In my railfanning pursuits today I noticed that the in Neenah, Oshkosh, and Fond du Lac yards there are switches, rails, and ties that are waiting for some big project. Anyone know anything?
I know the overpass for the Neenah yard is nearing completion and one is planned in FDL. Is CN generating that much traffic through this area that they revamp 2 1/2 yards (Oshkosh is really dinky!)? If that much traffic is going through this area why did they rip up miles of double track from Oshkosh to Neenah?
The overpass in NFDL has been on the planning board for years
now…the location has finally been decided, over the yard at Lakeshore
Drive, near the yard office. There was talk of moving it father into
town, but it would have cost twice as much. Now the state has to
approve it. CN and the village will kick in, also.
The
yard in NFDL is always under re-construction and expansion. The yard
(for WC, at least) made up trains for Point and Chicago, and I’m
guessing CN does the same.
The double track(one ex-SOO, the other ex-CNW) was
combined by WC in the first few years('88-'90). Basically it was to get
off the ex-SOO trackage thru Oshokosh, which was a curvy, slow running,
street trackage arrangement. Whether CN will restore it depends on the
cost.
They’ve been trying to get the old CNW main back into service but the state (or DNR) won’t let them. If CN had their way, that would have been in a couple of years ago. THinking about it, WC wanted it back in so they can store trains there waiting to get into FDL
Why would the state not want them to proceed? The state (Wisconsin) has, in the past, been friendly with the railroads: consider the nice arrangement the state has with the WSOR.
I could see the DNR trying to stop it. That gestapo-like brach of the government is practically an entity unto itself, seemingly answerable to no one.
As I understand it, in Neenah the Byrd Ave. crossing (next to the Neenah Foundry) will be eliminated when the Cecil St. overpass is completed. CN was to take out the exCNW track at Cecil to allow for a shorter overpass. Don’t know if that has anything to do with the track you saw. Cecil St. has always been a point of contention because of frequent yard switching moves tieing up the intersection.
A year or so ago, CN installed new crossovers and signal installations in Neenah.
The track I saw in Neenah was all new stuff and today I saw a grader plowing some brush under at the south end of the yard. Maybe it’s going to expand once Cecil gets finished?
I wonder if some kind of ‘return to previous owner if the RR fails’ clause was attached to the CNW ROW near FDL. If so then maybe it kicked in when ownership changed hands on that line.
I am quite sure there will be sidewalks (at least on one side) on the overpass. There is a grade school about two or three blocks west of the crossing and there was always concern about kids crawling under or over stopped trains on their way to and from school.
Drove past last night on the way home. Looks like there may be sidewalks on the north side of the overpass. To me that’s the better side as you can see further in the yard. There may be some on the south side too but I didn’t have time to look too long.