audible sound indicating that the place was awake and moving at the early hours.

The telegraph machine rattled on... and then suddenly stopped. Leaping to his feet the operator yelled, “Hey! Hey! It’s over! The war’s over! The Germans have surrendered!” Dashing outside toward Jim Dollard’s engine, the excited and by now breathless operator aimed his loud voice at the engine cab.

Milwaukee historians ride

The Laker

into its sunset

By J. David Ingles

Being members of the Wisconsin Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, it was only natural that a group of 29 Milwaukee-area railfans would participate in history—the last run of Soo Line’s Laker.

Organized by chapter president Dan Platz and historian and Milwaukee Road passenger agent Jim Scribbins, the group boarded Milwaukee train 25, the old Southwestern Limited, for the 5:35 p.m. departure from Milwaukee on Friday, January 15, 1965, and rode 43 miles to Burlington to await the last northbound Laker. The Milwaukee train was due into Burlington at 6:38, allowing ample time for dinner before the Laker’s scheduled 9:20 p.m. departure.

“It was a very cold night,” recalls Chuck Porter of Oconomowoc, Wis., a retired schoolteacher still active in the NRHS chapter and an SLHTS member, “and the Milwaukee depot was at the southwestern corner of Burlington, while the Soo depot was just north of downtown.

“After we arrived in Burlington, many of us just began walking toward downtown. A local woman who had met someone off the train from Milwaukee picked up a couple of our group and gave them a ride.” According to the Burlington Standard Press of January 21, most of the group dined at the Hotel Burlington or at Natale’s. “After taking her own passengers home,” Porter continued, “she came back and made four or five more runs, giving many of our group rides, although my son and I and several others made it all the way on foot.” According to the newspaper, Soo No. 3 arrived in Burlington at 9:30 p.m., only 10 minutes late.

The group swelled the last No. 3’s passenger count for 25 miles north to Waukesha, some snapping photos inside the train. Porter recalls that “many of us had our spouses, or a friend, meet us at the Waukesha depot.” Others had left their cars there and ridden with friends into Milwaukee to begin the outing.

Soo Line/DSS&A Slanted-end 50-ton ore cars

by Patrick C. Dorin

The Soo, WC and DSS&A operated a rather unusual fleet of 50-ton ore cars with slanted ends. The cars operated to and from three of the Lake Superior iron ore ranges: The Cuyuna in Minnesota, the Gogebic in Wisconsin and Michigan, and the Marquette in Michigan. It could be said that the Soo Line (and South Shore) was rather unique in that it served three iron ranges in three states!

The cars were painted a mineral red, close to a boxcar red paint scheme with white lettering and numbers. Most of the cars carried the Soo Line name and number on a plate, although a number of the cars carried the road name and number on the side of the frame.

The cars could be found mixed with other types of Soo Line ore cars and Northern Pacific cars on the Cuyuna Range. Heading east to Wisconsin and Michigan, the cars were mixed with the Chicago & North Western cars on Gogebic Range trains. This mixing reflected the ore pooling agreements with the NP and C&NW, respectively

The Marquette Range trains were generally solid DSS&A ore cars, and mixtures with Soo Line cars after the merger in 1961. In some rare instances, blocks of DSS&A cars could be found with blocks of interchanged Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad ore cars.

Modeling the slanted-end cars

by Mike Lord

This began as one of those “quick and easy/no time at all” projects—wrong. Every time I looked at a prototype photo, I found something else that needed to be added—usually another grab iron. I based my model on the car pictured on page 118 of Patrick Dorin’s The Iron Ore Railroads along with photos from SLHTS’s Gogebic Range series. Other identical 50-ton ore cars are found in several sources. Dorin’s The Soo Line has pictures of these Soo and DSS&A cars on pages 171 and 172. Finally, Dorin’s April 1985 the SOO article on DSS&A ore cars has a nice photo on page 45. These cars enjoyed a very long service life. Series 80508–80807 (300 cars) was built in 1913 by American Car and Foundry and went to the DSS&A about 1961 and was numbered into the Soo Line's 9525–9674 series. At least one car, no. 9659, was still riding on arch bar trucks in 1970. Finally, Bob Weber’s photo on page 21 of the SOO, fall 1999, shows these cars in service in 1975, sixty-two years after they were built!

The completed car was painted with Polly-Scale light freight car red followed by Model Master clear gloss (both applied with an airbrush). Champ’s ore car set provided the lettering. The smaller end lettering was used throughout, including the WC in the top left corner that comes from the C&NW.

The unit was then weathered with more light freight car red and thin washes of black. A removable load was fashioned from a piece of foam (Athearn’s locomotive packaging) and fine grain iron ore. As an alternative, ballast or sand could be substituted. On the prototype, the angle of the heap determined the capacity. A level load was 657 cubic feet. A 10° heap was 737 cubic feet and a 30° heap was 792 cubic feet. Some cars received 7" side and end extensions that increased the capacity to 791, 871 and 926 cubic feet respectively.

Fifty to seventy of these cars would make up a prototypical ore train. Gravel or ballast loads moved in two or more units at a time. Cars lasted into the 1970s in this service, so most layouts could run at least a few of these cars. For now though, one for display will be enough for me!

Gallery

Each issue of the SOO includes a "Gallery" section with a selection of historic or artistic photos of the Soo Line and its predecessors.

Can you believe it's been 25 years since the Soo Line's Bincentennial GP35 1776?

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