The Soo Line, "Ship Soo To And Through The Upper Midwest"

The Soo Line (“Soo” refers to the word "Sault" in the Canadian city of Sault Ste. Marie, is spoken as "Sue"), officially known for much of its life as the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway, was a medium-sized Class I system that stretched throughout the upper Midwest connecting cities such as Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul, with points west in North Dakota and southern Canadian (such as Winnipeg and Sault Ste. Marie). Somewhat of northern granger line the railroad was always a smaller line surrounded by those much larger, such as the Milwaukee Road, Burlington, and Great Northern. However, up until its takeover of the floundering Milwaukee Road in 1985, for most of its life the Soo was a well maintained and managed company, earning healthy profits in a territory blanketed with competitors. Perhaps what makes this railroad so interesting is that its system crossed the U.S./Canadian border and along with serving the northern plains of America also served the southern Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba.

The Soo Line has its beginnings dating back to the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Atlantic Railway, incorporated in 1883, which was built to connect its namesake cities (in the interest of shipping grain, a staple of the region) to Sault Ste. Marie and a connection with the Canadian Pacific (in an attempt to bypass busy Chicago). The railroad was never finished as originally envisioned and required help from its subsidiary the Minneapolis & St. Croix Railway.

The MStP&A later chartered the Minneapolis & Pacific to build west from Minneapolis into the Dakotas to ship even more grain traffic east. Among other reasons, grain is not a highly profitable product to ship and all three railroads soon ran into financial trouble eventually being assisted by the CP, which required them to merge in the summer of 1888, to form the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway, the original Soo Line.

After this the Soo was for the most part a successful independent carrier and expanded throughout the rest of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its first major takeover was that of the original Wisconsin Central, which operated between Ashland and West Menasha, Wisconsin in the early 1900s. At its peak, but before the takeover of the Milwaukee in 1985, the Soo stretched from Chicago and Sault Ste. Marie in the east to Winnipeg, the Twin Cities, and eastern Montana in the west; a carrier of just over 3,000 miles.

The “new” Soo as we know it today was formed in 1960 from the merger of the original Soo Line (the MStP&SStM); Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railroad (another CP subsidiary); and the Wisconsin Central, forming the Soo Line Railroad. From this time forward until the 1985 purchase of the Milwaukee, the Soo was quite successful, mostly because of its frugal spending by president Leonard Murray, while also working to boost traffic and profits. During Murray’s tenure the railroad also became a lean operation, upgrading its physical plant (such as increasing CTC coverage) and buying new equipment.

Following 1980 things began to change for the Soo. Murray left his post as president in 1978 and while the Staggers Act of 1980 deregulated the railroads the Soo found itself needing to expand to remain competitive. In doing so it attempted to purchase the defunct Rock Island’s “Spine Line,” which connected with the Soo at the Twin Cities and ran south to Kansas City but lost this bid to the Chicago & North Western.

Around this time one of the competing Pacific Northwestern lines, the Milwaukee Road, made a bizarre decision to abandon almost all of its [profitable] western main lines and unprofitable Midwestern branches to shrink down to a system of just over a 3,000 miles. While this plan worked to cut the railroad’s expenses it also made the Milwaukee a very sought after merger partner. Bidding again with the C&NW the Soo line this time won approval and took over the Milwaukee in 1985.

Unfortunately for the Soo the Milwaukee came at an extremely high cost and it took even more money to upgrade poorly maintained Milwaukee trackage, which put the Soo in serious debt. In another stroke of bad luck the Milwaukee’s remaining lines turned out to be not as profitable as was hoped and the Soo’s profits sank to only marginal status (also during this time the Soo sold off unprofitable trackage of its former WC system, which ironically became Wisconsin Central Ltd., now part of the Canadian National system).

Soo Line All-Time Locomotive Rosters

Soo Line Diesel Locomotive Roster

Soo Line Steam Locomotive Roster

Notable Soo Line Passenger Trains

Atlantic Limited: Connected Minneapolis to Boston in conjunction with Canadian Pacific and Boston & Maine.

Copper Country Limited: Connected Chicago to Calumet, Michigan in conjunction with the Milwaukee Road.

Duluth-Superior Limited: (Minneapolis - Duluth)

Laker: (Chicago - Minneapolis/Duluth/Ashland)

Mountaineer: Connected St. Paul to Vancouver, British Columbia in conjunction with Canadian Pacific.

Soo Dominion: Connected St. Paul to Vancouver in conjunction with Canadian Pacific.

Winnipeger: Connected St. Paul to Winnipeg, Manitoba in conjunction with Canadian Pacific.

Parent CP was no longer interested in the Soo after the failure of purchasing the Milwaukee and decided to sell its majority stake in the company in the late 1980s but in a strange twist of fate turned around and repurchased not only its majority stake but also the remaining Soo stock in 1990 (due to a lack of buyers), taking over full ownership of the railroad.

Today the Soo Line is technically still an operating railroad, albeit on paper only as CP has nearly entirely integrated the Soo into its system. For a pictorial history of the Soo during its last three decades of operation consider Soo Line: 1975-1992 Photo Archive from author Frank Jordan. If you have any kind of an interest in the Soo you will likely find the book very enjoyable. If you're interested in perhaps purchasing this book please visit The Railroad Diamond by clicking the tab in the menu to your left marked "TRD Store".