The Ahnapee and Western Railway (A&W) was a

common carrier A common carrier in common law countries (corresponding to a public carrier in some civil law systems,Encyclopædia Britannica CD 2000 "Civil-law public carrier" from "carriage of goods" usually called simply a ''carrier'') is a person or compan ...

short line railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

located in northeastern

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. The railroad ran from a connection with the Kewaunee, Green Bay and Western Railroad at Casco Junction to the lakeshore terminals of Algoma in

Kewaunee County Kewaunee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 20,563. Its county seat is Kewaunee. The county was created in 1852 and organized in 1859. Its Menominee name is ''Kewāneh'', an arc ...

and

Sturgeon Bay Sturgeon Bay is an arm of Green Bay extending southeastward approximately 10 miles into the Door Peninsula at the city of Sturgeon Bay, located approximately halfway up the Door Peninsula. The bay is connected to Lake Michigan by the Sturge ...

in the " Door County thumb" of Wisconsin. Other towns along the line include

Casco Casco may refer to: Places in the United States *Casco, Maine, a town ** Casco (CDP), Maine, a census-designated place within the town *Casco Bay, a bay on the coast of Maine * Casco, Missouri, a ghost town * Casco, Wisconsin, a village *Casco (town ...

, Rio Creek, Forestville, Maplewood, and Sawyer. The name of the railroad comes from the city of Ahnapee, which was founded along the Ahnapee River and became Algoma in 1899.

History

The A&W was incorporated on August 18, 1890, and was built from Casco Junction to Algoma in 1892 and extended to

in 1894. The railroad owned a total of 4 4-4-0 American type locomotives during these times. It was financed by Edward Decker, a prominent businessman in the area, to dovetail with his logging, publishing, and other commercial interests centered at

. Decker sold the company on August 1, 1906, to the

Green Bay and Western Railroad The Green Bay and Western Railroad served central Wisconsin for almost 100 years before it was absorbed into the Wisconsin Central in 1993. For much of its history the railroad was also known as the Green Bay Route. At the end of 1970 it operat ...

(GB&W). The A&W became a division of the GB&W and the physical plant of the line was substantially upgraded in the period around World War I. In 1915 the GB&W replaced the four 4-4-0s with two 2-6-0 moguls. Through the Depression years the railroad saw a decrease in traffic and the GB&W looked to sell the line during World War II despite short-term increases in carload traffic due to wartime production of naval vessels and of wood products at industries along the route. The A&W also transported German prisoners of war to Door County to work the fruit harvest season during the war years. The A&W was sold by the GB&W to local interests on May 31, 1947. Vernon Bushman of

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea lev ...

, purchased the railroad and, along with his brother Erv, operated the road whose carloadings were dependent on the local shipbuilding, plywood, evaporated milk, lumber, and petroleum products-related industries. In 1949, the A&W bought GB&W 398, but later traded it for GB&W 351. In 1955, travel time between Sturgeon Bay to Chicago was one night for express service and two nights for regular service. Regular service over two nights also connected Sturgeon Bay to the Twin Cities and Detroit. Upon the condemnation of the swing bridge across the

Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal The Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal is a ship canal connecting Sturgeon Bay with Lake Michigan across the Door Peninsula in Door County, Wisconsin. A dredged channel continues through Sturgeon Bay to Green Bay. This combined waterway allows ships t ...

in 1968, the railroad embargoed the entire north end (

to Algoma) on August 8, 1968. The south half of the railroad was sold to United States Plywood/Champion Papers in December 1970 to ensure rail service to the Algoma Plywood & Veneer mill (a USP subsidiary). The GB&W was contracted to operate train service over the line in September 1972, with the last independent A&W train running on September 15, 1972. The GB&W operated the railroad as a branchline a few days per week, and Trans-Northern operated weekend special excursion trains until a bridge pier was damaged by flooding at the Kewaunee River. This forced the entire line to be embargoed. Sources state that the last train to operate on the railroad ran on March 25, 1986. The company was officially acquired by

Wisconsin Central Transportation Wisconsin Central Ltd. is a railroad subsidiary of Canadian National. At one time, its parent Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation owned or operated railroads in the United States, Canada (Algoma Central Railway), the United Kingdom ( En ...

's subsidiary Fox Valley and Western in its August 27, 1993, purchase of the Itel-owned lines of the Green Bay & Western, Fox River Valley, and Ahnapee & Western Railroads. However, the line had already been declared "no longer a Common Carrier" on October 25, 1990. The

Railroad Retirement Board The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) is an independent agency in the executive branch of the United States government created in 1935 to administer a social insurance program providing retirement benefits to the country's railroad workers. T ...

determined that the railroad ceased to be a carrier employer effective November 19, 1993, following the sale to WC/FV&W.

Ahnapee State Trail

The railroad right of way has been turned into a hiking, biking, horse riding, and snowmobile trail called the

Ahnapee State Trail The Ahnapee State Trail (also known as the Ahnapee Trail) is a multi-use trail along the Ahnapee River and the Kewaunee River in northeastern Wisconsin. Route Beginning in downtown Sturgeon Bay, the trail winds south along the Ahnapee and Kewa ...

, traveling from the railway's original connection with the former GB&W tracks at Casco Junction to Sturgeon Bay. It is open year around and gives users a remarkably scenic view of the

countryside. Many artifacts of the A&W's history remain along the trail including

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

boiler culverts, dated concrete bridges, several steel girder bridges, and many of the buildings that once housed rail-related industries. Ahnapee and Western Railway bay window caboose

Ahnapee and Western Railway bay window caboose

National Railroad Museum

The Ahnapee & Western № 33

caboose A caboose is a crewed North American railroad car coupled at the end of a freight train. Cabooses provide shelter for crew at the end of a train, who were formerly required in switching and shunting, keeping a lookout for load shifting, damag ...

is on display indoors at the

National Railroad Museum The National Railroad Museum is a railroad museum located in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, US. Founded in 1956 by community volunteers, the National Railroad Museum is one of the oldest and largest U.S. institutions dedicated to preserving and in ...

in Green Bay.Ahnapee & Western № 33
/ref>

Gallery

References

External links