Not much, and I beleive its mostly all ex CNW, pink lady ballast and all. Alec
I just figured that out. I searched for them using www.dogpile.com and then checked out some guy named Ron’s site because he had pics of the engines. I like their paint scheme. I couldn’t find a website for the company or any info about when they started operation.
The Wisconsin Northern Railroad is owned by Progressive Rail in Minnesota. They own (I believe they own it) the old C&NW track from Chippewa Falls to Cameron, and the old Soo Line track from Cameron to Barron. There is a Yahoo Group on this road, called WISCONSINNORTHERN. They have 2 GP15-1’s, as mentioned, and also have a SW1500, which was brought over from Progressive Rail in MN. It is numbered the 34. Once and a while they use the D.A.R.E. caboose from the Locomotive & Tower Preservation Fund (which restored the Eau Claire tower, and put it in a park, and retored the 2719 and 1003 steam engines) which is an ex-SOO wide vision, for special trips such as the Santa Train, which they ran last year with the SW1500.
I’m not sure how regularly they operate, or when they operate. They run in “push me, pull me” mode, having a engine at the end of each train.
Phil
Awesome info, thanks!
W&N is north on Monday and Wednesday, south on Tuesday and Thursday, Friday is done as a round trip, they do as much as they can but have to make it back. Officially they begin at Norma, the switch to the industrial park on the NE side of Chippewa Falls.
i never see them other than idling at norma, but it’s good to see that they’re doing very well for their small size
sorry for reviving this old topic, but i just saw the WN yesterday. and i think they run trains as soon as UP brings them enough cars to make a long enough train with. or whenever their customers request it. all i know is they left Chippewa Falls yesterday going North at about 11:30 AM
A little more information to add to this topic… Somehow I missed it the first time through…
The track on which Wisconsin Northern runs is owned by an entity similar to those that own much of Wisconsin & Southern’s track, sort of a government cooperative. It is then leased to and operated by the WN.
The story on the WC (now CN) line to Superior was a little different in my recollection. When SOO sold to WC, the line to Superior was still owned by SOO, as they did not want WC to become a bridge line, and run overhead freight. Eventually, WC found a willing seller in C&NW to get their line to Superior, but a clause in the SOO sale contract forced them to purchase the SOO Superior line at the same time. WC took the best of the two lines, and abandoned the rest.
And then CN started sending their trains via WC, and eventually bought them!
i see. CN is down to 6 trains a week in Chippewa Falls. that track must have been used less too
This has been a very interesting string of messages and photos – but to get to the original question – I strongly recommend buying the reprint of the 1923 C&NW Shipper’s Directory that is often seen for sale at swap meets such as DuPage and elsewhere by the publisher, Ted Schnepf…
http://users.foxvalley.net/~railsunl/Books/shippers.html
The 1923 Shipper’s Directory goes state by state, town by town and lists the local customers by name, all organized by industry/product/material. (Which means you can’t just look up a city or town and get a complete picture – it is more cumbersome than that). A little time with a map and the directory and you should have an excellent notion of local customers (shippers AND receivers – the title is a bit misleading) along the line. What it won’t tell you is volume – so an outfit that received or shipped one car a year looks just the same as one that received or shipped ten cars a day.
It is fascinating for example to see how many small towns received furniture by rail in the 1920s. Even in the late 1950s I can remember the local furniture store’s truck at the South Milwaukee depot unloading a boxcar, probably from N. Carolina.
The Directory reprint is fairly thick and I think it is worth the asking price. I bought an original 1940 Shipper’s Directory in poor condition and paid $100.
If you can locate old city and town directories in a public library it is possible to use the 1923 data and move forward to more recent years so that you can at least guess as to customers. If you have specific questions about a city or town send me an email at engine1385@aol.com and I’ll try to look it up in the 1940 edition for you.
Note that Ted offers a deal on both the Milwaukee Road and CNW shipper’s directory.
Dave Nelson
You hit the nail on the head. The only way to support the line from Itasca toward Spooner and south was potash and lumber from Western Canada to connections in Chicago and forwarding to customers in to the East in Official Territory. Once the CN had their own route to Chicago the Northwestern’s line was redundant. The Northwestern made a strategic error in not having the haulage trains move over their railroad rather than the BN.
I was the Market Manager-Chemicals and Fertilizer for the Northwestern from 1970 to 1982.