The Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway (DSS & A) was an American railroad serving the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the Lake Superior shoreline of Wisconsin. It provided service from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and St. Ignace, Michigan, westward through Marquette, Michigan to Superior, Wisconsin, and Duluth, Minnesota. A spur stretched northward from Nestoria, Michigan, on the main line, up the Keweenaw Peninsula to Calumet, Michigan. This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ... The Upper Peninsula of Michigan, also known as The Upper Peninsula, The U.P. (or The UP), and Above the Bridge by Michiganders, refers to the northern peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. ... State nickname: The Wolverine State, The Great Lakes State Official languages English de-facto Capital Lansing Largest city Detroit Governor Jennifer Granholm (D) Senators Carl Levin (D) Debbie Stabenow (D) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 11th 96,889 mi² / 250,941 km² 41. ... The Great Lakes from space; Lake Superior is on the upper left Lake Superior (known as Gitchigume in a Native American language) is the largest of North Americas Great Lakes. ... State nickname: Badger State Official languages None Capital Madison Largest city Milwaukee Governor Jim Doyle (D) Senators Herb Kohl (D) Russ Feingold (D) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 23rd 169,790 km² 17 Population  - Total (2000)  - Density Ranked 18th 5,453,896 38. ... Sault Ste. ... St. ... There are different meanings for Marquette, almost all of which are named after Father Jacques Marquette, S.J., a Jesuit missionary who along with Louis Joliet mapped the Mississippi River Places Marquette Heights, Illinois Marquette, Iowa Marquette, Kansas Marquette Township, Kansas Marquette, Michigan Marquette, Nebraska Marquette County, Michigan Marquette Island... Superior has various meanings: A superior is a person who has the authority to command another, as in a superior officer. See: Superior (function) In a hierarchical structure of any kind, a superior is higher in the hierarchy and thus closer to the apex than the subordinate ones. ... Duluth is the name of some places in the United States of America: Duluth, Minnesota - on Lake Superior Duluth, Georgia - a suburb of Atlanta See also the French explorer Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut. ... State nickname: North Star State, The Land of 10,000 Lakes, The Gopher State Official languages None Capital Saint Paul Largest city Minneapolis Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) Senators Mark Dayton (D) Norm Coleman (R) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 12th 225,365 km² 8. ... Keweenaw was a rocket launch site at 47°26′ N 87°43′ W on Keweenaw peninsula. ... Calumet is the name (or part of the name) of a number of places in the United States of America: Calumet, Iowa Calumet, Michigan Calumet, Minnesota Calumet, Oklahoma Calumet, Wisconsin Calumet City, Illinois Calumet County, Wisconsin Calumet Farm was a well-known Thoroughbred horse breeding farm. ...

The first predecessor of the DSS & A began operations in 1855. The railroad fell under the control of the Canadian Pacific (C.P.R.) in 1888, and was operated in 1888-1960 as an independently-nameplated subsidiary of the C.P.R. In 1961, the DSS & A was folded into the C.P.R.-controlled Soo Line Railroad. Since 2001, the remaining operating trackage of the former DSS & A has been operated by Canadian National (CN). The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR; AAR reporting marks CP, CPAA, CPI), known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a Canadian Class I railway that is operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited. ... Categories: Rail stubs | Defunct railroad companies of the United States | Illinois railroads | Michigan railroads | Minnesota railroads | North Dakota railroads | South Dakota railroads | Wisconsin railroads ... CN redirects here, as its the most common usage of the abbreviation in Canada; for more uses, see CN (disambiguation). ...

Independent railroad

The development in the 1850s of hematite iron ore mines in the Upper Peninsula hills above Marquette encouraged the development of numerous railroad plans for spur lines and connecting routes between mines, local boom towns, and the shores of the Great Lakes. While most of the Upper Peninsula's iron ore and Keweenaw copper was shipped to the rest of the United States by lake boat, the inability of water-based shippers to offer service to northern Michigan in winter encouraged railroad promoters to launch numerous plans for lines in the Upper Peninsula. Hematite (AE) or haematite (BE) is the mineral form of Iron (III) oxide, (Fe2O3), one of several iron oxides. ...

