SOO Bismarck, Washburn and Great Falls Railway

Soo had a proposed line to Great Falls. Never built. Excerpt from old newspaper:

FERGUS COUNTY ARGUS, 1917

Many New Railroads Proposed For Greater Montana

<removed unassociated paragraphs>

SOO EXTENSION TO GIVE NEW TRANSCONTINENTAL LINE:

One of the lines, the extension of the SOO through western North Dakota
and up the Missouri River to the mouth of Arrow Creek, thence to Great
Falls, and northwest to Crow’s Nest Pass, would provide an entirely new
transcontinental line through the state. This road was to cross the
Yellowstone at Sidney, and run south of the Missouri 20 to 30 miles north
of the Great Northern’s Great Falls - Lewistown-New Rockford cutoff. As it
neared the southward bend of the Missouri at the mouth of the
Mussellshell, it was to run down Squaw Creek and up Crooked Creek, thence
to the mouth of Arrow Creek. The greater part of this route was surveyed
four or five years ago. From Great Falls, the road was to run
northwestward to some point in southwestern Alberta to connect with the
Canadian Pacific near Crow’s Nest Pass.

This line will shorten the SOO between Minneapolis and St Paul by about
200 miles, running through Crow’s Nest to Spokane, and thence to the
coast. The route will be the shortest between Chicago and the Pacific. The
SOO has long considered paralleling the Great Northern lines at sufficient
distances to assure the creation of entirely new business, and it intends
eventually to extend the line that now has its terminus at Whitetail until
it connects with the Canadian Pacific at Sweet Grass and Coutts. This
construction would be followed by the construction of feeders between the
two mainlines in the state, one of which would probably extend
southwestward from Opheim to the cutoff south of the Missouri thus
providing a direct route between the northeastern part of the state and
Lewistown. This feeder, which might also serve as a link in an alternative
transcontinental route, is not shown on the map because of its highly
conjectural character.

<the rest of article removed. Concerns other railroads>

 

Finally found a map which might be useful. Date given is 1917. Not good quality, as the scan I was given some years ago is not of the best quality. Will see if I can get it to show here so you can see a bit of detail.

Accuracy is not at all decent. Note the Dixon-Polson line is listed as a GN branch. Which was actually NP, as GN was nowhere near there. Also see Marion-Jennings, which had been abandoned by GN after the new line completion via Whitefish, Eureka, etc, in 1904.

 

They never got to Great Falls. The only Soo property in Montana was the Whitetail Line. Nowhere near Great Falls.

Remember that along the eastern Montana border, GN had built Snowden-Fairview, MT- Watford City, ND. This was right across that path projected by Soo. BTW- My August, 1939 Offical guide still shows a dotted line projected west to Fairview, by the Soo! But they never got any further west from Max than New Town, ND, on the east bank of the Yellowstone River. GN was just a few miles west of there already, at Watford City, almost on the west bank of that same river. Going any further would have cost Soo a lot of money, and the territory already had GN, plus NP.

Don't forget the GN also went Snowden-Fairview-Sydney-Richey. And that line west from Sydney to Richey was also right in the middle of where Soo proposed to go. There was not a lot else out there, so Soo could have been in miles and miles of nothing.

 

Yes. A Soo Line predecessor. In fact, we could easily re-label this from "Other" to "Soo".

You will find that many, many, many older railroads had grandiose sounding names. (Minneapolis & St. Louis never got close to St. Louis; Missouri Pacific never got over the Rockies; the Oregon, California & Eastern was never much more than a vital logging line in Oregon, with nothing at all ever in California; Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific never went to Winnipeg, let alone the Pacific; etc, etc.) For plenty of reasons, they never reached those places named. Maybe it was just to attract investors, maybe they ran out of money, maybe they never actually intended to go anywhere near there. While this line was projected, it never operated into Montana. I am referencing Soo Line so you can more easily trace what did get built. Find a Soo Line map, follow their tracks up the Yellowstone River to Max, then west to New Town. That's all you will find, even vaguely connected to any history about that line of your curiosity.

 

As far as I know, The Louie never got any closer than Albia, Iowa. Albia to St. Louis was via Wabash RR. Freight was handed over to the Wabash at Albia, through passenger cars were traded off.

Here's another for you: Montana, Wyoming & Southern RR. Never got to Wyoming. Only 22 miles long, when it got to Belfry, instead of continuing south they turned west toward Red Lodge. But never even made it there.

 

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess this railroad is now the Dakota, Missouri Valley Western.

 

Part of it might be, that being the line between Bismarck and Max. Otherwise, the rest of the DMVW is unrelated.

 

From what little I can find, the entire line which they built was less than sixty miles. It only lasted a few years, then was purchased by the Soo Line (Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie). It appears it was never actually intended to reach Great Falls. The rest of the line, Underwood, ND to Max, then west to what became "New Town", was built by the Soo.

Of possible interest:



As this is really a Soo related topic, I am going to re-label it for the Soo Fallen Flag.