----- The initial Post from Keith Meacham, 8/13/2006-8:54am

We've been talking about Marshfield's and JO's Depots, and their extensive remodelling, I'd be remiss not to mention the Soo Depot at Spencer, Wis.

From old postcard views available, Spencer was added on to, at least twice. Spencer was a WC Second Class small town depot, and it was sister to similiar depots in places like Trevor, Unity and Boyd, Wis. As built, I'm not certain these depots had Women's Waiting Rooms, I think it was just a General Waiting Room, Telegraph Office, and Freight Room, with a limited attic above.

I believe these buildings were originally board and batten construction. Spencer WAS----and continued to be even after the first addition to it. So was Unity and Trevor, but I can't vouch for Boyd, as Boyd was covered over with Insulbrick siding.

Therein lies a problem. I don't know if the records Larry Easton has make mention of the Depot being lengthened a first time, but we have a postcard view of it, still under WC ownership, with a WC engine bearing down on it, but I'm not certain of the date. My guess is pre-1909; I'll have to look at it when I'm at the Clubhouse.

At first I thought Spencer had been built longer, but a birds-eye view taken not long after the Spencer-Owen cut-off was built, showed the Spencer Depot in the original location (East of Spencer's main street at the junction of the Ashland Line and the new Main Line) and the building appears to be the "standard" sized WC Second Class Depot.

Then comes the postcard view mentioned above and the depot had grown.

Spencer's depot was moved, but I cannot for the life of me, recall what year. When the Soo moved it, they added on to it, but I hesitate to say "again". Judging from the postcard view, it was moved sometime before WWI or thereafter to the spot it stood at until it was torn down in 1973.

We have another postcard view of Spencer from 1955. This view shows Spencer as I remember it, but with a lot more paint on it. Spencer looked like Hell, folks, in her later years.

But, in any case, there is Spencer in 1955, considerably longer than the earlier postcard view-----and with SHIP LAP siding replacing the earlier board & batten siding. In fact, Soo put on a larger bay window, adding a window to make an ersatz three-window operator bay along the lines of many other Soo depots that had them---e.g., Abbotsford, Auburndale, Federal Dam, Medford, Park Falls, etc., etc., etc.

Talk about a building getting a thorough remodelling job. Also in that 1955 postcard view, Spencer still sports the upper quadrant train order signal yet, but with the westbound facing blade much lower on the mast than the eastbound-facing blade. The reason for this was that you could see Spencer's signal from Mannville, about 8 miles out. The blade needn't be so high as the Eastbound blade; eastbound, trains came from around a curve and behind buildings on Spencer's main street. It had to be high.

Looks downright odd, however.

I was in Spencer many times. I will never fail to remember that when you approached the east end of the depot, you could see very starkly where the B&B had closed off the single end window in the waiting room----those were the only boards on that end that had paint on them. Made that closed in window stick out like a sore thumb.

My guess is the Soo took that window out because a train's headlight would shine in there for a long time before the train passed. It's the only reason I could come up with.

I recall the floor in the Spencer Depot was Cement, painted red. Or, at least part of it was, and that there was a crawl space making up a basement of sorts under the building. The old Western Union sign laid down there, visible to you above, because there was a grate in the floor allowing full view of that area.

I never got in the freight room at Spencer. I usually had little time to explore the place when I rode with Dad. The best I could do was walk as far as the door leading out to the Freight Room. It appeared Spencer harbored an extra office, most likely for an Assistant Trainmaster or Assistant Roadmaster for the Ashland Line at one time.

Spencer also had rest rooms added.

Although the missing paint on the exterior made Spencer look pretty bad on the outside, inside, Spencer was a gem, due mostly to those that worked there as Agents. The last Agent at Spencer was Jack Burke. Jack would end up at Marshfield at the Payroll Clerk in his final years before retirement.

Jack Burke was the person responsible for the flower garden shown in Bob Wise's Soo Line in Color tome` of # 17 heading off the Main Line onto the Ashland Line, NOT the "Local Garden Club". Jack also maintained a large vegetable garden across highway 13 behind the Depot as well as one at home. Like Dad, Jack had a green thumb that knew no boundaries. The reasons Jack scaled down his gardening was losing Spencer and heart problems later on.

