To my understanding Soo Line was built in order to circumvent Chicago by routing freight from the Twin Cities north through Canada and eastward via Sault Ste Marie. However at some point Soo Line stopped serving the Soo, and CP's connecting line in Canada is now leased to Huron Central Railway (which belongs to G&W).
Looking at the map, Soo Line via Sault Ste. Marie to Sudbury to eastern Canada/US appears to be a great way to avoid Chicago.. so why has this route fallen by the wayside? Even what's left of it, the Huron Central, is about to go away this coming November as G&W cannot get the government funds it needs to maintain the line from Sault to Sudbury.. An opportunity lost?
It's still there but owned by CN. It appears that they run north to Hearst on the old Algoma Central and then onto the CN transcon.
BackshopIt's still there but owned by CN. It appears that they run north to Hearst on the old Algoma Central and then onto the CN transcon.
Cirumventing Chicago may have some advantages, but it also has some drawbacks.'
How much traffic actually moves from the Upper US Midwest to the East Coast of either the US or Canada. In yesteryear I doubt that it was in a sufficient volume to make the route truly profitable; in the present day I doubt that it is sufficient to keep the lines in operation. It takes a LARGE volume of traffic to make any railroad line able to 'pay the bills' and beyond that to become profitable.
In the Vanderbilt, Gould, Hill days lines were built more because they looked like nice lines on a map than they were for supporting sustaining and enduring volumes of traffic. A lot of the lines were built from sheer personal spite among the financiers.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
The line is also severed in western Wisconsin. East of Sudbury, both the CP and CN had direct lines to Montreal, however, both lines are now abandoned in favor of combining all traffic thru Toronto. Once a line loses its mainline status, round-about routing does not seem to be a concern. At least the line still seems to be locally busy. Last February we drove by the operational center of Gladstone, MI, and the yard was full.
The other line that crossed the Upper Peninsula, the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic, was originally intended to connect Canadian Pacific and Northern Pacific to form a transcontinental route. This was back when the original frontrunner for the CP construction contract, Sir Hugh Allan, was secretly in cahoots with Jay Cooke and the NP's other backers. This was discovered and the subsequent Pacific Scandal (Canada's first) ended the idea.
Today the DSS&A is severed as a through route, with the remaining portions surviving as quiet branchlines. Not much local traffic left in the U.P.
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-an Articulate Malcontent
The problem Minneapolis-St.Paul faced in the 19th century was the only way to ship it's products to market going east was via railroads running to (and headquartered in) Chicago. Building a Minneapolis-based railroad running to Sault Ste. Marie was intended to allow them to ship their commodities (particularly grain/flour) east cheaper and more easily.
When James J. Hill was on the board of directors of Canadian Pacific, he urged CP to not build a line north of Lake Superior. He felt there would never be enough people or agriculture there to generate much business. He suggested taking over the Soo Line and using it to run CP trains from Sault Ste. Marie to Minneapolis, and then use his St.Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Ry. from Minneapolis to Winnipeg.
CN owns the former Soo Line between Minneapolis and Chicago, as well as all former Soo Line routes to the no4th and east of the former Soo Line main line.
Traffic from the Upper Peninsula mainly goes south through Green Bay to Neenah, where it then rolls east to Chicago or west to Winnipeg via the CN main line.
kgbw49Traffic from the Upper Peninsula mainly goes south through Green Bay to Neenah, where it then rolls east to Chicago or west to Winnipeg via the CN main line.
Some of it terminates in the upper Fox River valley. At least most of the pulpwood loads headed South on E&LS do. Appleton? Not sure where the big pulpwood plants are but Kimberly-Clark is a big player in UP to Wisconsin local traffic for their Huggies Diaper Brand and other paper products......I thought. Below is a video of a E&LS train on former Milwaukee Road, Green Bay to UP trackage. Obviously not the beneficiary of the state subsides for track maintenance like Wisconsin and Southern is......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWZYnjiBM8Q
CN has one train a day into Sault Ste Marie, On and one southbound out of SSM, On from Gladstone/Escanaba.
There is also another local switcher that comes into the US side and heads back south as well.
The bridges over the St. Mary's River are old and worn out. There are weight restrictions on the bridge. 2 locomotives cannot be together. This route isn't even a viable detour route because of this.
10000 feet and no dynamics? Today is going to be a good day ...
We covered those bridges in pretty good detail along with pics, drawings and videos on the Classic Trains Quiz just a while back.
The Soo Line from Minneapolis to Sault St. Marie was severed east of Amery, Wisconsin a few years back. The line was later shortened to Dresser, Wisconsin to serve the Dresser Trap Rock Quary. The quary is served with about one CP or Herzog train per day to provide rock for the CP. The Osceola and St. Croix Valley Railway of the Minnesota Transportation museum uses the line on it scenic railroad during the summer months. Come ride with us.
Yes, there is definitely some regional traffic from the Upper Peninsula related to the paper mill industry in particular that terminates in either Green Bay or the Fox River Valley communities. Anything destined for other points pretty much gets block-swapped at Neenah or Shops Yard in Fond du Lac for trains heading to Chicago or Winnipeg.
Interestingly, the connection between the main from Green Bay to the Winnipeg-Chicago Main is not a wye. So traffic from Green Bay that is going north has to first be pulled south to the small yard in Neenah or Shops Yard in Fond du Lac.
Paper-mill-related traffic is the main staple of the former Milwaukee Road Wisconsin River Valley line through Wausau and the former Soo through Rhinelander to Escanaba.
The Escanaba & Lake Superior has always been under private ownership and so has not been the beneficiary of any state largesse in either Wisconsin or Michigan.
Wisconsin & Southern, meanwhile, operates on State-of-Wisconsin-owned trackage and so benefits from the State expending funds to maintain the right of way. For the most part, from what I have been able to gleen from available information it is maintained to solid Class II operating speeds and 286K weight standards.
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