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Soo Line Railroad
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The Soo Line Railroad is the United States arm of the Canadian Pacific Railway, serving Chicago and the areas to the east and west. Formerly known as Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railway (and commonly known as the Soo Line after the phonetic pronunciation of Sault), the present name was adopted as a trade name in 1950. In late 1960 the company was consolidated with several subsidiaries and reorganized under the current name.
In 1985 the Soo Line purchased the Milwaukee Road and attempted to operate the pre-1985 Soo Line and selected Milwaukee Road branchlines as a wholly owned subsidiary, the Lake States Transportation Division. Because of lackluster traffic levels and the need to pay off debt resulting from the purchase of the Milwaukee Road, most of the LSTD (including the original Wisconsin Central Railway) was sold in 1987 to the newly formed Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation.
The Soo Line is a part of the Canadian Pacific Railway system. As time passes, more and more Soo Line equipment is being repainted into the Canadian Pacific's current paint scheme, slowly erasing the Soo's identity as a subsidiary railroad.
Passenger serviceThe Soo Line was never a major carrier of passenger traffic since its route between Chicago and Minneapolis was much longer than the competing Milwaukee Road, Chicago and North Western and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad railroads. The Soo Line also had no direct access to Milwaukee.
The primary trains operated by the Soo were:
- The Laker which operated an overnight service from Chicago's Grand Central Station to Duluth-Superior with a portion to Minneapolis-St. Paul. An additional portion served Ashland, Wisconsin until January 1959. The Laker was discontinued completely on January 15, 1965.
- The Winnipeger which operated an overnight Minneapolis-St. Paul to Winnipeg, Manitoba service. It was discontinued in May 1967.
- A Minneapolis-St. Paul to western Canada service. During the 1920s and 1930s the Soo Line operated the Soo-Pacific, a summer only Chicago-Vancouver service with the Canadian Pacific Railway. This later became The Mountaineer, which was then reduced to Minneapolis-St. Paul to Vancouver, before being discontinued in the early 1960s. During the non-summer months, the train ran as the Soo-Dominion from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, where it was combined into Canadian Pacific Railway's The Dominion transcontinental passenger train.
- A Minneapolis-St. Paul to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan overnight train. Discontinued March 1959.
Additionally, local trains served Chicago to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Duluth-Superior to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Duluth to Thief River Falls, Minnesota, and some summer-only services which relieved The Mountaineer of the local work along its route.
The Soo Line's last passenger train was the Copper Country Limited, a joint service with the Milwaukee Road, which the Soo Line inherited when they merged the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway in December 1960. The Chicago-Champion-Calumet train was discontinued May 8, 1968.
Company PresidentsThe Presidents of the Soo Line were:
- William D. Washburn, 1883–1889.
- Thomas Lowry, 1889–1890, 1892–1909.
- F. N. Finney, 1890–1892.
- Edmund Pennington, 1909–1922.
- G. R. Huntingdon, 1922–1923.
- C. T. Jaffray, 1924–1937.
- G. W. Webster, 1937–1944.
- H. C. Grout, 1944–1949.
- G. Allen MacNamara, 1950–1960.
- Leonard Murray, 1961–1978.
- Thomas M. Beckley, 1978–1983.
- Dennis Miles Cavanaugh, 1983–1986, 1987–1989.
- Robert C. Gilmore, 1986–1987.
- Edwin V. Dodge, 1989–1996
Timeline- September 29 1883: A consortium of flour mill owners in Minneapolis form the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie and Atlantic Railway to build a railroad between its two namesake cities to avoid sending shipments through Chicago.
- June 11, 1888: The Canadian Pacific Railway acquires control of the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie and Atlantic Railway, consolidating it with the Minneapolis and Pacific Railway, Minneapolis and St. Croix Railway and Aberdeen, Bismarck and North Western Railway to form the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railway.
- 1908: The Soo Line acquires a majority interest in the Wisconsin Central Railway, and obtains a 99-year lease of the property in 1909.
- December 30, 1960: The Soo Line Railroad is formed through a merger of the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railway, Wisconsin Central Railway and Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway .
- June 2 1982 The Soo Line buys the Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Railway
- February 21, 1985: The Soo Line Railroad obtains a controlling interest in the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad and renames it Milwaukee Road, Inc.
- January 1, 1986: The Milwaukee Road is merged into the Soo Line Railroad.
- April 4, 1987: The Soo Line Railroad announces the sale of its Lake States Transportation Division to private investors, forming the new Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation.
- 1992: The Canadian Pacific Railway, which had owned a controlling interest in the Soo Line Railroad for many years, finishes buying up all remaining stock and operated it as a wholly owned subsidiary until 1996 when it officially ceased.
LocomotivesPreservationA number of the railroad's rolling stock has been preserved in museums across America, some in operational condition. Some of the more notable equipment is:
Steam locomotives
Diesel locomotives- Soo 500-A an EMD FP7 displayed at Ladysmith, Wisconsin
- Soo 2500-A an EMD FP-7, at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum, Duluth, Minnesota. Restored for use on their North Shore Scenic Railroad.
- Soo 700, an EMD GP30, at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum, Duluth, Minnesota. Restored for use on their North Shore Scenic Railroad.
- Soo 703, an EMD GP30, at the Colfax Railroad Museum, Colfax, Wisconsin
External links
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