Ladysmith, WI: Soo & WC Depots and Junction Tower

Junction: (Satellite)

Soo Museum: (Satellite)

Raymond Storey shared a post by Brian Joles
Soo Line Depot, Freight House, and Tower. Ladysmith Wisconsin (Rusk County) Circa date: 1917 Photo credit to: Tiffany Studios [The building on the left was the Soo depot, the one in the middle on a diagonal was the Wisconsin Central depot, and the building on the right is the junction tower. After Soo bought the WC in 1906, the Soo depot became the freight house.]

The depot is preserved because CN now uses it as an office.

Street View

A visitor center and Soo museum was built based off a Soo Line depot type plan.

Street View

RussCountyWI

The town also has a preserved steam locomotive. I found this because when I searched for "depot," I got hits for Home Depot and this locomotive is next to the parking lot of the Home Depot.

Street View

WisconsinHistoricalMarkers
"Steam locomotive 1011 was donated to the City of Ladysmith by the Soo Line Railroad in 1961. The 2-8-2 "Mikado" locomotive was built in May 1920 by the American Locomotive Co. at its Brooks plant in Dunkirk, N.Y. It was the first of 23 Class L-2 and L-20 engines built for the Soo Line. The locomotive and tender are 82.5 feet long and weigh 493,100 pounds. Tender 4003 held 10,000 gallons of water and 17.5 tons of coal. It was hand-fired until a stoker was installed in 1939. It has 63-inch driving wheels and operated under 170 psi of steam pressure. It has its original wooden cab. Used in mainline freight service, it made its last run on Jan. 18, 1955 after traveling 1,496,191 miles. It was named Old Smokey by the school children, who raised money to defray the cost of installation."

CN had abandoned the Soo line to the west. But they then rebuilt it around 2012 to access fracking sand. [TrainOrders]