When I lived in Wisconsin back in the 1970’s there used to be a rail line (C&NW as I recall) that ran from Green Bay through Wausau and on to Eau Claire where it connected with the C&NW main to Minneapolis. There seemed to be at least two or three trains per day on that line and some were quite long (seemed to be usually powered by a string of older Geeps and ocassional Alco products). Can anybody tell me the history of that line or perhaps point me in the direction of a site where I can get the information? Thanks
Jim,
Going back to the early 20th Century, the route was actually a combination of the C&NW, which ran from Green Bay through Shawano and Wausau to Marshfield, and thence Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Paul & Omaha (Omaha Line) to Eau Claire. From 1907 on, the C&NW had a controling interest in the Omaha Line, but until 1957 the Omaha Line operated as a separate entity. At that point the Omaha Line was effectively merged into the C&NW.
As you probably know, a good bit of the history of the two railroads can be found on line, but you might not find very much on this specific route. Just a guess, but I suspect that in the early 1970’s, the line might have been handling traffic off points on the C&NW’s rather north/south lines in the eastern half of Wisconsin to western railroad connections in the Twin Cities. At that time paper and wood products production in Wisconsin was still fairly strong.
Not the GB&W?
The Green Bay & Western route ran to the south of the C&NW line that is the subject of this thread.
Here’s a bike trail site for Green Bay - Wausau part of the C&NW route. Take a look at the photo gallery to see nice barn mural.
http://www.traillink.com/trail/mountain-bay-state-trail.aspx
GB&W route:
Hi Jim,
This was the C&NW’s east-west route across Wisconsin. The line from Green Bay- Marshfield was CNW and Marshfield west of the Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis, and Omaha Ry. You are correct in remembering long daily trains. Green Bay- Altoona (Eau Claire) were trains #70-71 also known as the Tolake an Frolake. There were also local trains as well. The passenger trains #108-109 came off in 1954. Through service ended in 1976 and the rails were abandoned west of Wausau in 1982. Go to Flickr and search CNW Marshfield and you’ll find pictures.
You’ll find more pictures here-
http://kohlin.com/meacham/christmas2004/
http://www.pchswi.org/rrweb/misc_articles/cnw19671982.html
if you have any questions, shoot me an email at foosqust@yahoo.com
The Minneapolis to Chicago line which is now UP goes just to the south of me. Late afternoon/early evening a trailer train goes east on this line lead by two NS engines most of the time. This line south of me used to be two tracks at one point in the past. I don’t know when the 2nd track was removed.
That line ran just south of where I live. The Green Bay-Wausau segment was one of the many cutoffs & improvements the C&NW built in the years prior to WWI. There were a lot of north-south lines in the area and this tied them together and allowed easier routing of freight through Green Bay. Specifically, the Chicago, Manitowoc & North Western; which was built to provide a direct line from Manitowoc to Green Bay and Gillett, with a branch from Pulaski through Eland to Wausau. I always thought it amusing that, in any descriptions I have read, the Pulaski-Gillett segment was the “main” and the (much longer) Wausau segment was the “branch”.
There were some breaks in the construction. The line from Manitowoc connected to the Fox Valley main south of Green Bay and separated again a mile or so north, just out of the Green Bay yard. A similar situation occurred on either sid of the village of Eland (the junctions were just much closer together) and then on to Wausau.