Whilst browsing on google maps, I scanned over the site of the now defunct Kettle Moraine Railway in North Lake, Wi. The four mile heritage railroad used to feature two operating steam locomotives and a considerable amount of rolling stock. It ceased operations in 2001 when complaints of the “mess” started to pour in from the rapid growth of suburbia. However, the station, shop, and other buildings still exist on site, and a considerable amount of railbed is still in situ. Perhaps sometime in the future a portion of the line could be reactivated?! Does anyone in this vast network of railfans know more about the condition of the railways remains?
If complaints of whiny suburbanites closed the railroad there’s very little chance of it coming back. Personally I’d think it VERY cool to have a steam railroad in the neighborhood, and I imagine so would most of the posters on the Forum, but that’s just us.
See, this is a problem all over the country as urban sprawl eats its way into the more rural areas. Outsiders move into an area and expect the long term residents are going to bend over backwards to accomodate them. It can be a tourist railroad, a shooting range, a hog or dairy farm, a dirt race track, or whatever. All of a sudden those new homeowners who didn’t do their homework and take a good look at the area throw their little tantrums and louse things up for everyone else. And it does no good for the targets of the complaints to say “Hey! Wait a minute! We were here FIRST!” And in the end, the only winners are the lawyers.
Sorry to vent here, but I see it happening over and over. And it sucks.
Closing a RR is nothing, the whining screaming ninnies out here be-hitched and cried so much they got an entire Marine Corp airbase to shut down. MCAS El Toro for decades was out in the middle of the boonies until explosive growth in the 1980-90’s saw suburban sprawl spread to the very fenceline of the base, then the complete idiots who somehow associated an active Marine Corp airstation being no busier (or louder) than a small municipal airport bought up those houses only to shocked to their senses by the roar of an F-18 taking off. So what do they do? Do they say gee we screwed up and maybe should have done our homework before buying???Oh no, they call their representatives in DC and Sacramento and gripe gripe gripe until finally in the late 1990’s it closed as part of the base realignments, and all activity shifted to China Lake which hopefully is soooo remote in the desert that the ninnies while never reach those borders. The crying idiots were a big part of the decision to close it.
The same breed of whiners are one of the reason the Top Gun naval air school moved from NAS Mirimar to Nevada.
BTW did you know there are the same whiners in Durango Colorado who want the Silverton line to shut down for the same reasons in the OP? Is there anyway to exorcise the stupid from these folks???
Oh yeah, as an old Marine I know all about El Toro being shut down. The only bright side is that the Marine Corps made a hell of a lot of money from the sale of the real estate.
No, there’s no way to exorcise the stupid, self-absorbed, short-sighted, and just plain spoiled rotten from society. It’ll get worse before it gets better, if it ever does God help us.
There definitely won’t be a come-back of the KMSRy… as of now, the entire property is devoid of any evidence of the once tourist railroad. [:'(]
Apparently the depot got moved off the site in November of 2016 according to this photo:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/firstlight55/30602150670
If anyone knows where the depot was moved to, I’d appreaciate knowing the answer to this mystery. I have a picture on my desk of me standing on the pilot of KMSRy engine #9 when I was probably 10 years old. I’ll forever be bitter that the train is gone! [:(!]
While it is true that the Kettle Moraine Railway was cited twice by the Village of Merton, WI. I would not call that harrassment nor would I say the City fined the railroad out of existance. The owner of the Kettle Moraine Railway was operating a shoe string operation at best. In fact, revenues from hauling passengers were not covering the true cost of running the railroad. The rail line was slowly deterioriating over time and it would have been forced into shut down eventually due to inability to pay it’s bills. As much as railfans complain, this is yet another operation no railfan stepped forwards in an attempt to save or financially contribute to.
The City of Merton had a point with it’s Junk Ordinance and I don’t think it was a bunch of yuppies or Nimby’s leading the charge. The problem was the owner of the Kettle Moraine Railway built a small yard in North Lake which wasn’t originally part of the operation and slowly proceeded to fill the small yard with broken down or dipliated railway equipment. Now to the owner this equipment was a future preservation effort. To surrounding residents it looked like rat infested hole as some of the equipment was surrounded by heavy brush or weeds, broken windows on some of the coaches, etc.
All this guy had to do, was get rid of the dipilated equipment he was storing outdoors (easily done as I believe he still had a connection with ex-C&NW or get the buyer to truck it away) clean up the weeds and brush around the buildings on his lot and put a fresh coat of paint on some of the sheds. The bottom line was he did not have the money to do this and nobody was willing to step in and help…he was also getting old with nobody to turn the operation of the railroad over to (as it was losing money and not even a break even proposition). While it is true the City of Merton could have helped instead of
Thanks CMStPnP, that was interesting. And a lesson as well.
[quote user=“CMStPnP”]
While it is true that the Kettle Moraine Railway was cited twice by the Village of Merton, WI. I would not call that harrassment nor would I say the City fined the railroad out of existance. The owner of the Kettle Moraine Railway was operating a shoe string operation at best. In fact, revenues from hauling passengers were not covering the true cost of running the railroad. The rail line was slowly deterioriating over time and it would have been forced into shut down eventually due to inability to pay it’s bills. As much as railfans complain, this is yet another operation no railfan stepped forwards in an attempt to save or financially contribute to.