Spencer's Depot grew to such proportions because of it's being the Junction with the Main Line and the Ashland Line. Had the Marshfield cut-off been constructed between Marshfield and Bateman, all of the transfer and switching work of the passenger trains that took place at Spencer would have ended up in Marshfield, since the plan appears to have been that # 's 117, 118, 17 & 18 along with 5 & 6, would have all met at Marshfield instead had the cut-off become reality.

All that mail, baggage, express and LCL had to sit for a time indoors, hence, Spencer ended up some 120' long.

I know there were operational reasons for the Soo moving Spencer's depot where they did, but it was an odd place. The tracks right in front of the depot were, going east to west, the House Track, the Old Ashland Line Main, the Main Line, The Siding, and the Coal Dock Track. When there were cars left on either the Old Ashland Line main or the House, it obstructed the view down the track to one direction or another. Consequently, when MOW gangs would be put in to Spencer, they were left on either the Old Ashland Main or the House, near the Depot, and trying to see a train coming was moot.

In later years, Soo trains blasted through Spencer, the local Police having radared them at 70+ mph on numerous occasions. (It was done only to see how fast the trains were going and many persons question the accuracy of those readings). I can attest the trains were moving, folks.

I wish I could have looked it over more closely. I can't even recall the window arrangement on the side facing the highway anymore! This is another Depot I'd like to build a model of, including the missing paint. Somehow, Spencer wasn't Spencer without that missing paint.

Keith

----- Reply from Dennis Storzek, Big Rock, IL, 8/13/2006-12:42pm

There was a postcard view published in the August, 1989 issue of The SOO that shows Boyd, still in WC paint, was board & batten siding. These rather small buildings were built with only one general waiting room that took up all of one end, then the office, essentially the length of the bay, and the rest baggage room. Each of these rooms took the full width of the building.

The reason for the extensive remodeling was to move the bay from one side of the building to the other. When the depot was originally built it was on the south side of the tracks, with the baggage room on the east end (I'll use timetable directions here, as the whole layout at Spencer is just about 45 degrees to the compass points- east is toward Marshfield, Hwy 13 is on the north side of the tracks). After it was moved, the building was on the north side of the tracks, with the baggage room still on the east end, which indicates it wasn't turned end for end. In reality, the railroad likely slid it on timbers onto some flatcars, moved it to the east end of town, then slid it off the other side. This would leave the bay on the side of the building away from the tracks, so it must have been demolished and a new bay constructed on the south side, facing the tracks. The three window bay would also indicate that the office was made larger at the same time. That much remodeling, along with the construction of the addition on the baggage room, likely led to the decision to re-side the entire building.

Dennis Storzek
Big Rock, IL

----- Another reply from Dennis Storzek, Big Rock, IL, 8/13/2006-1:06pm

The "old Ashland line main" is indicated in some employee timetables as the "Passenger track". Timetable authority allowed Ashland line trains to come down to the depot on that track without regard to what might be happening on the Third sub (Twin Cities) main. The house track used to join this track with a switch west of the depot; the track then slit into two again with a siding in front of the depot. This allowed the Ashland passenger train, 118, to come into the depot, the engine cut off and run around the train in preparation for switching its cars into No.18 without ever entering the Third sub. In later years, after passenger service ended, the switches were removed and this short run around became part of the house track; its last use has been to service an auger pit for unloading fertilizer just about where the depot stood.

Looking all this info up, I came across a photo of the depot in it's last years, and I was wrong, the baggage end was on the west end. However, it appears that of the original building, the original baggage room became the new waiting room, the office was expanded, and the original waiting room became that extra office that Keith mentions, then as much again building was added on; all baggage room.

Dennis Storzek
Big Rock, IL

----- Response from Keith Meacham, 8/13/2006-6:38pm

The auger (used by an old Soo Line customer from the Greenwood Line----Northside Elevator in Loyal, Wis.) is a full car-length east of where the Spencer Depot stood. The Concrete platforms are still there, including the timber walk-overs between the Old Ashland Main, and the Main Line and Siding platforms. The Asphalt walk-overs between House Track and the old Ashland Main are still there.

