Steam sighting in SE Wisconsin yesterday

[Anonymous]

My wife returned from Madison yesterday and reported seeing a steamer and a lot of railfans in either Columbus (CP) or Beaver Dam (UP).

Does anyone know what that was? Any pics to post?

Muchas gracias -
Stack

[kschmidt]

Greetings Stack,

That was Soo Line #1003. It was being run as a "Photographers Special". The steam engine was pulling a string of freight cars and a wooden Soo Line Cupola caboose. The "Special" was organized by Chicago Chapter NRHS, Hartford Auto Museum (where #1003 is stored) and Dave Goodheart Video productions to raise money to keep Soo #1003 running. Paying customers (cost of $340) were treated to private run-by locations, also private night photo shoots with the locomotive. On the scanner I could hear someone at each private photo spot giving directions to the locomotive crew as to what they wanted to see and hear and including alot of smoke, working hard and lots of whistle, so everything revolved around the photographers.

On Saturday the train ran from Horicon, WI to Randolph, WI on the Cambria branch of the WSOR. The "paying customers" were treated to numerous runby's at 6-8 different locations, including multiple run-by's. The weather was perfect. I caught the train at a couple of grade crossings in between the planned locations so as not to interfere.

I believe that the train is also running today, but its location and destination are of course being kept quiet.

I hope that they do this again next year, but offer more options to be a part of it. Like offering one-day prices, if someone can't be a part of the entire weekend. Just a thought.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the data, shame that I missed it.

Stack

[wcfan4ever]

Did it run on CP or UP so the location? What railroad will it return on if it already did not return?

[bjc77]

Dave, read kschmidt's reply above and it will tell you more than you need to know. They ran it on the WSOR "Northern Division" this past weekend for some private photo shoot. On saturday they ran it from Horicon to Randolph, I saw it at Fox Lake Jct. On sunday they were supposed to run it from Horicon up to Brandon through Waupun, don't know if they did the sunday run or not. By now it is probably back at Hartford where it is supposedly stored.