In march me and my family would head up to northern wisconsin to tomahawk wisconsin to see hike and explore the beautiful town and railroad history and go catch some fish as well and was wondering if anyone could give me some information on the area I plan to railfan and where the best area around that location would be if there was a yard to be on the west or east side?
Tomahawk: I know two trains come through a day such as the tomahawk railroad and the wisconsin central train connection but what time would both come through?
Wausau: I realize there is a branch line in the city and was wondering how many trains use that to serve the industrial park and at one time, I realize that the south side of town would be best to catch most trains since only one comes from the north to the yard.
Junction City: I realize the river subdivision and the subdivision on the main line would head through there and was wondering how many trains I can see within an hours period.
Green Bay: I would stand at the former train depot for green bay with the football player statue and was wondering how many trains I would see.
Wisconsin Rapids: I would stick around the yard area so how many trains come through there?
at each location I Would spend about an hour or two
IIRC, the ex-MILW yard ran north-south through town on the east side. There was a wye there that ran west to the MT&W and the container plant. The ex-MILW line(now CN) does not go north to Heaford Jct anymore. CN uses trackage rights on the MT&W to reach their ex-SOO east-west line up at Bradley.
Wausau- I know they have at least one local that runs to Stevens Point daily with 3M roofing granules and quite a bit of paper mill traffic. Also, in Weston there are daily WPSX unit coal trains going to the generating station there, as of this year coming up the Valley Sub. from Union Pacific. Not quite sure all the details though.
Junction City- Stevens Point, just east of there on the same mainline (Superior Sub.), can see 30+ trains a day depending on traffic levels, with intermodals and mixed freights. I’m not sure if the Valley Sub. sees any other trains that don’t originate, terminate, or pass through Point or not, say Wis. Rapids to Wausau or something, but I’d say Junction City would probably be your best bet of the listed cities as far as sheer number of trains is concerned. By the numbers it should be like a train an hour, but sometimes there’ll be dead times and other times you’ll get 3 or 4 trains cruising through in less than an hour- thats really neat!
Also just a thought, Stevens Point isn’t that far away and there are always trains in Point, including 2 yard jobs usually with a few ex-WC SW-1500s, several locals, and the same mainline trains that run through Jct. Cty.
Tomahawk - The TR goes to work around 0600-0700 AM and runs over to the paper mill to switch- on a normal day they are done by 1000AM and back to the yard. They will also deliver cars up to Bradley to interchange with the CN- at Bradley the CN keeps a locomotive that runs over to Rhinelander and back three to four times a week depending on the traffic. The CN road freight from Wausau-Prentice comes through in the middle of the night around 100-200am. The CN’s Prentice-Wausau run comes down around dawn to Tomahawk- if you’re lucky you may see this one in daylight if the schedule gets out of whack. The paper mill in Tomahawk is on the far west side of town and is located on a long loop track that comes off the TR main line on the north side of the yard. The Milwaukee Road depot is now a heating business, and the yard is abandoned.
Wausau- There are several trains you can keep an eye out for here. There are a couple different switch jobs that work every day in the city- the main one is the 3M job that runs across the river to the roofing granule plant on the old CNW. There is also a job that will run south to Rothschild to switch the paper mill there (and occasionally will go as far south as Mosinee if needed.) They also serve a couple customers on a small remainder of the CNW’s Rothschild branch in Schofield. There is also a turn that will run out on the former CNW to switch the paper mills over past “the island” downtown, and some warehouses out on the former line to Marshfield. The road trains are L588/589- L588 normally departs mid-morning from Wausau after the Prentice-Wausau train has arrived and completed reblocking the train. They may stop to make pickups at Rothschild, Mosinee or the rock pit at Mathy before heading south to Junction City and Stevens Point. The L589 will come north in the evening- this summer I was seeing them leave Point just around sundown. Weston coal trains will number 7-8 a week- so there should be some UP power sitting around at Weston, or even a train arriving/leaving