You can even find the base for the Train Order Signal.

I retain a memory of another track coming off west of the Depot in Spencer that ran in next to where the Spencer Midland Coop had LP or Ammonia tanks east of their feed mill. I can't find any trace of it, at all. Pipe dreams? Keith

----- Reply from Ron Kaminen, 8/13/2006-7:27pm

I can remember roaring thru Spencer on #3 and 4 back in the 60's. The stretch between Marshfield and Spencer was all good track, and those Geep's really got'em going. Beyond Spencer to CF Yard the speed limit dropped to 59mph for passenger trains. The schedule was early in the morning, and late at night thru Spencer.!!......Thanks for listening, Ron K.

----- Response from Keith Meacham, 8/14/2006-1:04am

Ron, Thank You for confirming that. Many Soo fans do not believe me when I mention Soo trains haulin' *ss on this portion of the third sub.

I retain many memories of pacing Soo trains between Spencer and Marshfield, but the one I'll relate sticks with me.

I was riding along with Dad on the Traveling Agency. I'm not sure what year this was, I do recall it was after the Soo took away the duties of running to Spencer and Owen to pick up CSA Reports. That duty lasted not quite two years, early 1972-late 1973.

We were headed to Loyal and Greenwood in the Afternoon. An extra west was down in the Marshfield Yard making pick ups and set outs, and I believe the train had called the Depot on the Radio and told the Operator they "were on the move". Dad's reaction was, "To hell with this, I'm not sitting here waiting for that, let's go!"

We left the Marshfield Depot, and crossed the tracks headed north as the train was whistling for Peach Avenue.

We made good time getting out of Marshfield, no getting stuck for Stop Lights or other traffic. It didn't take long and Dad and I were crusing past Fleet Farm out on Highway 13 on the (then) north edge of Marshfield.

We were toodling along about a mile north of Fleet Farm, not quite to Berg's Spur, when the extra west PASSED us. Dad sped up to find out how fast they were going, and the car speedometer read 65. The train was still pulling away.

I wish I were making this up.

I recall getting passed while driving along on Highway 10 between Auburndale and Sherry by a Soo train led by two relatively new SD40-2's and a U30C----and the U Boat smoking it's fool head off. That train was making around 59 mph.

Soo itself boasted that they ran their trains at 40 mph back in those days, but it was rare to see it around these parts.

Keith

----- Reply from Dennis Storzek, Big Rock, IL, 8/14/2006-1:33am

Take a look at the photos below...

A few more comments that didn't fit in the photos section:

The present junction switch has been in a long time, and I suspect that freight trains running on the Sixth sub (of the old Stevens Point Division) used this connection to avoid running between the depot and the passenger platform, leaving the line that went in front of the depot as the "passenger track" which it is called in the employee timetables of the era. The original depot location would have been more or less midway between the two main line switches in this photo, to the left of the track. A newly widened city street encroaches on the location now. While one can't see the track in the weeds, it is obvious there was one more track which ran along the elevator buildings.

I turned around to face east, crossed the track, and probably climbed a signal to get this elevated view of the location the depot was moved to. The WC's welded rail train is on the "passenger track", while that industry track that Keith mentioned comes in from the left. Just beyond the switch the old station run-around track splits off to the left again; I thought these two were combined after passenger service quit, but I guess not. The white auger in the distance is just past the east end of the former depot location.

The depot platform appears to have been quite short; just the length of the building. The track just in front of it could have been used as a house track, but also functioned as a runaround for the nightly combination of 18 and 118 and the split of 117 from 17 a couple hours later. The cross walks to the platform are still visible; the platform was between the second and third tracks out from the depot, between the Sixth sub main AKA passenger track and the Third sub running track. It's the main now, but Keith calls it the siding, and the track may have well been changed in subsequent years.

The run-around rejoins the passenger track with enough head room for switching movements without having to foul the Third sub trackage. The passenger platform was in the space where the station sign is now.

Hope this helps.

Dennis Storzek
Big Rock, IL

----- Response to Photos from Keith Meacham, 8/14/2006-7:39am

Using your photographs # 's 3 & 4, these show the trackage I speak of. Going left to right, House Track, Old Ashland Main, Main Line, Siding, Coal Dock track.

