Wisconsin Rapids Aerail

Wisconsin Rapids Aerail Pictures

Northwest side of Wisconsin Rapids.
Near County Highway F / 17th Avenue.
The north yard lead tracks run parallel to F for a quarter mile.
More about this is lower on this page.

Small view below. Then go to next view and scroll right and left

. . . . lots of wide angle lens distortion, the track in the foreground that looks so curved is actually straight.

A crude map I made in 2003.
The CNW and Soo Line ran to Marshfield from the northwest corner of this map.
See notes below.
The last of the track to Marshfield was ripped out about 1989. I have slides, and no time this year to show the end of that.

Photos this year were taken from the upper left corner of the map.
Track runs straight from the southeast to the northwest,
and the wide angle panoramic stitch makes it look curved.

And note that track was changed since this 1980's USGS map and my drawn notes, see below.

I asked Keith M. about this area. Here's his historical comment:

Going Northwest out of Wisconsin Rapids, until 192-something, the C&NW was on the North (right) side of the Soo Line r-o-w. Soo Line was on the south.
An ICC directive had Soo & C&NW agree to share trackage 50-50----Soo Line got rid of Westrap-MP13, C&NW got rid of Eastmar-MP13. Thereafter both roads ran on each other's track---C&NW on Soo from Eastmar to MP 13, Soo on C&NW from MP 13 to Westrap.

The Yard Trackage in Wisconsin Rapids on the north is all ex-C&NW. The Yard Trackage on the south is ex-Soo Line. Wisconsin Central made this all one yard, but, in fact, it once was two.

Originally, Soo and C & NW had their own yard tracks in Wisconsin Rapids---Soo had two and one of those had a scale on it.
C&NW had three, I don't know if they had a Scale in Rapids or not. When the City of Wisconsin Rapids made sweeping changes to their downtown, it included track changes for Soo & C & NW. At one time, where you cross the former Milwaukee Road in Wisconsin Rapids today, the C & NW and the Soo were located two blocks farther east. With the changes, the Soo & the C& NW got added yard track space as part of the plan to relocate the Soo & the C&NW next to the Milwaukee Road---Milwaukee Road got a new, smaller 'depot' as well to replace the classic stone structure they once had that was located where the new C&NW and Soo tracks would be.
In the end, both the Soo and the C&vNW got 4 yard tracks each as part of the agreement with Wisconsin Rapids for moving their railroads. C&NW and Soo moved in together in the C&NW's new Wisconsin Rapids office---you can't call it a 'depot' since it really wasn't close to the tracks.

Thiele Kaolin would have been a C&NW Customer. That plant came about during WCL and never existed during the tenure of Soo Line and Chicago & North Western.
Keith

. . . . . . . . . map below is re-marked to correlate with photo.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Red line is main line north to Junction City.
. . . . .. . . . .and I forgot to mark northwest quadrant of wye.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . I labelled the picture below. Scroll right and left.
. . track toward Marshfield now ends below word 'Northwest'.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Now a switching lead for Thiele Clay white building.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I put orange lines to show tracks out of sight in the trees.

Notes, Thiele clay receives kaolin clay products and mixes them to spec here.
They have a little yellow Trackmobile to move cars inside the plant.
The WC/CN some days can spend a few hours here re-arranging cars and not even drop off a load or take an empty away. That would make interesting switching for a small model railroad.
On the right of the picture, WOW is Warehousing of Wisconsin. Paper products warehouse.
And their spurs, not in sight from the county road, are sometimes used to hold cars for westbound trains to Taylor. That train runs 6 days a week except Saturday? and the one day without a train might lead to needing space for cars that didn't leave town and would clog up the main yard.
On the picture under the word 'South' is the remnant of the GBW main that is used to store cars for the westbound Taylor train. If those two sidings are empty, the train has gone west and the sidings not re-filled yet. That can be seen from the 25th Avenue crossing.

.

Below, looking southeast at yard. Three black CN / IC locomotives.
The yard office on Dura Beauty Lane would be out of sight by right curve at end of yard.

Closer, looking southeast, just the original picture at 100% size and edges cropped off.
Quality limited. ( after this camera breaks, maybe I'll move up to 8 MP with electronic image stabilizer. Darn near lost this one in a tree this day already. )

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wrote June 29, 2008