Wabeno, Otter Lake & Eastern 2-6-2 "Prairie" Locomotives in the USA

Class Soperton (Locobase 15050)

Data from Roy V Wright (Ed.) 1912 Locomotive Cyclopedia of American Practice, Sixth Edition (New York: Simmons-Boardman Publishing Company, 1912), p. 168. But see Alco's Negative P-531, supplied by Chris Hohl in a 26 October 2016 email, which shows that the Soperton was built by Alco's Pittsburgh Works. (Many thanks to Chris for spotting the error and supplying the data that enriched the entry.) See also Dick Quinlan, "The Menominee Bay Shore Lumber Co. 'The Big Red Mill'", Chips and Sawdust, No 29, Number 2 (Summer 2004), pp. 3-8 (found at [],Number2.pdf, last accessed 3 November 2016.) Works number was 45582 in August 1908.

Owned by the Menominee Bay Shore Lumber Company, the WOL&E ran through Forest County from Soperton (the namesake of the 101 and headquarters). Soperton, platted in the woods about 80 miles NW of Green Bay, Wis, was named for the Menominee's president Alex Soper.

Quinlan writes that "was established as a company town. Built in the heart of rich stands of virgin timber, the community--like the lumber company--was geared to last just ten years. Take the timber off the lands and scoot--that was the philosophy of those years." They had 40,000 acres to choose from and felled "wonderful stands" of ash, birch, butternut, cherry, elm, hard maple, and hemlock,

The Soper brothers may have intended to do the same, but, says Quninlan, "they erred in its projected lifetime. It raced with profit through its expected lifetime of ten years--and then remained almost another thirty years." Quinlan details the

The railroad served timber harvesting operations on a 12-mile (19.3 km) road in this area for 25 years before being relocated to Long Lake in Florence county. Much of the MBSLC's land was later sold to the Federal Government "at deflated prices" as it established the Nicolet National Forest.