Former Soo Line, at Superior, Wisconsin, here in 1994. I know they tore part of it down, but is the rest gone now also?

http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=312086
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=312083

With this recent photo:

http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=394625

Bob:

It looks like some stalls of the roundhouse were lengthened at one time. Was this to accomodate the Soo Line's four 4-8-4's? Or did they Northerns even run up to Superior? Anyone know for sure?

Les

I don't have that answer, but someone at the Soo Line Historical Society might. When training at Shoreham in Minneapolis, I noted the razed stalls were the longer ones, probably for the 4-8-2s and 4-8-4s. I know the 4-8-4s were scrapped in the 1950s somewhat before the older engines, as they could not go on the lighter rail of branchlines and secondary routes.

I’ve always been told that the Soo’s class O-20 4-8-4s were used Chicago - Twin Cities, period; that they were too heavy for anywhere else on the system. Makes sense, as there was only four of them (5000-5003, Lima, 1938) and Chicago – Twin Cities was the railroad’s most competitive freight market. When the Soo began to dieselize, they bought 3000HP A-A sets of F’s and FA’s, but 4500HP A-B-A sets for the Chicago Div. mainline.

I would suspect that the stalls were lengthened around the time of WWII, when the railroad applied larger 18,000 gallon tenders to 18 of its 21 class N-20 4-8-2s. Prior to that, they were only a couple feet longer than the various Mikes on the system; 88’-4 ½” over the pulling faces. With the new tenders they stretched out to 95’- 5 1/8”. The average Soo Mike was just a shade over 80’ long.

The only Soo mainline that didn’t see the N-20’s was the old Gladstone Div. to Sault Ste. Marie; even these relatively light Mountains were too heavy for that stretch of railroad.

Dick Jensen used a tender off of a Soo Line 4-8-2 behind his ex-GTW Pacific #5629. Was that tender one of these 18,000 gallon examples?

Les

Yes. Information supplied by Soo historian Stu Nelson has it as Soo tender number 4064, built and applied to N-20 4013 8/5/42. I photographed this tender, including its number plate, for brass model importer Pacific Fast Mail while it was stored at Blue Island. It was scrapped with Jensen’s engine.

There is another of these tenders that escaped scrapping, and is now on the CGRR, somewhat modified, paired with the ex–CB&Q mike. I don’t have its number offhand.

Anyone know what happened to the turntable, and how long it was?