Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad

Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad
Reporting mark SOO
Locale North Dakota to Chicago
Dates of operation 18831961
Successor Soo Line Railroad
Track gauge 4 ft 8 12 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Headquarters Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (reporting mark SOO) was a Class I railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the Midwest United States. Commonly known as the Soo Line after the phonetic spelling of Sault, it was merged with several other major CP subsidiaries on January 1, 1961 to form the Soo Line Railroad. 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.

In 1970 it reported 8249 million net ton-miles of revenue freight (and no passengers) on 4693 route-miles and 6104 track-miles operated at the end of the year.

Passenger service

A postcard ad for the railroad's service between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Duluth/Superior circa 1910.
A well-used Soo Line hopper car, built in 1916. Hauling iron ore was an important part of the Soo Line's business.

The 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:

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.

Presidents

The Presidents of the Soo Line were:[3]

Timeline

The Soo Line Building in Minneapolis served as company headquarters.

Locomotives

Main article: Soo Line Locomotives

Preservation

A 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

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 Abbey (1984) p.99
  2. 1 2 Abbey (1984) p.97
  3. Gjevre (1990). pp.203–207.
  4. Gjevre (1990). p.19.
  5. Gilchinski, Steve (February 1997). pp.24–25

Bibliography

  • Abbey, Wallace W (1984). The Little Jewel. Pueblo, Colorado: Pinon Productions. ISBN 0-930855-00-0. LCCN 84014873. 
  • Dorin, Patrick C (1979). The Soo Line. Burbank, California: Superior Publishing Company. ISBN 0-87564-712-X. LCCN 79012204. 
  • Gilchinski, Steve (February 1997). "Soo Line 2-8-2 back in steam". Trains magazine. 57 (2): 24–25. 
  • Gjevre, John A. (1990) [1973]. Saga of the Soo, west from Shoreham (second ed.). Morehead, Minnesota: Gjevre Books. OCLC 23244801. 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Soo Line Railroad.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/10/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.