The Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, Serving Rural Wisconsin
The Wisconsin and Southern Railroad has been a vital transportation resource for the State of Wisconsin since it began operations in 1980 from former Chicago & North Western and Milwaukee Road branch lines.
Not surprisingly the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad also effectively maintains its fleet of locomotives which are rarely, if ever, dirty. While its roster currently consists mostly of six-axle SD40-2s and SD20s it does maintain a few Geeps and even two first generation E9s. To give a brief history of the railroads that make up the WSOR the Milwaukee Road was a Midwestern regional (where the WSOR's trackage is located) for many years until it embarked on an ambitious plan to build to the Pacific Northwest and Puget Sound in the early 20th century. The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific, commonly known as simply the Milwaukee Road, is best remembered for its Hiawatha passenger trains and electrified main line known as the Pacific Extension. The fact that the great railroad is no longer with us is not as disheartening as knowing how and why its end came about.
Its loyal and hardworking employees through the end were sadly cheated by upper management, which made a series of dumbfounding decisions beginning in the 1970s that ultimately ended in the railroad being sold to a rival in 1985. Today, what's left of the Milwaukee Road is cut up amongst different railroads and the best engineered rail line through the rugged Cascades is but weeds and trails, a vital transportation artery no longer available to shippers and the American economy. Of all the many granger roads, which sprawled out across the Midwest, the Chicago and North Western is likely the best known of all. When the railroad was merged unto the Union Pacific in 1995 it was one of the oldest railroads in the Midwest, its name unchanged since 1859. Not surprisingly then, it was the first railroad to operate a train out of Chicago, the Pioneer, and its main line into that city is a key link in the UP’s empire today. While its eye-catching green and yellow paint may no longer adorns locomotives its legacy certainly continues to live on. The Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, in upholding its commitment to quality service and serving the communities it operates through recently announced intentions to grow even more by restoring yet more abandoned trackage in Wisconsin that has not seen trains for over fifty years!
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