System description[edit]

The company's main line begins at Portal, North Dakota, on the Canada–U.S. border, and extends southeast along former MStP&SSM trackage to the Twin Cities (Minneapolis–Saint Paul). Ex-Milwaukee Road trackage takes the Soo Line from the Twin Cities to Chicago via Milwaukee. Between Chicago and Detroit, where the CP-owned Detroit River Tunnel connects back into Canada, the Soo Line has trackage rights over the Norfolk Southern Railway and haulage rights over CSX Transportation.

Major branches include a connection from the border at Noyes, Minnesota, to Glenwood and, until it was sold to the Indiana Rail Road in 1983, a line from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky.

Through trackage rights over the BNSF Railway, the Soo Line also serves Duluth from the Twin Cities.^[2]

At the end of 1970, the Soo Line operated 4,693 miles (7,553 km) of road on 6,104 miles (9,823 km) of track; that year it reported 8,249 million ton-miles of revenue freight and no passengers.

History[edit]

The present Soo Line Railroad was incorporated in Minnesota on October 19, 1949, as the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railroad, as part of the plan for reorganizing the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway (DSA) and subsidiary Mineral Range Railroad. When CP consolidated several subsidiaries on January 1, 1961, it used this company to merge the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad and the Wisconsin Central Railway into, and renamed it to the present name, the Soo Line Railroad. The Soo Line gained control of the Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Railway (MNS), a Twin Cities area shortline railroad, in June 1982.^[3]

Passenger service was mostly eliminated by the 1961 merger, but several trains remained for a few more years. These were a Saint Paul to Duluth daytime train known only as Trains 62 and 63 (discontinued June 1961),^[4] the overnight Chicago to Duluth Laker and its Saint Paul connection (both discontinued January 15, 1965),^[5] the Twin Cities to Winnipeg Winnipeger (discontinued March 25, 1967),^[5] and the Saint Paul to Portal, North Dakota Soo-Dominion that during the summer, ran through to Vancouver via a connection with Canadian Pacific's The Dominion at Moose Jaw. It was discontinued in December 1963,^[6] and the western Canada cars were handled on the Winnipeger for two more summers before they too were pulled. The Soo Line's last passenger train was the Copper Country Limited, a joint service with the Milwaukee Road inherited from the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic. This Chicago-Champion-Calumet service was discontinued May 8, 1968.^[5] In addition, there were several mixed trains, with additional ones created to enable the discontinuance of the Saint Paul to Portal passenger train. Some mixed train services gained notoriety because passengers were conveyed in one direction only.

In 1984, CP incorporated the Soo Line Corporation in Minnesota as a holding company, exchanging stock in December to give the Soo Line Corporation total control over the railroad. Two months later, on February 19, 1985, the Soo Line purchased the property of the bankrupt Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad and assigned it to a newly created subsidiary, The Milwaukee Road, Inc. This company and the MN&S were both merged into the Soo Line Railroad effective January 1, 1986. To cut costs, the Soo Line created the Lake States Transportation Division (LSTD) on February 10, 1986^[7] to operate the less-important lines, including the ex-Wisconsin Central line between Chicago and the Twin Cities. Unable to implement its proposed labor rule changes, the Soo Line sold the approximately 2,000-mile (3,200 km) LSTD to a new regional railroad, Wisconsin Central Ltd., in 1987 for $133 million.^[8] (The WC folded into the Canadian National Railway in 2001). In 1990, CP gained full control of the Soo Line Corporation, of which it had previously owned about 56% of the common stock.^[3] In the 2000s, the Soo line was consolidated into CP. Only a few Soo Line locomotives remain in the old paint scheme; most have been repainted into CP paint or scrapped. Today, the Milwaukee Road and Soo Line's trackage make up the historically logical route of the Canadian Pacific Railway.