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Editor
Rick Johnson
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Ken Soroos
Associate Editor/Soo News
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Soo News
tom Mastoras
Wiconsin Central News
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Modeling Editor
Chuck Derus
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Back Issues
John Strenski
Spring
2003 Issue Hightlights
A detail worth noting for Chippewa Falls Yard
Recollections of a new operator’s harried first night shift.
by Gerry Miller
I’d been breaking in at Neenah for a while. I thought
how it would be greatly appreciated if I could take my rules examination
in the near future and get my seniority date by working my first assigned
job somewhere on the Soo Line as an operator. Finally, it seemed I’d
received a message from the division offices and chief train dispatcher
at Stevens Point. The message stated “Exa (Extra) Opr G Miller arrange
to break in 3rd trick opr CF Yard July 20, 21, 22, 1978 then work 3rd
trick operator CF Yard beginning July 23, 1978 two weeks vacation for
opr (employees’ names are edited out). Exa opr Miller and opr acknowledge
File BE-224. AEM (chief train dispatcher’s initials).”
I was going to work CF Yard for my first job with the Soo
Line. What kind of place was CF Yard? I’d soon find out. After reading
the message, the second trick operator at Neenah informed me that the
assistant chief dispatcher called and was wondering how I was doing. The
Neenah operator told him he felt confident that I was sufficiently trained
and knowledgeable regarding the rules, duties, and responsibilities that
I’d encounter at the various places I might work. He also said that
if I was ready, he’d give me the rules exam the next day, July 19,
1978.
Reflections on my railroad years
Part one: Hiring on in 1945 to the winter of 1949-1950
by Clifford L. “Bud” Newquist
When I heard the Soo Line was hiring firemen, I went and hired out. That
was October 3, 1945. I liked the Soo Line from the start. That fall they
had fourteen crews in the pool jobs, and I managed to hold one of them.
We were coming in and going out on our eight-hour rest, hauling ore from
the Cayuna Range and wheat from Glenwood and Thief River Falls. These
were long divisions—202 miles to Glenwood and 234 miles to Thief
River Falls, and I was making good money. I knew I would be cut off when
the rush was over. But with system rights, I also knew I could hold the
extra board somewhere on the system, because they hired firemen after
I hired out.
Gloster, Minn.
by Marvin A. Mahre
The Gloster station, located 5.7 miles east of the St. Paul Union Depot,
was unique and different from most country depots situated along Soo Line
trackage. It was on the Stevens Point Division (the furthest open station
west of the division headquarters) and sat at the crossing of the “cut-off”
line and the Northern Pacific Skally line to Duluth, Minnesota. The “cut-off
line ran between Carnelian Jct. and Trout Brook Jct. and was the short
route for passenger trains from Stevens Point to the St. Paul Union Depot.
There was very little freight or express business, yet Gloster was manned
24 hours per day because of the very busy train operations.
Bethlehem
HT hopper cars
Series 60151–60199, 60201–60249, and 60331–60429
by Chuck Derus
Diagram adaptations by Ken Soroos
Modern, 100-ton open hoppers began to appear on the Soo Line after the
1961 merger to replace the aging fleet of 50-ton and 70-ton cars. Along
with transporting coal, these cars also handled ballast and a variety
of stone products. Patrick Dorin’s The Soo Line, has a photograph
of triple hoppers loading eastern coal delivered by Great Lakes freighters
at Ashland destined for the White Pines mine in the upper peninsula of
Michigan on page 122. On the same page is a shot of a quad hopper being
switched at Ashland. Ken Soroos remembers groups of four to six of these
cars used for hauling coal to the city power plant in Devils Lake, N.D.
Bob Rivard recalls occasional loads of coke being delivered to the refinery
in transfer runs to Roseport.
According to Keith Meacham, the Soo Line did a landslide business with
F.F. Mengels at Custer Pit. In the summer, Custer was swarming with Soo
open hoppers. They shipped to Appleton Ready Mix, Oshkosh Ready Mix, Mengels
Ready Mix in Marshfield, and other locations. At one point, the Soo was
handling 20 cars a day of mixed pea, stone, rock and sand per day, just
to the Marshfield facility. Mengels shipped at least half that much to
Appleton and Oshkosh. Business from Mengels remained good until at least
1983, according to Keith. Finally, it seems like every hopper the Soo
owned was pressed into Dresser trap rock ballast service.
The
day my train wrecked
by Les Kruta
I had only been working a little over two years for the Soo Line, when
I was relieving the agent at Orrin, North Dakota, on the Drake line.
With but a few years seniority under my belt, making it impossible to
bid in a steady job, I was always on the extra board That meant being
sent to various jobs on the Winnipeg Division, anywhere from one day to
several months, relieving an agent, an operator, or a towerman.
Gallery
A centerspread from this issue's gallery.
Photo by:
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