I am traveling up into Northeast Wisconsin on business this week and would appreciate any suggestions for hot spots to view the action in these general areas: Green Bay, Appleton, Oshkosh, FonDuLac, etc.
While I have frequently been to each of these areas I am seeking the best locations that the “locals” really like. The more detailed the location description the better as I have a GPS and can get to just about anywhere. Thanks to all.
Jim, unfortunately the busiest railroad in the area, the Canadian National, is not friendly to railfans, at least not officially, so what used to be a good spot along their yard in Fond du Lac has become problematic.
South of Fond du Lac, a popular railfan spot is Byron Hill, where a road overpass gives good visibility of the long s curve onto the hill. It is not unheard of for helper engines to have to shove a train out of town. This website http://www.frograil.com/railroad/wi.htm#BYRONHILL has instructions for getting there, courtesy of Keith Schmidt
From Fond du Lac, go south on US-41 (a freeway), and take the WI-49 exit. Go west on WI-49, and then north (right) onto WI-175. You’ll cross the tracks, and within 1/2 mile, you should take a left onto local road F (LR-F). LR-F goes over the now-double track CN (ex-WC) main line.
Green Bay – if you have never visited the railroad museum is always worth a visit. There is some public access viewing of the CN yard (and former CNW roundhouse) in the vicinity of the Pulliam Power Plant, which essentially is on the north tip of Green Bay city. It shows up on most maps. The former CNW depot downtown is a restaurant and brewery, well worth dining there to see the photos and railroadiana on display. Sometimes a CN train goes by but action there is pretty light these days.
Perhaps someone else with more immediate access to the areas can suggest railfan spots in Neenah.
Not really a railfan destination per se but the maritime museum in Manitowoc has plenty of interest.
Dave Nelson
Dan (“CNW6000”) showed us a nice park along Lake Winnebago near the southern edge of Oshkosh. CN’s main line (former CNW) passes between the road and the park there, and across the road is a nostalgic-looking drive-in restaurant.
There is/was a yard of sorts south and west of the grade crossing of College Avenue in Appleton, between Route 41 and the downtown. I can’t be more precise, but when my daughter was in Lawrence (about seven years ago) I wandered around a lot of those streets back there, catching what little I could without trespassing. I saw an SDL39 there, before they got rid of them all.
In Green Bay, as has been pointed out above, with the economy down (10% unemployment as soon as you cross the county line going north) there isn’t much of any “hot” to “spot” anymore. In addition to the suggestions already made, let me throw in a couple more:
CN yard-The Atkinson Drive overpass has a sidewalk on one side that allows a view of the south end of the yard. Good thing, too. The north end is often empty. If you haven’t ever seen a yard with only 4-6 cars scattered about it, it’s strange.
Some view of the yard is available from Prairie Avenue (the street to the power plant)-mostly the old roundhouse area.
Another place to try is the Broadway Avenue crossing at the south end of the yard. At least you’ll be sure to see anything that arrives/leaves. The track to the old GB&W bridge over the Fox River branch off here and the bridge is not too far away. Not good public access, though, if I remember right.
Since most of these are in industrial areas, a good place to relax and wait for trains is Liecht Park. It’s across the tracks from the Titletown Brewing Company (the restaurant located in the old C&NW station, mentioned above). If you have time and the inclination to wait, it’s an alternative to sitting indoors or in your car. You can get close enough to the tracks to get decent photos.
Also, just south of the station, Pearl Street abuts the CN right-of-way for about 4-5 blocks. Some good photo opportunities or just a chance to get a little closer that we are often allowed to nowadays.
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Some of my favorite spots, South to North:
-Byron Hill (south of FDL-covered already),
-Lakeshore Drive (street crossing NFDL/Shops Yard-do not go far from the street at all or you can expect a visit from the NFDL PD and be asked to leave. Best light is in AM),
-Fisk Road crossing (MP169.1 detector is here and WOLF siding has signals. Best light is in PM),
-The Oshkosh “yard”, either north or south end…or across the river near the other end of the swing bridge (watch for NO PARKING signs-OPD gets ticket happy). Can shoot AM or PM here depending on where you sit, AM may have better views.
-Sherman Road Crossing (northside of Oshkosh). You can see signals NB & SB here as well as hear the detector at 181.1 (just south of Neenah). Trains move at full track speed (~45ish) through here and may use horn.
-Harrison St. in Neenah. I split my time here between the Kampo Rd Crossing (just off of Breezewood exit from US41 to The Boys & Girls Brigade parking lot is available for railfan use as long as their property is respected and kept clean. Additionally you can shoot from the Cecil St. overpass here which has sidewalks on both sides. Light for shooting in Neenah is best in PM and the overpass can be tricky as it’s directly E/W. Harrison St is a ‘local hangout’ so you might see a few other folks here.
