scroll down to the second paragraph if you dont want t read my long intro
when i was young and watching CNW at the nearby crossing, i would see a lot of trains on that particular track in any given day. and usually one or two long manifests. well, when i was out of it after i moved as well as after the UP merger, i went back and found the track nearly-deserted. and since then, i had been blaming UP for cutting the train jobs on the track and not caring about small businesses. well it seems i was wrong. and i’m terribly sorry, Union Pacific.
what’s my point? who were some of the customers on the old CNW line from Altoona to Itasca? the reason for the sudden lack of trains was BEFORE the UP merger when CNW lost all their customers on the track and ripped out all the track north of Rice Lake as a result. i later discovered that the 2 long manifests that used the track were NOT terminated by UP and are actually still in use today. they just use a CN line now.i believe what remains of that track is now used by the Wisconsin Northern shortline. does anyone know if the WN serves customers in Rice Lake or if UP goes up there? and if there is enough interest by possibly new businesses north of rice lake, is it at all possible and/or probable that the track might one day be returned? and who did CNW once serve north of Rice Lake and did they all close down or just switch to truck service?
and again, i apologize to Union Pacific for blaming them for the lack of traffic on the track now. sorry
I think that any discouragement of customers was done by a previous CNW management, who decided that they didn’t want anything to do with Wisconsin after the plans to merge with the MILW fell through. Look at the massive sell-offs of lines that took place then–FRVR, and later WC, were the beneficiaries of a lot of this, including a route to Duluth.
The folks at WC were go-getters, and they had the benefit of a CEO who knew the inner workings of the CNW pretty well.
Back in the day, you would have had four manifest pairs through Altoona/Eau Claire: 477/488, 483/490, 417/406, and 415/408. Now, it should be two: MPRVP/MSSPR, and MPRIT/MITPR. Plus the RoadRailer trains (ZEMCH/ZCHEM), which are probably as close a thing to 477/488 that you’ll ever hope to see again.
The fact that WC has been bought out by CN certainly couldn’t have benefitted the UP’s connection with the old DW&P at Itasca. And I’m pretty sure that people who used CNW to ship between Chicago and the Twin Cities probably just got fed up with slow service when they had faster alternatives.
unortunately MPRIT and MITPR go through Wisconsin Rapids now. sad to see 2 manifests gone now from the track near me. i dont recal ever seeing any WC track up in that area, save for the SOO track north of Trego. unless i’m missing something here
The Soo and later WC had an East-West line through, Ladysmith, Cameron, Amery, and Dresser, plus a short branch into Rice Lake. The remains of this line forms the top end of the Wisconsin and Northern.
The Turkey Processing Plant at Barron is one of the biggest customers for Wisconsin and Northern.
The growth of the Wisconsin Central and the BN haulage agreement with CN doomed the northend of the C&NW. The loss of the overhead traffic destroyed the economics of the rest of the traffic. Without the overhead traffic the local traffic did not justify through manifests. For C&NW it became cheaper to move the traffic via the Twin Cities, by combining traffic heading south with that heading to Chicago you could generate a complete train. One through manifest could not generate enough money to pay for the upkeep of the whole line from Eau Claire to Superior. When the WC bought the line from the C&NW, they kept the northern portion of the C&NW from Gordon north. South of Gordon there were several bridges in poor condition.
The only source of traffic north of Cameron was the paper mill at Hayward which is on a short branch, a portion of the old Omaha mainline to Ashland, plus some sidings that loaded pulpwood, until you get to Superior.
Is this line you are talking about connected to the ‘Adams line’? That was CNW’s line from the twin cities to Milwauee. The only reason I ask is that I read in Trains mag that there was very little industry connected to this line - most of the traffic on it now is UP through traffic. I wonder what UP’s plans are for the future of this line?
i remember when highway 53 was still only 2 lanes. it went under a SOO bridge just north of trego. now when i’m on my way to and from Duluth, i always see what’s left of the bridge. the ex WC track is still there, but i dont know if CN uses it or not still.