The ex-USS Fertilizer Plant shown to better advantage in photo 4 sits where the dump for the new concrete coal dock the Soo built (donno what year) had been. Originally, this had been Kenz fertilizers and there were 3 horizontal conical bins between the coal dock track and the siding where the dock track makes that bend. They were a tan color, with a red "KENZ" running horizontally down the bins.

Beyond the Fertilizer Plant are the buildings that once housed Pathfinder Homes and Wick Homes. Once again, I could swear there was a spur serving Pathfnder, and there is a gate in the fence next to the railroad r-o-w, but I can't find any trace of a spur going in there.

The coal dock track used to rejoin the Siding just before the West Siding Switch shown in photo # 1. Union Pacific train MITPR put off 12 cars on it the year before you were in Spencer to make your photos (Larry Markow and I had found the problem and reported it to the Local Police, but they never contacted the WC about it), and WC truncated the spur to what is shown in photo # 2. Originally, the spurs that serviced Land O' Lakes to the west of the tracks came off the coal dock track near the west siding switch connection. There were two at one time; one came off the coal dock track not far from where the coal dock track came off the siding and ran behind the section house in photo # 1 and curved sharply off to the left running inside Land O' Lakes; the other spur was not far from your photo # 2 of the Old Ashland Main and it, too, ran off to the right in the photo going in to a covered dock area.

Going by what I've been told by those that worked here, the "new" connection to the Ashland Line main atop the west siding switch has been there practically from the day the Spencer-Owen cut-off was built. This allowed freights to avoid having to run down the old Ashland Main, and was put in such a place so that an Ashland Line-bound train could meet an eastbound on the siding but still get on the Ashland Line after completing the meet.

The House Track USED to cross Spencer's Main Street/Highway 98 in photo # 1 and rejoin the Ashland Line west of that street.

The old Coal Tower and Water Tank used to stand in the "vee" formed by the Ashland Line going right and the Main Line going left. Farther west, there had been a Wye between the Main Line and the Ashland Line. Once in a while in to the 1980's, it would get used to turn a car or an engine, but it looked to be in such poor shape that one didn't look at it sideways.

Water Tank and Coal Tower sported double spouts and chutes to service either main line or Ashland Line.

Also, the one-stall engine house that had been at Spencer for housing the switcher used there up to the late 1950's, stood not far from your vantage point in photo # 1.

This was all probably more information than anyone cared to read. Thank You, Dennis, for posting those photos! Keith

----- Another reply from Ron Kaminen, 8/14/2006-10:45am

There are two things to consider on a train. ........the direction, and the engineer!! When your heading home the speed is greater, and when the engineer is a hot handle the speed is greater!!

We had the speed up to and around 70mph with the Geeps on the Laker. The speed recorder overspeed would start to whistle at about 74-75. The whistle was so loud it was unbearable in the cab so you slowed down regardless of who was running the engine.

...Ron K.

----- Reply to Meacham from Dennis Storzek, Big Rock, IL, 8/15/2006-10:09am

Keith Meacham wrote:

> The ex-USS Fertilizer Plant shown to better advantage in photo 4 sits
> where the dump for the new concrete coal dock the Soo built (donno
> what year) had been.

> Originally, this had been Kenz fertilizers and there were 3 horizontal
> conical bins between the coal dock track and the siding where the
> dock track makes that bend. They were a tan color, with a red "KENZ"
> running horizontally down the bins.

> Originally, the spurs that serviced Land O' Lakes to the west of the
> tracks came off the coal dock track near the west siding switch connection.
> There were two at one time; one came off the coal dock track not far from
> where the coal dock track came off the siding and ran behind the section
> house in photo # 1 and curved sharply off to the left running inside
> Land O' Lakes; the other spur was not far from your photo # 2 of the Old
> Ashland Main and it, too, ran off to the right in the photo going in to a
> covered dock area.

