SLHTS Publications

Fall 2008 Issue

IN EVERY ISSUE

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

STAFF

Editor
Reid D. Van Sluys

Associate Editor
Ken Soroos

Associate Editor
David Leider

News Editor
Galen Fromm

Wiconsin Central News
Galen Fromm

Associate Editor/Modeling
Chuck Derus

Contributing Editors
Doug Fleming

Production Consultant
Rick Johnson

Technical Consultants
Stuart J. Nelson, Dennis Storzek

Commercial Accounts
Joe Lallensack

Advertising Manager
Burnell Breaker

Back Issues
Roger Wurtzel

Editors Emeritus
Larry Easton & Rick Johnson

Fall 2008 Issue Hightlights

Enderlin, ND - Part 4

Enderlin Today

by Jim Welton and Stu Nelson

Today, the former Soo Line is part of the Canadian Pacific Railway, but Enderlin remains an important crew change point on the system. With the Archer Daniels Midland sunflower seed processing plant and the Plains Grain and Agronomy terminal elevator operations, Enderlin also has a busy local railroad presence. The heart of railroad operations at Enderlin today is the new Canadian Pacific Railway General Yard Office. The facility houses locker rooms, shower rooms, a lunch room, a switchmen’s room, a maintenance-of-way room, a signal maintainers’ room, and an office area with computer communications. The Road Manager for Field Operations (Trainmaster) and Road Foreman of Engines also have their offices in the building. As of the end of October 2008, Enderlin had 114 employees in train and engine service, including two women, one engineer and one conductor. Nine trainees, including one woman, had recently been hired, with more to be added. ...

My First Trip on A Way Freight

Glenwood to Enderlin

Memoir by Conductor Perry Speed, Written in 1959

by Perry Speed

Now that I am not working at any job and am just sitting around the house, my thoughts turn back to my old railroad days and I again (in my mind) am making some of the old trips.
In the fall of 1902 there was a very heavy wheat crop on the Soo Line West End. (This means west of Minneapolis.) There were not enough West End conductors and the Company sent several of us East End fellows over there. Naturally the old timers on the East End did not care to leave their regular divisions and go to the West End, even for temporary work, so it fell to the younger conductors and I was one of them.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

by Gordon Schmidt

In February of 1963 I was working at Gloster, Minnesota. At the time I was either on 2nd trick or the swing job (I don’t remember which) but on this particular day it was 2nd trick. I decided to take No. 6-4 (the eastbound Laker and its St. Paul connection)
to Neenah where I would be picked up by my parents to go home on days off. I made plans for getting on the train when it stopped at Gloster during my trick and I’d be relieved early by the 3rd trick operator. At this time, all Soo trains were required to stop at the gates at Gloster before crossing the Northern Pacific diamond. When this occurred, Flagman
Nienhaus started berating me for not having cleared the train before I went off duty. ...

The S.S. Sainte Marie

by Charles C. Purin

Railroad Car Ferry and Great Lakes Ice Breaker

This modeling article is unique to the SOO in that it doesn’t deal directly with a locomotive, freight, passsenger cars, or structures. Specifically, the subject at hand is the S.S. SAINTE MARIE. This remarkable O scale model, seen and admired by many members at this years’s SLHTS Annual Convention in Waukesha, is truly a wonderful bit of craftsmanship. Author Charles C. Purin shares with us how he researched and built this model—Editor.

Two of the first ships designed for icebreaking on the Great Lakes were the steel railroad car ferries CHIEF WAWATAM and SAINTE MARIE. Both were designed by the well-known ship architect, Frank E. Kirby of Detroit, and built by the Toledo Shipbuilding Co. for the Mackinac Transportation Co. They were designed for icebreaking, when needed, but were usually employed transporting railroad cars across the Straits of Mackinac connecting Upper and Lower Michigan.

Questions about the content of the SOO? Contact:

Reid Van Sluys, Editor
W61 N327 Washington Avenue
Cedarburg, WI 53012-2404
or E-mail.

Questions about reselling the SOO in your store? Contact:

Emory Luebke, Commercial Accounts Manager
2124 N. Locust St
Appleton, WI 54914
or E-mail.

Questions about Back Issues of the SOO? Contact:

Roger Wurtzel, Back Issues Manager
910 Chandler Avenue
Plover, WI 54467
or E-mail.

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