The Wisconsin Northern Railroad is the

trade name A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

employed by

Progressive Rail Progressive Rail Inc. is a shortline railroad and owner of several other shortlines. PGR is directly operating several separate branches in Minnesota including the Airlake Terminal Railway. Progressive Rail also acquired the Wisconsin Northern ...

to operate of

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

in northern

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 ...

and began operations on November 29, 2004.

Trackage

The railroad operates on trackage leased from the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

(UP) and

Wisconsin Central Limited 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 ...

(WC). The UP trackage extends north from

Norma Norma may refer to: * Norma (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Astronomy *Norma (constellation) * 555 Norma, a minor asteroid *Cygnus Arm or Norma Arm, a spiral arm in the Milky Way galaxy Geography *Norma, Lazi ...

, a junction with the UP in northern

Chippewa Falls Chippewa Falls is a city located on the Chippewa River (Wisconsin), Chippewa River in Chippewa County, Wisconsin, Chippewa County in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 14,778 in the 2021 census. Incorporated as ...

, to Cameron. It was completed by the Chippewa Falls and Northern Railway, a predecessor of the

Chicago and North Western Railway The Chicago and North Western was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than of track at the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states befor ...

, in 1883. At Cameron, the Wisconsin Northern splits, with WC trackage continuing north to Rice Lake and west to Almena. The Rice Lake line was opened by the Rice Lake, Dallas and Menomonie Railway in 1894, and the Almena line by the

Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie and Atlantic Railway The Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (MStP&SSM) was a Class I railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the Midwestern United States. Commonly known since its opening in 1884 as the Soo Line after the phonetic spe ...

in 1884. Both became part of the

Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad The Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (MStP&SSM) was a Class I railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the Midwestern United States. Commonly known since its opening in 1884 as the Soo Line after the phonetic spe ...

(Soo Line),

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...

, 143 I.C.C. 547 (1928): Valuation Docket No. 370, Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway Company et al. and were spun off to the WC in 1987.

Major commodities

In the past, traffic consisted of shipments of resins, scrap materials, lumber, logs, fertilizer, steel, feed grade grains, and tallow. However, in December 2011, EOG Resources opened an online sand processing plant. Sand now represents over 90% of the shipments, with the railroad hauling an estimated 160,000 tons of sand per month. This volume of traffic has required a total rebuilding of much of the trackage as well as construction of new interchange and car staging yards. This new booming mining business, while making the Wisconsin Northern quite profitable, has also killed the railroad's hopes of expanding its trackage rights. Progressive Rail had planned to contract with the state of Wisconsin to operate a 45-mile extension that would have connected the Wisconsin Northern with the

Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...

mainline, however when the CN discovered the booming Wisconsin sand market, they backed out of the sale of the rail line they had attempted to previously abandon. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Retrieved 2013-12-02

Equipment

The railroad's locomotive roster is on loan from parent Progressive Rail and includes one

EMD SW1500 The EMD SW1500 is a Diesel-electric locomotive intended for switching service and built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division from 1966 to 1974. The SW1500 replaced the SW1200 in the EMD product line. Many railroads regularly used SW1500s ...

, two

EMD GP15-1 The EMD GP15-1 is a 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between June 1976 and March 1982. Intended to provide an alternative to the rebuilding programs that many railroads were applying to their early ...

s, an

EMD SD38-2 The EMD SD38-2 is a model of six-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by Electro-Motive Diesel, General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD) from 1972 to 1979. EMD built 90 of these medium road-switchers, which were used in both yard and mainlin ...

, and two new EMD SD40M-2s. ''Trains'', Retrieved 2018-27-02 units operating along the system. Wisconsin Northern Locomotive Roster

References

External links

Progressive Rail, Inc.
- Official parent company website
Railroad Picture Archives
- Photographs of the Wisconsin Northern Railroad {{DEFAULTSORT:Wisconsin Northern Railroad Wisconsin railroads Spin-offs of the Canadian National Railway Spin-offs of the Union Pacific Railroad Railway companies established in 2004

Trackage

Major commodities

Equipment

See also

References

External links