Does anyone know how far west of Sturtevant, WI the CP is operating the old MILW Southwest Division (I believe that’s what it was called)? In the 9 years my family lived along that line (starting around 1968), I, nor my mom ever recall seeing a single train on that line. It was obviously in use, and we did hear them from a distance, but most of the action must’ve been at night because we sure never saw 'em when the sun was up.
From the satellite imagery it looks like the line still exists past I-94, and appears somewhat overgrown by trees near Union Grove. Does the CP still operate out that far, or is the wye at Sturtevant just used for local switching and car storage?
Cheesehead3 reporting: You are correct regarding Kansasville; however, I cannot confirm the frequency.
If you travel Hwy 142 east of Burlington, you will pass over the old ROW. There is an old railroad bridge over the river just east of the CN tracks south of Burlington.
In answer to your question regarding the best railfans: By what criteria do you compare?
I would say Wisconsin, only because it is home to Trains magazine and Kalmbach’s wonderful staff.
Kansasville at least used to have a pair of wig-wags at the grade-crossing that, as a kid attending St. Mary’s School in Dover, I used to cross over in the school bus every morning. Never saw that thing move (how I wished it would’ve).
Having been born and raised in Wisconsin, but also having lived in Iowa for six years, I vote for Iowa having the best railfans. Wisconsinites tend to be more interested in deer hunting and “goin’ up nort” to the cabins to fish than railfanning. Iowa had more variety in modern railroad history:
Rock Island, Milwaukee Road, Chicago Great Western, Illinois Central, Chicago & Northwestern, Great Northern, Burlington, AT&SF, Ft. Dodge, Des Moines & Southern, Des Moines & Central Iowa, Cedar Rapids & Iowa City, Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern, Omaha Road, Wabash, Des Moines Union, Minneapolis & St. Louis… can’t beat that line-up for rail-fanning.
Did ya ever play the role of “spotter” for the bus driver? I remember as a kid in Prior Lake, when we crossed the old MILW line thru town, one of the bus’s occupants had to exit the bus prior to it crossing the tracks, cross on foot, and then re-enter on the other side. I volunteered for that a few times…
You know, ever since I halfway moved to Wisconsin I’ve noticed that nobody ever goes anyplace specific north of where they live. They always just go “Up North”. I tell them they are “Up North”, they’re in Wisconsin. They tell me to go back to Illinois.
Allrighty Then, should I take “The One Way”.
That helper operation out of N. Fond du Lac is interesting. The assigned unit these days appears to be a black IC SD-40. It shoves long hood first.
The reason people never say exactly where they are going is to avoid the inevitable “Where’s that???” when they say Blackwell, Dunbar, Harrison, Doering, Ingram, Dorchester, Lublin or any of the hundred or so villages that are anywhere from 4 to 6 houses including two that are deserted derelicts.
If your other hobby is watching grass grow, then I guess railfanning the CP anywhere west on the line out of Sturdevant could be pretty exciting.
We didn’t have that practice. Instead, the bus driver (a nice old lady with a voice louder than a steam whistle) would come to a complete stop at the tracks and yell, “QUIET!!”. She’d open the door and listen for an oncoming train before proceeding.
As regards “up nort”, another thing my native people won’t often tell you is exactly what their “cabins” up there look like. More often than not, it’s some mobile home that’s hardly mobile anymore, or some shack with a leaky roof and weeds growin’ 3 ft. high around the foundation (and when you walk up to the door something scurries through the grass that you can never see what it is). Don’t get me wrong - if that’s what you like to do then fine. It just always made me laugh when I’d hear the term “cabin” or “cottage” and instead it’s a glorified fish house.
Zardoz, I would respectfully disagree with part of your statement above and vote for Illinois railfans as the best, BUT I would fully agree with your statement about the *Trains/*Kalmbach staff being wonderful folks.
The CP’s Sturtevant Patrol (symbol G61) only goes out to Union Grove/Kansasville as needed. It may be more than once a week or once a month if that even. Last I was aware, the only businesses shipping on this line are the FS Co-op in Kansasville that will occaisonally get a car or two of potash. Union Grove used to recieve lumber for the lumberyard downtown just west of the Hwy 45 crossing, and there was a co-op there but I don’t know the current status. I know they went out there the day after Xmas, but when they have gone out there since then I don’t know (hard to keep track of it living in the Hawkeye state).
There is/was a proposal to build an ethanol plant between Union Grove and Kansasville. however, NIMBY opposition and the city of Union Grove derailed those plans. So the developer (a fellow named Kordus) went to plan B which was build it along the R-O-W west of Kansasville. I have not heard any further developments since then but it sounds like it is dead in the water.
Besides, it will probably only be a matter of months or years before Progressive Rail buys that spur along with the brown warehouse along the tracks just west of I-94. (That’s a joke, not a rumor)
Who has the best railfans? Well Wisconsin did but now Iowa has for the past year and a half (since I moved ).
Oh my God - say it isn’t so! You didn’t mention the saurkraut factory in Union Grove! They’re not being served by the railroad anymore?? Does that mean THEY CLOSED THE SAURKRAUT FACTORY??!! Holy hotcakes - what a blow to the ambiance and charm of Union Grove! To think that wonderful aroma, that’d fill the air every summer evening like a dead skunk in August, is now gone is too much to bear! [xx(]
Good update. For a change of pace, I sometimes take Route 11 to get over that way just to see if there is any sign of life. Is the track still in place as far as Burlington? I know that the ROW from Burlington to Elkhorn is now a trail.
Burlington-Kansasville is abandoned and the track has been removed.
The CN uses about 2 miles of track in Burlington, normally switched 6 days a week by the Waukesha-Burlington local (L50481). It extends from near where the Soo & Milw crossed in Burlington west almost to the Racine-Walworth County line. Customers are the Nestle Chocolate factory, Burlington Co-op (Cooperatives Plus), and a glass bottle maker/recycler (It has changed ownership numerous times and last I was aware was “St. Gobain”, in the past it had also been “Foster Forbes” and “Ball Foster”.
Elkhorn to Burlington is a bike trail. From Elkhorn to Bardwell (through Delavan & Darien) is still operated by the WSOR. I know in the Elkhorn and Delavan area they serve a few lumber yards. I can’t remember everything, but I know they also service a few small things near where I-43 goes over the tracks in Elkhorn. I could be wrong but I believe most of the revenue on this line comes from 2 grain elevators and a cold storage/food processing plant in Darien. I think WSOR provides daily service via their Janesville run-through train (crew picks up the HJ at Milton, and takes it to Bardwell or Fox Lake or so and stages it for the Chicago crew, meanwhile switching the Elkhorn branch). I know that job used to be called the JCEL but it’s now the J2 or J3 or something. In the past they had used the symbol of either JEL or JEX for the Elkhorn job.
Bardwell to Clinton is abandoned.
From Clinton to Beloit is operated by UP. I think they may serve the co-op in Clinton and a few other industrines in Beloit, but I am not too familiar with their operations there. I believe the local that services this line will either be the LPS-15 out of Janesville, or a Janesville yard job (YJA-##, unsure of the numbers, I know YJA76 is the Evansville job).