Soo Line #1003 steams with Milw Road Caboose

[kschmidt]

Greetings,

In a hastily organized trip the Soo Line #1003 2-8-2 Mikado was steamed up this weekend to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of Whitewater, WI Homecoming Festival.  Tagging along with the #1003 was a recently restored Milwaukee Road rib side caboose.  The trip required the #1003 to run on the Canadian National mainline from Slinger, WI to Waukesha, WI with a Wisconsin & Southern diesel on the point.  However after Waukesha the #1003 took charge of the caboose hop and made its way slowly from Waukesha to Whitewater, WI. 

Big thanks to Mr Bill Gardner and the Wisconsin & Southern railroad for the ability to let this special run with less than two weeks notice.  Also BIG thanks to the steam crew of the Soo #1003, it is great to have a dedicated crew that could things up and running on short notice. 

Ran into a familiar face during the chase of #1003. At Eagle, WI I had the chance to chat with "shay1925" while #1003 was on a "killing time" stop.  I had the privilege to meet his wife and an intern at Kalmbach.  The killing time stop was one of several since the locomotive was scheduled for a grand entrance into Whitewater at 5:30pm.  An stop was made in North Prairie officially to check the bearings, unofficially it was for ice cream from the ice cream shop inside the old Milwaukee Road depot there. 

Steaming slowly at Hartford, WI home to the #1003

At Waukesha, WI after shedding the WSOR diesel

East of North Prairie, WI

Passing an old grain elevator east of Eagle, WI at Boettcher Road

Coming into Eagle, WI

Passing an old Purina Feed Mill at Palmyra, WI

Keith Schmidt

 

[jclass]

Fabulous!

[spokyone]

Keith. Our hats off to you for the wonderful pics at great locations.

[Willy2]

Very nice photos!

[zardoz]

Very cool.

Excellent photos.

How I wish I had known about that trip!

[WCfan]

One of my reletives live down in Slinger, Called me up Yesterday and said a SOO steam went through. But He missed it.

[kschmidt]

Thanks for the nice comments.  The southern division of the WSOR is quite photogenic.  And the weather awesome.  The trip was put together in about 10 days.  I know info about it popped up on some of the wisconsin railfan yahoo newsgroups. 

Keith

[WSOR 3801]

I was the pilot for the trip.  Here are a few shots.

Arrive Hartford. 

 

Make a few moves.

Get ready.

Highball down the CN.  I was pretty busy running backwards.

Then we ducked into the clear, and the 1003 went by.

We then had other work to do.

That grain elevator is just west of Waukesha, a little east of Genessee Depot.  I think I gave them the idea for the North Prairie stop, they had planned to stop in Genessee Depot the the relocated depot there for ice cream.

The caboose was repainted in Horicon.  Was pretty rough when it came in. 

[gabe]

I was the pilot for the trip.  Here are a few shots.

Arrive Hartford. 

 

Make a few moves.

Get ready.

Highball down the CN.  I was pretty busy running backwards.

Then we ducked into the clear, and the 1003 went by.

We then had other work to do.

That grain elevator is just west of Waukesha, a little east of Genessee Depot.  I think I gave them the idea for the North Prairie stop, they had planned to stop in Genessee Depot the the relocated depot there for ice cream.

The caboose was repainted in Horicon.  Was pretty rough when it came in. 

Thanks for the great pics.  But, I think your diesel should have gone to the festival, and the steamer took your freight duties.  I think that would have turned some heads on both counts.

Gabe

[videomaker]

I cant tell from the pics, is this a 4-6-2 or a 4-6-4 class loco..Im am not familiar with MR locos either..Great pics.Thanks for sharing...Danny

[videomaker]

SORRY GUYS, I read your heading again and now I know what class it is...

[dknelson]

That's OK Danny, don't hit your head on that wall -- surely you were thinking of Soo Line 4-6-2 #2719, which has double headed with #1003 and should be ready for operation again this fall at Duluth.   It would be great to see those engines together again.  Both have received much coverage in the railfan press over the years.   

The Soo Line never had a 4-6-4 but it did have some attractive 4-8-2s and 4-8-4s.

Dave Nelson

 

 

[WSOR 3801]

The 1003 went back home Sunday night.  The CN won't allow a steam engine in the lead on their tracks, so the diesel had to lead.  I don't think the city of Whitewater would've wanted a diesel when they paid for the 1003 to show up.