By the 1870s, a maze of corporate charters and tiny stub lines had been created or built in the central Upper Peninsula, primarily to carry iron or copper ore from the mines down to smelters and docks on the shores of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. In 1879-81, venture capitalists led the construction of the Detroit, Mackinac & Marquette (DM & M), a standard-gauge main line from St. Ignace, on the Straits of Mackinac, to Marquette on Lake Superior. Although the state of Michigan granted the DM & M more than 1.3 million acres of state land (almost 9,000 acres per mile) as a construction subsidy, by 1886 the new DM & M went into receivership. Sunset on Lake Michigan A different sunset on the lake. ... As railways developed and expanded one of the key issues to be decided was that of the rail gauge (the distance between the two rails of the track) which should be used. ... The Straits of Mackinac, spanned by the Mackinac Bridge, seen from the southern shore The Mackinac Straits is the strip of water that connects two of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron and separates the Lower Peninsula of Michigan from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. ...

The DM & M was reorganized by venture capitalist James McMillan of Detroit, who led the rapid consolidation of the DM & M and many of the UP's smaller railroads during the early 1880s. The new Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic went into operation as a merger of these lines in December 1886. There are a few people with the name James M(a)cMillan: James MacMillan, a musician James McMillan, a U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Motto: Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus (We Hope For Better Things; It Shall Rise From the Ashes - this motto was adopted after the disastrous 1805 fire that devastated the city) Nickname: The Motor City and Motown Location in Wayne County, Michigan Founded Incorporated July 24, 1701 1815  County Wayne County Mayor...

Canadian control

The Canadian Pacific Railway (C.P.R.), transcontinental line, took control of the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic in 1888. In 1892-94, C.P.R. funds financed the construction of the DSS & A westward from the Keweenaw Peninsula to Duluth.

During the 1890s, the timber industry reached the peak of its operations on the Lake Superior shoreline properties adjacent to the DSS & A's new main line, with irreplaceable old-growth white pines falling to the lumbermen's saws and axes. After white pines were exhausted, local cutters began to turn to high-quality hardwoods such as sugar maple, and then to pulpwoods such as paper birch and aspen. Timber Timber is a term used to describe wood that has been processed for use —from the time trees are felled, to its end product as a material suitable for industrial use —such as structural material for construction or wood pulp for paper production. ...

In the 1910s, timber yields began to decline all over the Upper Peninsula. This was a blow from which the DSS & A could not recover as an independent nameplate. Its story from 1920 onwards was that of the American railway industry as a whole, with negative factors intensified by unfavorable local business conditions in northern Michigan.

In 1957, the state of Michigan opened the Mackinac Bridge, an all-weather hard road across the Straits of Mackinac into the Upper Peninsula. The DSS & A responded by ending its remaining passenger rail service in January 1958. There was now no reason for the short line to maintain its own identity, and in 1961 its Canadian owners folded it into a larger railroad they also owned, the Soo Line. The Mackinac Bridge is the longest suspension bridge between anchorages in the United States. ...

Trivia

• Shortly after World War I, the alter ego of writer Ernest Hemingway, "Nick Adams", rode northwestward on the DSS & A from St. Ignace to his trout fishing hole in Big Two-Hearted River.

• The DSS & A's allegedly poor-quality service throughout much of the 20th century led to many uncomplimentary nicknames being bestowed on the struggling railroad, such as "Dead Slow Service & Agony" and "Damn Slow, Shabby Affair".

• The DSS & A's own "official" nickname for itself was simply "South Shore", referring to the railroad line's route along the south shore of Lake Superior.

• The DSS & A's Lake Superior-affected former service territory receives more snowfall in many years than any other section of the United States east of the Rockies. From 1957 through 2005, the average snowfall on the Keweenaw Peninsula has been 241 inches (more than 20 feet) per year.