From the Glenwood Herald, October 29, 1909

Soo Hill Busiest Place In Town – A Surprisingly Large Amount of Traffic Passes Through This Station.  We who live in the bottom of this kettle we call Glenwood are only beginning to realize how large a part of the real Glenwood the part on the "Soo" hill really is.  In the depot building which contains the ticket office, the waiting rooms, the baggage rooms and the offices for the operating department the station agent tells us that during the month of September 34,180 cars were handled in these yards, an average of nearly 1,200 per day.  The record day was the 28th of September when 1,836 cars were handled.  As many as 500 cars have been stored from one day to the next because the help was insufficient.  There are 35 trains daily and if an average of 5 men are counted for each crew it gives a total of 175 men that work on the trains that go in and out of this station daily.  How many of these make their homes at Glenwood we do not know. In the switch crews and offices there are 34 men altogether.  The man who gives you this information is E.J. Yapp.  He has been station agent now for two years.  He came here from Rhinelander, Wis., where he formerly was cashier for the Soo line.  Mr. Yapp is doing a great deal of work here, more, he says, than he has ever been called upon to do than any place that he has been.

The Round House Department:  The main work of the roundhouse crew is to clean and repair locomotives.  The roundhouse serves as a barn where the locomotives get their rest and where they can be inspected and put in shape so nothing will be the matter with them when they are sent out on the next run.  Every loose burr must be tightened and everything else must be done to put it into first class shape so that it will insure a journey without accident.  Two extra engines are always kept on hand for cases of emergency.  A book is kept containing the name of the engineer who brought the locomotive in, the time it was brought in, the length of time consumed in the last trip and the earliest time that the crew which brought it in can be sent out on another run.  In this book the engineer also notes the special repairs needed on the locomotive.  The round house foreman explained that the federal laws cover the matter as to the length of time the crew may rest.  The law is very strict.  It was stated that the law was so strict that if a crew should arrive at Brooten after 16 hours work it would not be allowed to go as far as Glenwood but would have to be relieved by another crew or lay over at Brooten until 8 hours had elapsed.  The foreman of the round house crew whom we interviewed is W.F. Buscher.  H.H. McLean is the night foreman.  There are 40 men working in the round house.  There are 5 machinists and 3 boilermakers.  These men take care of all the locomotives used on the Winnipeg and Duluth Divisions.  This crew has during September looked over and repaired about 1000 engines.  Mr. Buscher has been here for about one and a half years and came here from Harvey where he held a similar position.
There is one thing that strikes one while examining things on the Soo hill and that is this:  Everything there is done in a very substantial way; nothing has been done that is to serve as a temporary makeshift.  One gets the idea from all those who are working there that this is only a beginning and that from year to year in the future there will be a continual widening out of the facilities.