WN gets most service at that plant? good to hear. i hope they can become successful and become a regional in a few years. but they still have a lot of growing to do
The bridge that you are thinking of is actually a bit further north, it’s at Gordon. The old C&NW and WC(former Soo) crossed in Gordon on the east side of the highway, with the WC above the C&NW. The WC lowered their grade and connected their line from south of Gordon to use the C&NW north of Gordon to Superior. So the remains of the Soo Line bridge north of Gordon is abandoned. The old C&NW south of Gordon, through Trego to Spooner is owned by the local county and operated by the shortline Wisconsin Great Northern, they are primarily a tourist operation, they only move a token amount of freight. They hosted the steamer Soo Line 2719 for one summer.
oh dude thanks. i had no idea anyone had any knowledge of such a small bridge that i hoped to get info on. sweet. so the WGN line is the track that’s still near that abandoned bridge now?
wait. the WC crossed the CNW? define “lowered their grade”. i dont quite understand
Just wondering, but there is no ex-WC, nee-SOO bridge north of Trego. The bridge north of Trego going over Hwy. 63 is of C&NW vintage. The bridge I believe you are talking about is the old SOO bridge that used to go over Hwy. 53 just north of Gordon. That bridge is long gone. For those of you who don’t know the info, I’ll tell you.
The Soo Line crossed over the old CMO tracks north of Gordon, before crossing over Hwy. 53.
In 92’ (If I remember correctly) the C&NW (old CMO) stopped traffic on the line, and abandoned the line from Itasca to Trego, and Spooner to Cameron.
The WC (ex-SOO) continued to use the bridge, with a abandoned C&NW under it.
The grades to get into Itasca over the WC tracks were farely steep, steep enough to have to put another engine onto the train. However, the abandoned C&NW tracks had less of a grade, and the tracks weren’t as windy as the WC’s. Shortly after the C&NW abandoned, the WC bought the remaining C&NW trackage from Gordon to Itasca.
The WC built a new section of track to go from the WC’s track, to the ex-C&NW track. They then abandoned the ex-SOO track from Gordon to Itasca, thus leaving the bridge abaondoned. The only things left there are as follows:
ah thanks. what is the track that still remains there then? i believe if driving to Duluth and after you pass that spot, you’ll see a track suddenly appear to your right. i thought that was the old SOO track? which track is that one?
I believe that is the old C&NW you are looking at. From Owen to Gordon, the CN utilizes the SOO/WC tracks. Then, they made a crossover to the C&NW tracks. The C&NW tracks are torn up from the bridge to where the crossover now joins.
Here’s some maps.
The first one is from DeLorme. The dotted line is the abandoned C&NW, and the normal line is the SOO.
The second one is a current map. You can see that there is a crossover from the SOO to the C&NW tracks. The arrow is pointing at the C&NW tracks, shown as a road.
oh my… all these years from when i went under that bridge for the last time to a few minutes ago, i thouyght the bridge was for the same track that was to my right on that highway. amazing what a few well-placed hills will do to fool you. it all makes perfect sense now!
seems the crossover is now just a curve track. sad to see all the track go to waste. sounds like CNW wanted out from their failure to get MILW moreso than the sudden loss of customers. i have a feeling something might happen with that old trackage one year or another. if more industrial areas pop up in the area or WN becomes bigger etc. it’s a pipe dream, i know
You have to understand that times change. If the C&NW had won the bidding for the MILW it would have been a disaster, even if the judge had accepted the bid that was just slightly worse than the Soo bid. The C&NW had no where near the cash available that the Soo did even without its parent CP. What changed after the Soo acquired the MILW was that railroads were finally doing what the Staggers Act allowed them to do, and that was compete. The CN decided since their subsidiary GTW wasn’t allowed to get the MILW that they would move all their Chicago traffic via the BN through the Twin Cities. This move really reduced both the C&NW and Soo traffic out of Duluth-Superior. Both went from several trains per day to one train or less, with the C&NW having a few more local customers in Superior than the Soo. The loss of the traffic was one of the final nails in the Lakes States coffin that caused the Soo Line to sell their Wisconsin trackage to the WC.
All the local customers between Superior and Cameron were already gone except for some sidings used to load pulpwood for Wisconsin Rapids and the paper mill on the Hayward Branch. Pulpwood is a very marginal business. The WC was able to make it work once they got everybody’s business (Soo, C&NW, and MILW) and were able to concentrate the service to a few loading points. Even then they abandoned the branch from Dresser to Danbury because pulpwood was the only traffic left north of St. Croix Falls, plus 5 or 6 cars of LPG for a Coop.
you’re right. i’m just a little too optimistic. i’m a bit saddened by how much track in WI has been dug up. makes me wish there was change involving MORE rail traffic. that’s why i’m so interested in the WN
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