Wow, I just discovered this in my internet travels. Apparently WSOR had a RR15 program to restore rail service between Plymouth and Sheboygan Falls, WI (done). The other half was to restore the former Milwaukee Road Mineral Point branch between Monroe and Mineral Point, WI in three phases (see link below). So I see this mentioned in WisDOT documents circa 2007-2009 ish but nothing after that.
Reportedly WSOR did a marketing survey and determined there was enough former customers and potentially new customers along the abandoned branch to make relay of rail financially feasible. A bonus was Milwaukee Road had left most of the former steel bridges in place and had modernized the line before abandonment by replacing the wood trestles with steel bridges. However after 2009 I can find no mention of this program. The way this type of program would work is WSOR, the state of Wisconsin and the county or cities the line went through would all contribute to it’s reconstruction.
Rather interesting the line I think was abandoned in 1984 or shortly thereafter. It now has traffic potential again? I wonder how complete a job the Milwaukee Road did prior to deciding to abandon the line?
If you live in Wisconsin, consider a Summer trip to Mineral Point it is a real nice area and the former Milwaukee Road Depot there is a museum of sorts that tells the story of the town and the railroad. So I chartered a Wisconsin Coach Lines bus and took my extended family there from Milwaukee and Waukesha and we had a great time walking about the town and the historical areas. Total cost $650 for the Bus for the full day to carry approx 30-40 people RT from the Amtrak Depot in Milwaukee and a secondary stop at the Highway G Park and Ride Lot on I-94. Recommend bus charters like this for day trips in your various states if you can invite neighbors or cousins along it will defray the costs considerably and it is a lot of fun.
Anyways, Mineral Point near the Depot used to have a medium sized frieght yard at the end of the line along with servicing facilities of a round table and engine house. I estimate the yard was about 5-8 tracks. So they did pretty good business in the past hauling minerals (lead) out of there at one point. Pictures in the museum also showed boxcars and tankers in the mix as well but not sure what they carried or where. If you look at the link in the document it refers to several businesses that had expressed interest in Iowa County if they could get access to rail and I believe one of them was an ethenol plant (I think that ship has sailed).
As for reactivating 60 miles of track I agree. However, WSOR has had fairly good success building traffic on some of it’s other lines via transloading on sidings. Also, WSOR has activated questionable lengths of track before. The extension to Sheboygan Falls for Lycan and Bemis for example. Not sure if the traffic warranted that and I would be curious if the line breaks even today or produces a profit. WSOR gets a good deal from the state with it’s track reactivations
Reading the linked item, lot’s of “where as’s” in there, it sounds like there may have been some projects that would actually build, some that might be built, if the railroad was restored.
It’s kind of like the chicken and the egg thing. Which comes first? The potential project(s) need the railroad to be built first, but the railroad needs the projects to be built first.
“If you build it, they will come” doesn’t always happen in real life.
Jeff
PS. Chicago Madison and Northern was the last operator of the line, which I think may have been bought from the Milwaukee by the State of Wisconsin and leased to them.
It is now the Cheese Country Trail. The right of way is intact from Mineral Point to Monroe.
If you wish to bike it you can park in the trailhead parking lot in Monroe which is adjacent to the Badger State Ethanol plant at the end of track of the Monroe branch. It is a big traffic generator for WSOR.
Wisconsin has also recognized that railroads keep a lot of tonnage off of rural roads, and so reduces road maintenance cost. Don’t know about other states, but weight restrictions are put on many rural roads here during springtime.
As mentioned above it is mostly a rail trail and in Wisconsin as it was mentioned in one of the reports rail trails can revert back to rail use but a condition is they have to provide ROW for the trail and fencing seperating it from the new trail. Wisconsin does Rail Banking which is to keep the rails in place, then converts to rails to trails, and replaces the rails with a trail.
The Brookfield Depot to CN junction under I-94 section used to be rail banked and now is planned for rail trails. Like the Mineral Point line that line was modernized around WWII and almost all the bridges are steel and were left in place when Milwaukee abandoned (I walked that line after abandonment, I think I counted 3-4 short steel bridges over creeks) between Brookfield and CN tracks, the line used to cross the CN tracks and proceed to the gravel quary and even beyond that to the other side of Waukesha where the WSOR tracks start. The rails are still in place in some sections but torn up in others. Towards the end the Milwaukee Road used to use a single MP15 but sometimes a pair of MP15’s to shuttle to the gravel quary with Milwaukee Road hoppers for purchases of road ballast in Waukesha and bring them back to Brookfield for the next local through town to carry away, sometimes they would take the MP15, sometimes leave it. I think that was one reason for heavy steel bridges…the gravel loads. They even had a car scale there across the road from the stone quarry with a small scale shack. Shack is gone but you can still see the pit where the scale was, last I checked.
I noticed that some of the Milwaukee Electric Lines ROW is now a rail trail, specifically the section of the line from Waukesha (just before Highway G and I-94 exit on your right by the Ingleside Hotel…
Raced at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI last month. From hotel to the track I would use WI-23 in route to the track - notice a trail adjacent to WI-23 which was identified as ‘Old Plank Rd. Trail’ - was Plank Road a road or a railroad?
A good question. The woefully inadequate STB site and their associated GIS say nothing. Especially with Wisconsin, do not assume it’s railbanked. Wisconsin DOT will have a come-to-jesus moment with STB at some point over compliance with federal statute. Since WATCO took over W&S, I would imagine a lot of stuff died on the vine.