Winter 2003 Issue

IN EVERY ISSUE

Soo News
WC News
Editor's Report
Executive Report
Gallery
Rip Track
Letters
Transfer Table
Less-Than-Carload

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

Canadian Pacific Railway’s
Emerson Subdivision

An in-Canada link to the Soo Line

The Emerson Subdivision begins with the trackage that diverges southward at Whittier. The CPR’s main yard in Winnipeg is to the west of Whittier across the Red River (of the North). The trackage north of mile 1.0 is the CN’s Terminal Cut-off which provides a connection to their Symington Yard in the south-east part of the city. The floodway is the diversion channel built in the late 1960s that carries excess flows of Red River floodwater around the east margin of the city. This protects Winnipeg from spring flooding when there is heavy winter snow accumulation and/or too sudden a melt in the North Dakota, Minnesota, and southern Manitoba drainage basin of the Red River.

Waupaca, Wis.

The Soo Line years 1909-1987

by David J. Leider

When we last visited Waupaca, the Waupaca Green Bay Railway had just been completed, the Wisconsin Central’s new depot was about a year old and the Waupaca Electric Light and Railway was running from the depot to the Lakes. Although the Soo Line leased the Central on April 1, 1909, little change was seen by the average citizen.

The potato continued to be the main cash crop of Waupaca County. Potato shipping peaked during the 1911-12 season, when Waupaca’s two railroads shipped 1,894 cars of potatoes, at an average of 508 bushels per car. The price paid to the farmers was $1.00 per bushel, but in March 1917, due to war demand and a poor harvest, the price of potatoes soared to $2.40 a bushel.

Davis Mine

A forgotten North Dakota coal operation

by Don Tank

Construction of the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (Soo Line) across the state of North Dakota in 1891-93 from Hankinson to Portal, created a number of new towns and opened several areas to settlement and homesteading. One of the results was that brickyards were established at Velva, Minot, Burlington, Donnybrook, and Kenmare in addition to coal mines in the same localities.
In 1894, Lorenzo M. Davis, a former Soo Line civil engineer with an eye toward lignite mining, purchased land from James Johnson of Burlington, who was also interested in underground lignite coal mining in the Burlington area. After drilling several test holes, Mr. Davis organized the Mouse River Lignite Coal Company and opened a new underground lignite mine along the Soo Line about a mile southeast of Burlington. It was at this site that a spur track, capable of holding about 40 cars of the size commonly used at that time, was built by the Soo Line. The spur, appropriately named Davis was built at milepost 475 between Minot and Burlington.

Soo Line 550- and 2550-series Passenger GP9s

from Life-Like/Proto 2000 HO scale kits

by Ray Grosser

This project started with a Life-Like no. LL23764 phase II GP9 undecorated locomotive kit. It has the hood-top air tanks and large fuel/water tank. The engine is very well detailed and well made, especially with its fine handrail details and various extra parts. Almost any phase II GP9 could be modeled.

I found that a SoundTraxx KT100LC no. 820030 decoder, EMD first generation, would fit in the long hood of the locomotive without too much trouble. In researching possible installations of speakers, I settled on a SoundTraxx no. TU-810053 3/4" speaker with a sound chamber.

The freight car fleet
Bethlehem HK ballast cars

Series 60431-60629

by Chuck Derus

Good rails need good rock! After the 1961 merger, the Soo Line rostered an aging fleet of small ballast hoppers dating back as far as the 55-ton 1937 cars pictured on page 183 of The Soo Line by Patrick C. Dorin. The first “modern” 100-ton ballast cars to carry Dresser trap rock arrived in 1967 as an order of 40 cars in the 60251-60329 number series built by Gunderson Brothers. A photograph of these cars appears on page 183 of Dorin’s book as well.

Another 150 ballast cars (odd numbers only) arrived from the Bethlehem Steel Company in series 60331-60429 (3502 cu. ft.) on 2-68, and 60431-60529/60531-60629 (3317 cu. ft.) on 2/3-68 and 4-69 respectively. The Bethlehem cars were based on the Bethlehem quad hopper produced for many midwestern and western roads between 1963 and 1982.

Two Soo passenger trains make final run into history

Half century of service ended as “last riders” join in wake for nos. 1-2

From the Marshfield News-Herald
Monday, February 16, 1953

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