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Sumat Northern Railway:
History and Operations
The Sumat Northern Railway is a short line railway
bridging the International Border between
Fort William, Ontario, Canada
, and
Duluth, Minnesota, U.S.A.
through the rugged terrain of the
Canadian Shield
.
The Sumat
Northern Railway was formed in 1923 utilizing existing trackage of the former Port
Arthur Duluth and Western Railway also known as the Duluth Extension of the Canadian
Northern Railway purchased from the nascent Canadian National Railway system, and
the
Duluth
and Northern Minnesota Railroad. An
eastward extension from Rosslyn into
Fort William
, a short connection from Addie Lake, Ontario, on the Duluth Extension to the end
of track of the D&NM at Rose Lake, Minnesota, and running rights from
Knife River, Minnesota
to
Duluth
were used to create the Sumat Northern mainline. Engine servicing facilities were
built in
Fort William
, and Cascade,
Minnesota
. In
Duluth
arrangements were made to share the facilities of the Soo Line.
In the beginning the Sumat Northern Railway was a
shadow company of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The purchase of trackage from CNR
and D&NM was made surreptitiously by agents of the CPR as was often done by
that railway. The Canadian Pacific
obtained the standard 999 year lease from the Sumat Northern Railway in 1925 and
the S.N.R. has operated as a subsidiary of the CPR from that date. As such it utilizes
Canadian Pacific motive power and passenger cars. However, the S.N.R. owns a number
of freight cars.
In the 1950s there is daily passenger and freight
service over this Class One road. Passengers
are served by mixed, local and limited trains.
The freight carried is quite varied since the Sumat has connections with
the CPR and the CNR in
Canada
and with many
U.S.
railroads serving
Duluth
and the
Midwest
such as the Soo Line, the
Chicago
and North Western, the Great Northern, the
Milwaukee Road
, and the Northern Pacific. There are many online industries generating freight
traffic as well as through freight service.
The portion of the Sumat Northern represented by
the layout is from
Fort William
to Cascade. The line climbs from
Fort William
to Cascade necessitating frequent, short freight trains.
At
Fort William
interchange traffic is accepted from both the CPR and the CNR and cars are handed
off to both those railways. At Cascade
merchandise cars are marshaled into longer trains for the run to
Duluth
. Locomotives are serviced and turned there.
The S.N.R. utilizes both steam and diesel motive
power in the transitional decade of the 1950s.
Operating sessions centred on a core group but including many invitees occur
frequently. The railway is operated with Easy DCC.
Hand generated switch lists were utilized for a long time but recently a
car card system has been tried. There
is a possibility of moving to Switch It switch lists based on the experience of
two members of the core group. The
Sumat Northern Railway is deeply indebted to the
Ridgway Shops for the development
of its steam brass collection into superbly functioning DCC equipped motive power.
The towns served by the Sumat Northern Railway are
Fort William
,
Heather Lake
, Bishop, Suesville, Iainstown,
Bonell, Sumat,
Irving
, and Cascade.
The intermediate stations are all named after members of the family of the
Chief Operating Officer.
Fort William
and Cascade are named after
actual towns.
Matt Wilson
COO, Sumat Northern Railway
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