-Stroebe Siding (just north of Neenah on N. Lake St.) Trains to/from GB and locals work here.
I typically don’t go to Appleton/GB but you got some advice there already. Depending on what day/time you’re around Oshkosh you might also catch the Wisconsin & Southern’s “HK” job. If you need/want more specific info I can try to help you out. Feel free to email or PM me.
It’s not a “hotspot” like places around Chicago of course, but I’d suggest Crivitz, WI. I spent a Saturday morning there once watching action on the Escanaba & Lake Superior and I wasn’t disappointed.
That’s where the old MILW north-south line between the Upper Peninsula and Green Bay meets the line to Marinette (there’s a wye there), with both lines operated by the ELS. The lady at the ELS office told me that was their hotspot and I saw 4 trains that morning (including one meet). I saw a good portion of the ELS’ fleet of ex-Reserve Mining SDs and it even inspired me to custom-paint one for my N scale layout (turned-out great - you mix ModelMaster rust with ModelMaster cream and you’ll get the exact light reddish-brown Reserve Mining used).
As mentioned before, the CN is really the only railroad around this area. ELS sure but I’ve tried to catch this RR with no success.
Neenah is really the only “hot spot” around NE Wis. The only use Appleton has is catching northbound coal trains struggling (at times) up the hill to the depot. Some local switching is kind of cool, especially the flats.
Getting around in Neenah is pretty easy. CNW mentioned it (Harrison st) and that runs for about a mile along the tracks. Kampo road, Plexas(sp) parking lot across the street from Neenah Foundry, The boys Brigrade just before Cecil St overpass are where the “locals” hang (all spots in sequence traveling north from Breezewood Lane).
Afternoon is now the busiest on the Railroad with (even south, odd north) 588, 452 (452 comes from GB, 451 is the counterpart) are usually in town within an hour of each other midafternoon. 447 might be added in the mix also. Might see a 346, 118, 198, 302 around late morning towards late afternoon. 343, 119, 451 are usually in the mornings but as of late, have been showing up late mornings to the afternoon. 301 has been running in the evenings. As of right now (9-8-09 1020am) 198 should be getting close to neenah, 119 has not left FDL but the crew is ordered at 1030am, 447 is at FDL getting it’s train together and has a lot of work at Neenah. 452, 451, 447 and sometimes 343 are the trains that do work at Neenah everyday. 415,416 push/pull shows up between 700am-1000am almost like clockwork but does NOT go thru Neenah, it stops at the northside to head to Green Bay. This train has engines on both ends of the train. These approx times are what i’ve witnessed or heard on the scanner in the past 2 weeks or so.
I normally don’t do this, if you want a personal chauffer for the spots around the Neenah area, Oshkosh area, and even the FDL area towards south, you can leave me a message with your number and we can set s
And if you do explore Appleton, you may be tempted to stop into Cleo’s Brown Beam on College Ave. (I assume it’s still there).
Have just one screwdriver in that joint and your knees will go out from under you.
Not a chauffer but a guide, I’m free most of the week.
Hope Eola Jim got to see something on his trip to Wi.Drove around the area Fri and not much moving…Really slow Ray
Good luck trying that today. I was recently informed that with the Smurfit-Stone mill at Ontonogon currently shipping very little, the E&LS is only running one train per week between Ontonogan and Green Bay, with one or two crews taking about four days to make the turn over the whole system. The Escanaba Switch crew runs as needed, and the M&M job around Menominee is running five days a week, but they don’t always have much work. Sadly, gone are the days of the three way meet at Crivitz at about noon or 1pm. Hopefully traffic will pick up for the little railroad again someday and they can get back into regular operation again.
Noah
Thanks Ray, on Wednesday evening I went over to the Appleton CN yard near downtown and saw a southbound general merchandise train moving pretty quickly through the yard and past the office. On Thursday mid-day I ate my lunch by the CN yard office in Green Bay…while there I saw three CN units (one on CN paint, one in IC paint and a switcher in WC paint) switching the yard. During my lunch time visit I was approached by the CN yardmaster who introduced himself and said his tower-man had seen me sitting in my car and he was just checking, after which I introduced myself and he told me it was OK for me to sit there as long as I did not get close to the tracks or trains…nice guy! Thursday evening I visited one “hot spot” on the CN in Neenah just off Breezewood Lane and met a fellow railfan and we talked for about an hour then it became too dark to stay longer…we saw two southbound trains (from Stevens Point) and some switching action while there. I left Appleton very early Friday morning on my way to Milwaukee and stopped briefly by Byron Hill but no trains (one northbound BNSF coal train came through the area as I was leaving and headed south)…I can see where Byron would be a good spot for us fans. That’s about it for my trip and I appreciate all the help from you folks who gave me recommendations for my trip. Thanks