SOO Line

Sub forum for Paper Railroads
atrainguy60
Saginaw Sub Foamer
Posts: 4078
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 1:54 pm
Location: None of your business......

SOO Line

Unread post by atrainguy60 »

This railroad was never fully absorbed into CP, and continues to exist as a large midwestern railroad. It expanded into Michigan in 2000 when CSX sold all of it's Michigan lines to the SOO, although SOO trimmed back a little bit in 2007 when it sold all lines north of Wixom, and all lines north of West Olive. It still owns the branch lines north of Grand Rapids and the Port Huron branch line, which it has access to via trackage rights on the CN Mt Clemens Sub. It still owns the former Milwaukee Road lines in Iowa, Missouri, and northern Illinois. The busiest section of the SOO remains to be the St Paul to Chicago main line, with 20 or more freights a day. Oil has been very beneficial to the SOO. It has taken advantage of it's connections with KCS(which has access to the Gulf Coast) and CP(which has access to the ports in the east) during this oil boom. The SOO works closely with CP in other areas as well, allowing CP haulage rights between Detroit and Chicago. It also handles freight and intermodal directly from CP in Portal, ND to St Paul and Chicago. All in all, the SOO is a very busy railroad with their bright red engines being a common sight in the midwest.

atrainguy60
Saginaw Sub Foamer
Posts: 4078
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 1:54 pm
Location: None of your business......

Re: SOO Line

Unread post by atrainguy60 »

As part of a plan to upgrade it's new main line between Chicago and Detroit, the SOO began work in 2002 to lengthen sidings at Bridgeport, Hartford, Bangor, East Saugatuck, Holland, Fox, Elmdale, Lake Odessa, Sunfield, Grand Ledge, Lansing, Williamston, Fowlerville, Brighton, and South Lyon. Now, most of these sidings are over two miles long, allowing much longer trains to run over the line, while cutting the amount of trains, adding capacity to the line, which was needed due to the 8-10 CP trains a day. SOO also had some ambitious plans for NW Indiana. There were a couple of ideas floating around to bypass areas of congestion, one being adding a new sets of diamonds in Porter to access the Porter Branch, which would in turn take the SOO to the IHB. The other was much bigger and more of a hassle, but would take the SOO away from most of the congestion in Chicago: extend the Grand Rapids Sub around the north side of Porter, through Burns Harbor, along the north side of the NS Chicago Line, and connecting to the east end of the EJ&E, which the SOO could possibly use trackage rights on to get around Chicago. After talks with the EJ&E, the SOO took the second plan, and after 10 years of dealing with environmental studies and dealing with some opposition and what-not, it finally began construction in spring of 2012. It opened for business June 10th. The short section of track going into Porter will be removed, and interchange with NS will take place in Burns Harbor.

Post Reply