Thunder Bay Unseen
Superior History
Home
Street Tours
Parks
The Harbour
Railroads
Cemeteries
Infrastructure
Neighbours
WebMaster
Links
Contact Me
Waving The Flag - 2
The term Fallen Flags is used by railroad enthusiasts to denote the logos of railroads that no longer exist, whether through merger or assimilation. Although there are a number of those logos in this section it is by no means a collection of the completely defunct. There are a number of logos, both classic and modern, found on different cars throughout the Lakehead. This is the second of such pages here at Thunder Bay Unseen. The first page can be found here.
 |
CP Rail Soo After
purchasing the Soo Line and integrating it into the main CP
railroad, CP began to re brand the Soo Line's rolling stock. |
 |
Union Pacific The largest railroad in the United States, Union Pacific shares access to its routes with CP which explains why, like the CSX auto carrier above, a Union Pacific auto carrier can be found on the CP tracks in Thunder Bay |
 |
Wisconsin Central An interesting
name to find in Thunder Bay, although completely expected.
The original Wisconsin Central was absorbed into the Soo Line
in 1960. |
 |
Santa Fe Railway The Santa Fe Railroad was merged with Burlington Northern in 1996. Originally providing a cross county route from Topeka to Santa Fe via the settler's route of the Santa Fe trail, the railroad eventually extended from Chicago all the way to Los Angeles. The distinctive Santa Fe cross logo and Red 'Warbonnet' paint scheme on its locomotives are among the most recognized logos in all of railroading. Cars sporting the Santa Fe logo sometimes appear in Thunder Bay due to CN's track sharing agreements with the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe railway. |
 |
Pillsbury Pillsbury was once a rival company to General Mills, both being baked good manufacturers based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. These cars were used to transport processed grain from their mills to their bakeries. Pillsbury invested heavily in the railroad in Minnesota to facilitate this transportation. The cars served as rolling billboards for the brand. General Mills bought out Pillsbury in 2000 so there is a chance that each of these cars will eventually be repainted for another company. |
 |
Southern Pacific Southern Pacific was purchased by the Rio Grande Railroad in 1988 but kept the name Southern Pacific due to its brand recognition. After being established in 1865 the Southern Pacific grew to hold routes from New Orleans to Los Angeles and north to Utah and Colorado. The new Southern Pacific was eventually bought by Union Pacific in 1996. Union Pacific and CP have track sharing agreements which has led to differently branded cars passing through Thunder Bay, far beyond their original point of origin. |
 |
Tobacco Valley Lumber Company The Tobacco Valley Lumber Company is based in Flathead, Montana, and helps to market lumber produced at four independent sawmills there. The Tobacco Valley lies very close to the Canadian border in the northwestern portion of that state. |
 |
The Andersons The Andersons is an American Agricultural company that has an extensive railway leasing arm. They lease thousands of rail cars in use across Canada, and the United States. Given the nature of the grain industry in Thunder Bay it is a little surprising the more of their covered hoppers do not appear in our yards. Their main office is in Ohio so they are a strong regional player in the midwest rail industry. |
 |
BC Rail BC Rail is a new sight in the city for the most part. It's main presence is in the form of locomotives. The entire BC Rail operation was purchased in 2004 by Canadian National. It was only a matter of time before their equipment was disseminated across the rest of the CN network. |
 |
Penn Central Penn
Central was formed from the merger of New York Central and the
Pennsylvania Railroad, and was later added to with the The New
York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Penn Central ceased to
exist under that name in 1976. From this failed merger the company
Conrail was created which was eventually bought up and split
between Norfolk Southern and CSX. Both have trackage agreements
with CN and CP so that may explain how this car made its way
to Thunder Bay, since it's marks have been replaced |
 |
Saskatchewan Grain Car Corporation These are new sights in the city as well. The new colour scheme on the Saskatchewan Grain Cars is more in tune with the province's offical colours. The flowers on the cars are Western Red Lilies, the province's official flower. |
 |
Seaboard Coast Line Railway SCL was former Class I railroad on the east coast of the United States from 1967 to 1982. It is best known for its Juice Train, a weekly train that hauls Tropicana Orange Juice from Florida to New Jersey, across the river from New York City. In 1982 SCL was amalgamated with Chessie Systems to create the new railroad CSX. CSX, in turn, has track sharing agreements with Canadian Pacific which might offer an explanation as to how this car might be found so far from home. |