Without prejudice
Subject to change without notice (and it has already)
This Soo Line layout will be free lanced and paying a tribute to the French explorers from France and Quebec who contributed to the development of the Upper Midwest.
Many towns on the Soo Line have French names. I've chosen to rearrange the geography book and include several of those towns on my layout. Not necessarily in the order they come along the tracks.
Sault-Ste-Marie , the town that gave it's name to the 'SOO', Fond-du-Lac, Eau Claire, Marquette and Duluth are only a few. Read about them on this page
Many French Canadians immigrants have worked for the Soo Line. Several members of the Soo Line history group on Yahoo have French surnames and are descendants of those immigrants from Quebec.
This layout will be in their honour.
My Soo Line layout will be set during the nineteen fixties in the Upper Mid-West.
My roster is 75% Soo, 20% CPR the rest being varied roads.
My Soo Line owns first and second generation diesels. Some steam engines are being refurbished to take service again. The dominant paint Scheme is the Maroon and gold. As a rule. all of my boxcars have roof walks. None show a manufacture date later than 1969.
I also run CPR Steam and First Generation diesels.
Goods shipped will include Farm equipment, grain headed for Eastern ports (original purpose of the Soo Line) through Sault Ste Marie. Iron ore to foundries and may be to an ore dock???
The layout will be designed to handle up to 4-5 operators, three in yards and two on a single track mainline with passing tracks (sometimes).
A wireless NCE, DCC has arrived.
I do welcome comments or suggestions as well. Feel free to suggest other scenarios if you want. Just write me with your ideas or comments.
You can read about the French Canadian contribution to the development of the Upper Midwest on this page. All information taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia on the Internet.
If you follow any of Wikipedia's links, hit your back button to come back to this site.
Yamaska is where I live hence the Yamaska subdivision. On the layout, there is a <Yamaska Furniture> which will be a reproduction of my house and workshop. I am a furniture maker by trade and will ship chairs, tables and armoires via my Soo Line or by freight to your house if you need some.
Pierre Milot
29 march 2013