The City of Merton had a point with it’s Junk Ordinance and I don’t think it was a bunch of yuppies or Nimby’s leading the charge. The problem was the owner of the Kettle Moraine Railway built a small yard in North Lake which wasn’t originally part of the operation and slowly proceeded to fill the small yard with broken down or dipliated railway equipment. Now to the owner this equipment was a future preservation effort. To surrounding residents it looked like rat infested hole as some of the equipment was surrounded by heavy brush or weeds, broken windows on some of the coaches, etc.
All this guy had to do, was get rid of the dipilated equipment he was storing outdoors (easily done as I believe he still had a connection with ex-C&NW or get the buyer to truck it away) clean up the weeds and brush around the buildings on his lot and put a fresh coat of paint on some of the sheds. The bottom line was he did not have the money to do this and nobody was willing to step in and help…he was also getting old with nobody to turn the operation of the railroad over to (as it was losing money and not even a break even proposition). While it is true the Cit
The tragedy was he had a wealthy railfan in Henry Quadrucci that I am more than sure would have helped him out…if he even asked but he didn’t ask. Heck, Qaud even had a private mini-streamliner stored next to his Sussex plant and was shipping a lot of paper over Soo, WC and now CN. So the guy had a history of frivoloous spending on rail equipment he didn’t need.
I followed the story in the local papers as it developed he did blame Merton but he also said the operation was no longer economically viable (so he was honest at least at why they went out of business). This operation could have easily been saved with just a little help. His only attempt to seek help other than State of Wisconsin grants was a few last min articles in the local press. Not sure what year he went out of business but I think he should have made the moves in the 1970’s at making his operation more self sufficient. He made the decision to ride it into the ground and that is what happened.
As for the Bug Line (going off memory for a lot of this), it was originally built as a railroad apart from the Milwaukee Road and it was named something like Milwaukee, Menonominee Falls & Superior. The original line construction was financed by two multi-millionaires, one made his fortune in crop
If your ever in the Lake Country just West of Milwaukee, here are two former resort hotels that eventually became excellent eating places.
Red Circle Inn - Where the plans for the Hiawatha Streamliner were first sketched out on a napkin during a power dinner with the Milwaukee’s Chief Engineer. Across Highway C and down the street from the Inn are the Remnants of the former Milwaukee Road Nashotah Station which was built into a hill, second story street level, first story was train level. Used as a private warehouse last I checked.
Seven Seas - One of the best Friday Night all you can eat Fish Fry’s in the Midwest, a little pricey but you can’t beat the lake views or the Sunset on the lake. You can easily see why this was once a hotel, then became an asylum now a restaurant run by the hard-working Wiessgerber Family (German of course).
There are more but above two are good representative samples.
Who had removed the hair (depilated) from the equipment? [:)]
Oh, you meant “delapidated?”
Probably it will become another rail trail.
My city use to have a railroad through it. Pioneer Valley Railroad. Now a rail trail but we still have the station and a rail trail to two other cities.
The railroad still exist but is a sixteen mile shortline connecting with the CSX in a nearby city.
Rich
No, Johnny, that would involve removing stone from it. He meant ‘dilapidated’.
A lot of former bases have closed over the years because they became surplus, not needed in today’s military, not ncessarily because of NIMBY neighbors.
Thanks!!
Not in this case. In addition to the NIMBY’s there were quite a few politically well-connected developers salivating over the property.
As I said, in the end it worked out. The Marines did make a ton of money selling the property which they put to good use elsewhere.
Anyway the Marines aren’t like the other services, there’s no Marine bases or facilities surplus to their needs, the Corps’ not that big. At any given time there’s only 180,000 to 190,000 Marines. Three divisions, three air wings. That’s all.
Does the Marine Corps really serve a role anymore that can’t be served by the other Uniformed Services?
As a veteran who reads the American Legion magazine regularly, my comment is that the Marines are somewhat specialized for water-born attacking that requires a Navel operation primarily but involves land operations momentarily. For example, if the USA were to invade a country by sea, the analogy would be the Normandy Landing, involving infanty. But if the USA were to disable a particular hostile military installation at a port or otherwise approachable by sea, without actually occuppying the land, then the Marines would be the logical force to do the job. They are specialized. The navy’s Seals are similarly specialized, sort of Marines with a dose of engineering and underwater ability.
Simiarly, while the USA Air Force handles all air stratigic matters, the Army and Navy also have aircraft for tactical support.
Seals are relatively small, Special Ops forces used for surgical strikes, often deep in hostile territory. They go anywhere and are very highly trained in combat, beyond most other services.
Marines are an outgrowth of finding a new role (beyond boarding) for onboard troops in the late 18th C., starting with Tripoli. They were not used on D-Day because the scale was massive and they were mostly in the Pacific theater, being the primary invasion forces on most of the islands. I think Marines still have their own aviation force.
Canada went the route of totally combining all forces for efficiency. I think Japan did also.
I will be totally honest here.
Myself, and any Marine (former or active duty) will tell you that yes, a lot of things done by the Marine Corps could be done by any other service.
The reason we still have a Marine Corps (aside from their general excellence) is because the American people WANT a Marine Corps.
And the taxpayers DO get an awful lot of bang for the buck besides.
One of the reasons, if not the main reason, the Marines weren’t used in Europe during World War Two was, quite frankly, the Army didn’t want them there! Al lot of army brass was still annoyed about all the press the Marines in Europe got during World War One. Anyway, it made sense, there was more than enough work to do in the Pacific for the Marines to do.