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Every summer visiting my Great Grandmother in Ironwood we'd see the Soo Line running through town and when i wanted to go into model railroading in High School I knew immediately that the Soo was what I was going to do.

The original Soo Line started in 1883 as the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad. The railroad merged with the Wisconsin Central Railway in 1961 to form the Soo Line Railroad. The railroad acquired the Milwaukee Road in 1986 before its absorption into the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1990.

The Pence family had no interest in running an actual shortline railroad. They were only profitable because they milked the bridge traffic. They never invested in it to make it a successful originating/end of mile railroad company. All this corporate butt kissing in this video, is hilarious!

One of the top model railroads on TH-cam

Great job recreating that scene from the video you shot!

You got the 791 in the hockey stick scheme with the red lettering I see although it is hard to tell in the video. I made a model of her with that Oddballs decal set thinking it would look pretty good in HO. It doesn’t look good and I can see why the Soo went back to the black lettering. It doesn’t look horrible, and the Oddballs set has a near-perfect rendition of the modified Venus Bold Extended “S,” but I cringe when I put that model on the layout; it’s definitely not my favorite Soo Line engine. I guess for lack of a better term, that lettering just looks “yucky.” It’s too monochromatic with the red paint. My model is an Athearn “blue box” which I put a ton of work into including modeling the hatches and hardware over the engine compartment. This was long before factory models came out with those hatches done. Many of those parts I put on after the model was painted and I can’t bear the thought of deconstructing it, re-doing the paint using black decals and then reconstructing it. I guess the 3M “Scotchlite” salesmen wouldn’t take no for an answer from the Soo.

My parents were looking for me when I was in town chasing trains... LOL

Soo line used to come to Calumet, MI, when I was a teen. I ran a mile to watch the train. Got in trouble one night. The train came in around 12 AM,

Love the SOO Line videos as I grew up 5 houses down from the tracks... Incredible video man !!!

Ben, you need to start thinking abt the future of the layout once you’re gone. Maybe donate it to some group or museum that’ll keep it running.

Love the soo line. Grew up in the 1970’s in river forest Illinois with the soo line literally running through my backyard. I will never forget seeing unit 1776 with brand new bicentennial paint scheme in 1976. I was 11 years old.

What a great video! At 8:55 number 6619 rolls by. The “S” is upside down, but you already knew that-right?

I'm wondering if that's Mr.Miscwic on that Radio for Soo Line Dispatch. who lived just off of central Ave across the Street from Columbia golf course saint Anthony Blvd. I lived off of 3020 Polk st. NE. Nord East Minneapolis. Edison High School. Graduation class of 76

Very cool! Nice job.

I wish I saw a caboose at the end of a freight train!

Nice video... It's great to see all of the "old stuff" like cabooses....

I think there s just one problem I don t think that horn is real It s no M3

Why are there Amtrak units pulling a freight?? Also what year was it in the video? 80s or 90s??

That HO scene is sooo cool! Sounds and weathering really brings it home. Just awesome.

Grew up in this area and was only 11 here. Miss the BN in 80 s in Minnesota, early 90s too.

You remind me of myself when I was was young a lifelong rail fan only it is cn and cp with me

Neat, other than the station being gone this video location looks very similar today.

Love the scale Griswold rotating banner signals! Those things used to be everywhere in the Twin Cities. I wonder if there are any remaining that have the STOP sign still in place anymore?

Another gem!

Another gem thank you

Absolutely amazing. Now that’s replication of the real thing!

Robert. 1:13 . Is this the Custom Finishes 62'9" log car ? If so how well does this kit go together ? Just bought two of these kits. Also,what did you use for the utility pole load ? Great freight car and load. Really neat.

Robert. The crossing signal animation . Subscribed.

Lookin' goodly there, Sir Chooch .....

Wow, it’s great to see all those BN predecessor roads’ freight cars on that second train!

Love that monkeynuts switcher pushing for all it’s worth. All those decades living a soft life and this is how it ends.

Kinda interesting how MNS was acquired by the Soo Line then later was sold off to a short line.

I really appreciate all your videographic efforts at trackside, Bob, be in Minnesota, Iowa, Upper Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado, Utah and other states! You must be the most avid fan of the SOO Line Railroad!

Love these videos. I especially enjoy the fact that it has the original sound which is extremely rare considering a lot of old films from Back then are mostly silent 🤠

Fantastic video 🤠. My dad told me about all of your video collection on TH-cam. Especially the footage from the late 1970s when he was still in high school. I enjoyed watching them as it gave me a sense of how railroading was back then (since it was way before I was even thought of 😆) Again fantastic work! 🤠

I don’t know what it is about these black dip-job locomotives with the billboard lettering that is so appealing but I love ‘em. i

Why didn't the bus and the van cross when they had the chance? 😆

Cattle cars were frequently used to carry new cross ties.

#6615 ex M&St.L SD7 / #549 ex MILW.RD SD10 I remember the day 549 was delivered in its new paint job in October of 86 .. off the Milw at OIC IN Owatonna.. back in the good old days now .

Great looking video!

That's the late Duane Schwatztrauber on the Shoreham CTC desk that day. He elected not to follow the dispatching job when the Soo moved them to Milwaukee, and became either a clerk or yardmaster at Humboldt yard. When I was on the WC New Brighton night transfer, we traded paperwork at Humboldt for a short time before he retired. He remembered me from my much younger days when I'd call down to Shoreham to see if there were any trains coming by New Brighton. After Duane retired, I traded the paperwork with yardmaster Mark Sears. When Mark retired (finished his career as 2nd shift YM at St. Paul yard), I believe he was the last Soo Line yardmaster left. A tip of the hat to all the friendly Soo Line employees I've crossed paths with over the years. They really loved their jobs and the company they worked for. It all changed forever in the Soo-Milwaukee merger and subsequent folding of the Soo Line into the CP system.....

I'm curious as to why they would break off the helpers separately? Helper for the helper. lol?

NIce video!!! GP9s have great sounds of two strokes engines!!!

I live in Minnesota and this looks really good

At 2:04 the All-Door box car is in the blue St Regis scheme. Walthers has made it in HO scale.

Wow, great stuff for 1985! Loved the timing of the meet.

AWESOME video from back then when things were more interesting to be trackside.

Thank you Mr Rivard for taking these video to show generations this type of stuff like me i grew up at the end of the soo line era i was born in 1993 so thank you

Very nice!

Good stuff, thanks bob