Has the Soo been absorbed or is it still independent? WHat is left of it trackage? Thanks.
I guess the best answer for the first question is “Yes…sort of!!”. [%-)]
For many years, foreign railroads couldn’t own US railroads, so the SOO could only be owned up to 49% by Canadian Pacific. Those laws changed after NAFTA and the SOO was absorbed by CP more or less. But I think it still exists on paper as a separate corporate entity.
CP certainly isn’t in a hurry to repaint anything either. I see SOO line engines every day (even a couple of cabooses now and then) at CP’s ex-SOO/Ex-MILW yard in St.Paul…even a few fading “bandit” Milwaukee MP-15’s, like the ones Athearn is coming out with.
http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATHG66181
wjstix answered much of the corporate side of things.
As far as the (SOO) trackage, you have to consider the original (new) SOO tracks - those formed by the 1960 “merger” of the original Soo Line, original Wisconsin Central and Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic. This railroad system bought the slimmed down reminents of the Milwaukee Road in 1985, and ditched the older SOO trackage east of the Twin Cities to the new Wisconsin Central LTD in 1987.
Canadian Pacific operates the old SOO trackage west of the Twin Cities (mainlines, mostly) and has sold off or leased many miles of branchlines to new shortline operators. However, the main routes to Portal, ND and Noyes, MN survive under CP ownership. East of the Twin Cities, it gets even more weird. The former WCL trackage has been merged into CN, the irony here is former CPR property has come under CN ownership. The old MILW mainline to Chicago via Milwaukee remains CP’s primary trunkline - secondary trackage has been sold off or leased to operators such as WSOR or IC&E. The latter road is a subsidiary of DM&E, which CP is purchasing, so some former MILW tracks are returning to CP’s fold.
Clear as mud, eh?
It is a little complicated, but not too bad.
Soo Line Corp. (the holding company formed to take over the Milwaukee Road) is 100 % owned by the CP. In turn Soo Line Corporation has three subsidiaries;
Soo Line Railroad Corp.
Delaware and Hudson Railway Corp.
Cedar American Holdings LLC. (pending STB approval) (parent of DM&E and IC&E)
Soo Line Corp.(Holding Co.) is considered a Class I railroad by the US government and pays the taxes and files the reports.
Trackage still owned that belonged to the Soo Line RR Corp. pre-MILW is the following
Shoreham (Minneapolis) to Portal, ND
Glenwood, MN to Noyes, MN
Twin Cities belt line Cardigan Jct. to Soo Jct. (St. Paul)
Shoreham to Withrow, MN ( portion of the former Soo mainline to Chicago) (CN has overhead trackage rights).
Duluth, MN and Superior, WI terminal trackage
branchline from Drake, ND to Newtown, ND
branchline from Fairmont, ND to Rosholt, SD
branchline from Plummer, MN to Gully, MN
portion of Schiller Park Yd. in Chicago
Plus a few small bits elsewhere
As an example of how confusing it can get, I lived next to the Minneapolis Northfield and Southern, Soo Line, Canadian Pacific, and Progressive Rail in that order…all without moving!!
I grew up along the MN&S in Richfield MN. Soo Line bought the MNS in 1982 to get a connection from Minneapolis to Northfield which they needed when they took over the Rock Island “spine line” from Northfield to Kansas City…which they ended up not getting after all!!
Soo operated the line with high nose GP’s and Milwaukee “bandit” MP-15AC’s until CP engines started to show up in the nineties.
A few years ago CP leased the line to Progressive Rail, who uses ex-MNS engines in a very similar paint scheme to the MNS to run the line.
[D)]
At the Milwaukee area popular train watching spot, Duplainville, you can see where the “old” Soo, later the Wisconsin Central, crosses the “new” Soo (former Milwaukee Road), which is now where the CN crosses the CP.
Dave Nelson
Reason I asked is I have an office in Schiller Park and go under a viaduct on lawrence ave in Chicago. Monday there was a pristine loco painted red and white for SOO that couldn’t have been painted that long ago and on my way home at night I cross the yard south of O’Hare I see Soo engines occasionaly there as well as CP and lease engines.