> Going by what I've been told by those that worked here, the "new"
> connection to the Ashland Line main atop the west siding switch has been
> there practically from the day the Spencer-Owen cut-off was built. This
> allowed freights to avoid having to run down the old Ashland Main, and was
> put in such a place so that an Ashland Line-bound train could meet an
> eastbound on the siding but still get on the Ashland Line after completing
> the meet.

> The House Track USED to cross Spencer's Main Street/Highway 98
> in photo # 1 and rejoin the Ashland Line west of that street.

> Also, the one-stall engine house that had been at Spencer for housing the
> switcher used there up to the late 1950's, stood not far from your vantage
> point in photo # 1.

Dennis Storzek

----- Reply from Stu Nelson, 8/19/2006-5:05pm

Here are some various notes regarding Spencer as has been brought up.

The early depot burned August 8, 1886. A 19x70 depot was built in 1886 and was located about 700 feet west of the Junction Switch. The Junction Switch was right across from the turntable.

There was a two stall, 36x80 engine house west of the turntable.

The depot was on the south side of the Minneapolis Main. The Ashland Main was immediately adjacent with only a passenger platform between them.

Originally there was a bucket shed for a coaling station. In 1911 this was replaced with a raised coaling plant, 20x24 on 20 ft timbers, located about 390 feet west of the depot. The coal track was underneath the coaling plant and there was a chute on each end in order to serve both the Ashland Main and the Minneapolis Main. The water tank was east of the depot. There was a 4000-foot siding on each main with east switch at MP 290 of each line.

In August of 1916 the depot was moved east of the Junction Switch about MP 289.7 and the depot extended to 120 feet long.

In 1917 the coaling plant was removed and a Fairbanks-Morse coal chute was installed east of a new junction switch so it only needed to serve one track. This coaling station lasted until the end of steam in 1955. This was a timber facility with concrete footings as it is shown in a 1950 photo.

At the old depot location, about 1052 feet west of the east house track switch there were no tracks behind the depot. It was on the south side of the Minneapolis Main. Next to the Minneapolis Main was the Ashland Main, then a 704 foot Coach Track, and then a 1400-foot house track.

At the new depot location at MP 389.7 on the north side of the 1072-foot passenger track there was a depot platform. Next was the Ashland Main but no passenger platform between the passenger track and the Ashland Main. Next was the Minneapolis Main with a passenger platform between the Ashland Main and the Minneapolis Main. The Junction Switch appears to be about 1100 feet or so east of the depot and the FM Coaling Plant just east of this junction switch.

There was a cross-over from the Ashland Main to the Minneapolis Main eastbound west of the original depot location so trains could enter or leave the Ashland line from two locations. I believe this crossover location is the later junction switch as shown in the photo Dennis posted.

The earliest depot was board & batten. The 90-foot depot was drop siding and the 120-foot depot drop siding. As Dennis and Keith stated, the depot was possibly turned or more likely just rebuilt with the freight room on the west end rather than the east end and the bay window replaced to the south wall instead of the north wall.

Stu Nelson

----- Reply from Dennis Storzek, Big Rock, IL, 8/20/2006-5:32pm

To add some clarity to some of these verbal descriptions, I have uploaded a track chart of Spencer to the Files section.

[Editors note: See the plan below; click on the plan itself for the full-sized version as originally uploaded by Mr. Storzek]

The chart is undated, but I believe it dates to the seventies, pre-WCLtd.

This is the track layout as it existed at the time I took my photos in the 1990's. The un-numbered solid line is the Minneapolis main, with west at the left, and the un-numbered dashed line is the Ashland main. Track 19 is the "passenger track", with the depot shown along its west end. Track four is the "house track" except it doesn't actually serve the "house". The track marked 17 is the crossover Stu mentions.

The location of the passenger platform was between the Ashland and Minneapolis mainlines where it could serve the transfer of passengers between Nos. 17 & 117 and 18 & 118. This platform was accessible from the depot via pedestrian walkways that crossed the two tracks between the platform and the depot.

As can be seen from the track arrangement, train 118 could run all the way down to berth at the platform, then the power could cut off and run around, all without needing authority against No.18 arriving from the west on the Minneapolis main. Remember, for most of the lives of these passenger trains, this was not CTC territory.

Dennis Storzek
Big Rock, IL