i’ve been increasingly interested in this shortline for a while now ever since i saw their pair of GP15-1s in Chippewa Falls. my question is how much track do they own and who are their major customers?
i’m also wondering about their power. it’s just the 2 GP15-1s and an MP15 right? is the MP15 there in case one of the GP15-1s breaks down? because it seems like the GP15-1s should be enough for how much track they own so far.
and also, what roads did those 3 units used to belong to?
They have 2 GP15-1s and one SW1500. You can tell a SW1500 from an MP15 by the trucks, the SW1500 will have either Type A switcher trucks with the outside drop equalizer, or they will have a Flexicoil truck which lacks the leaf spring swing hanger design. All the Progressive Rail SW1500s have the Flexicoil truck which is better for road use. The MP15 uses the same truck as the GP15s. They own tracks from Chippewa Falls to Cameron, and then west to Barron. The largest customers are the Turkey Processing plant at Barron and the building roof truss company at Chetek, they also serve the plastic plant at Norma (N. Chippewa Falls) and the other industries in that Industrial Park. The two GP15s were built for the St. Louis - San Francisco Railroad (Frisco) and passed to BN by merger, and then BNSF. The SW1500 was built for the Southern Railway and passed to Norfolk Southern by merger. The railroad is owned by Progressive Rail at Lakeville, MN who also operates the former Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern RR in Minnesota and they move locomotives around as necessary. The SW1500 34 had been working on the old MN&S “Highline” on the south side of Minneapolis, but was replaced by another Progressive Rail SW1500.
[:o)]Unofficial system maps kohlin.com/WN_2005/maps.htm
[:D] Loco page kohlin.com/WN_2005/maps.htm
[8D]Yahoo groups page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WISCONSINNORTHERN
Interesting…to see all the locs they’re apparently going to be adding they’re either expanding or doing that much business. That’s great to see either way!
the loco page and the map page are the same link. was it the yahoo group that mentioned the new locos?
The loco page link is on the map page link.
whoa. that’s a LOT of power for such a short amount of track. what’s WN up to? i’m excited! i hope they become a class 2 one day
I think it’s VERY cool that they leased a pair of IANR GP38-2s for a few months.
yeah it seems like the smaller shortlines seem to be the ones to do the more cool things.
The IANR locomotives were leased just for a few months after start up until the GP15-1’s were painted and arrived on the property. They were returned to the lessor after that. The PGR then assigned the PGR 34 to the WN to help out mainly with switching moves. Because of the way the WN runs the system, they will often be switching both facing point and trailing point switches in the same trip. The three locomotives can be split up through out the consist to switch the line in which ever direction is needed. The WN also lacks run around tracks in a few places where they are needed, and so often one GP15 will be on each end of the train, or the 1500 and 1501 will be on one end and the 34 will be on the other end.
You are right that the other reason for the 34 is for back up too, incase one or both of the GP15’s would go down they would still have one or two engines left. With the largest continuous train the WN has handled so far being a half mile in length just recently, I highly doubt that it’s needed for horse power reasons…
From what I understand the WN has been doing quite a lot of business in the little bit of time that they have been around, or at least well enough for a shortline. They have also been putting a little bit of money back into the infrastructure of the railroad, dumping ballast and adding some ties to bring the line back up to little bit more decent condition in the last year or so.
Noah
yeah it’s really interesting. i saw them in action today. the GP15-1s were leading and the SW1500 was on the back. i didnt actually expect to see the SW1500 even. but the train was of a pretty decent length for so little trackage. i believe it was 27 cars or so
also, is there a chance the WN could ever reach the end of the line in Rice Lake? or does any RR even use that part of the track now?
It would seem to me that WN would be the only RR able to use it, as IIRC there isn’t any other RR ROW going into Rice Lake anymore. The line north out of town has long since been pulled up.
I don’t think that there is any track north of Cameron anymore, who would need the service anyway? As I recall the last customer was a cheese factory.
i swear the track ended at Rice Lake. then the track between Rice Lake and just a little north of Gordon was dug up
Last time I was up there, track still went into Rice Lake. I haven’t heard anything on the WN Y!Group about any movements into Rice Lake, so the line may well be unused.
The three engines currently on the property (34, 1500, 1501) are the “permanent” engines, the other three were leased until the 15s showed up. One more page of pictures/information:
http://www.fuzzyworld3.com/wn.html