Bob,
Oh, those maroon and yellow Soo Line diesels and those wine-red passenger cars! I did enjoy a short ride on the Soo Line from St. Paul to Minneapolis on the Twin Cities-Twin Ports train. At the time, it had a GP unit, a mail-baggage car and two coaches. Earlier in life when I lived one block off Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis on 28th Avenue and 22nd Street, my friend Cliff and I would walk up to the Milwaukee Road yards and Minneapolis-St. Paul short line just to talk with switchman Smith and watch the action. We watched the Milwaukee Baldwin switchers shunting cars. But the piece de resistance of the afernoon was always two Soo Line passenger trains: First, if I remember correctly, the Soo Line train from Duluth-Superior came through, still at that time with steam, heading into its Milwaukee Road terminal in Minneapolis. Then came that wonderful local from Enderlin, also at that time with steam. Both trains whipped by the switch tender's tiny shack hell bent for lather on a mission to their respective terminals. When the Enderlin local came by on its way to St. Paul, Cliff and I knew we had to head home for supper. Later I saw a Soo Line GP on the Minneapolis-Sault St. Marie train. I can't recall how many cars it had, but I think a mail-baggage car, a baggage-express car or two, a coach, maybe another coach, and then an eight-section Pullman club lounge. It would have been great to have been aboard. Cliff and I also took the streetcar to the Shoreham roundhouse in Minneapolis. Saw some dead steam outside the roundhouse but inside two gems: Two Soo Line ALCO FA-1 units and a Geep or two, all painted in that maroon and yellow. They should have kept that paint scheme, if you ask me. Clearly, no one did ask me. Tom Tom ________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] on behalf of Bob Werre [[email protected]] Sent: Friday, February 10, 2012 12:07 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} To the traveling man Tom, Your regrets and observations are interesting. One fellow in our local club who spent a few years as a brakeman, recently wrote an article of the passenger trains he took and missed as a youth. In many ways similar to your situation. In my situation, we had a local twice a day that picked up boxcars of grain and delivered cars of machinery, lumber, some mail and returned empties that was always followed by the unique Milwaukee branchline combines. Although walking "down to the tracks' was discouraged by my mother, I was always disappointed by the site of that car--it wasn't the red caboose that my AF train had and what was described in all the books I had read. Other than that combine, I never saw a real passenger train until I was much older on a trip to the Seattle's World Fair in 1962. We had planned a trip to Arizona for Christmas of that year also, but the costs for 5 people was a bit much, so we did it our 60 Chevy. As I recall it would have been a tough trip anyhow--we would have had to go 600 miles East to Chicago before going 1400 miles Southwest. BTW, my Soo Line passenger train is called the Enderlin local. I spent a week in that fair city in the mid 60's. The town was a major division point with a multi stall roundhouse that contained probably the last of the maroon and gold F units--what a classic scheme. This is quite a trip down memory lane--sure glad I have one! Bob Werre Ken, Your commentary brings back memories. I recall seeing the Minneapolis-Hutchinson mixed train switching cars on the yard tracks that we under Lyndale Avenue. The mixed always had one of those rare GN NW-5 units equipped with a boiler but still carried an ancient combine painted in Pullman green. Although I lived two years in Hutchinson, I regret not riding the mixed on Friday afternoon back to Minneapolis. Wending its way around and over the Minnetonka lakes and bays, the train would have offered some scenic vistas one never sees from Highway #7. I had plenty of opportunities to take that ride but never did. Another possibility would have been to go to Kimball north of Hutch and catch the Soo Line local from Enderlin, North Dakota. That thing stopped at every town between there and Minneapolis but would have offered a great ride. Missing these two train rides is something like fishermen's stories of the one that got away. Tom
