Waukesha-La Crosse-Prairie du Chien
Oct. 5-6, 2011

Photos by Dave Ingles

Our first train was CP #498, with the 8773/8400/8800/6005, eastbound just east of Ixonia, Wis., and west of Cooney Siding, at 10:09 a.m.

Waiting in Cooney siding for him was local G-67, with CP 4618 and 6 cars. The best we could do in limited time was this backlit shot in Ixonia proper, at 10:17. He goes from Milwaukee to Watertown and back.

As far as we know from the lack of scanner activity, we didn't miss anything, and as we approached Portage, the division and crew-change point, wound up doubling back 9 miles or to to Milepost 166 west of Rio for CP #280, with sole unit 8555 and 88 cars, at 11:49 a.m.

On the eastern outskirts of Portage, we missed two trains. One was either a second #280 or a #282, the 8763 East, whose cars we saw moving from across the swamps as we crossed the "M&P" branch entering Portage. We deemed him not worth another trip back to Rio, where the tracks return to within view of Highway 16. There also was, to my astonishment, a daylight M&P job that got into Portage yard ahead of us, off the branch, which I cannot really count as a "miss." He had red Soo GP38 4418  as trailing unit, which we saw, and according to the scanner, lead unit CP 4600. Of more interest was the third eastbound in the "parade," #276, the DM&E train," which we staked out a spot for at the west end of Portage yard. Getting this was important the lead unit is St. Lawrence & Hudson-lettered CP SD40-2 5651, one of very few such given the initials for the short-lived name of the Delaware & Hudson. Trailing units are CITX 3082 and DM&E 6201, at 12:25 p.m. As I suspected he might, he disappeared into the yard, hidden from view behind lines of cars.

Next, we shot the BNSF coal power laying over at the former roundhouse area after bringing in Columbia coal for that power plant just down the C&M outside of Portage.

Before leaving town, we found another set of yard power parked toward Portage Yard's east end. We then drove on west, stopping for lunch in Wisconsin Dells.

After lunch, the railroad was quiet, so we just mooched toward the approaching Amtrak #8, the Empire Builder, with friend Craig Willett at the throttle, running a couple of hours late, and after keeping track of his progreess via "Julie" on the phone, wound up with this decidedly half-baked grab shot at MP 224 east of New London, units 64/192, with 11 cars, at 2:52 p.m.

Sometime before or after Amtrak, we missed an eastbound freight where Highway 16 is out of sight of the tracks. We'd been hearing local G-68, though, which works out of La Crosse to Portage (I think), ahead of us on his return leg, and after almost passing it up, I decided at the last minute to exit at Sparta's westerly I-90 interchange to at least go look at him, as he was stopping to work. And am I glad I did. By the time we found him, his light engines were going up a lumber-yard spur to the north from the yard to fetch 3 empty center-beams from a customer. The photos here are from Highway 16 through town, as he exits the lumber yard and crosses the La Crosse River. Finding such a move as one travels long-distance is surely a matter of luck and timing; units are Soo 4401/CP 4437, time is 3:40 p.m.

Local G-68 turned out to be our last train photo of the day. We drove straight thru La Crosse to the Dakota, Minn., overlook platform (allegedly for wildlife, tho our wildlife is SD40's, Dash 9's, and such) even though we'd heard about no trains. BNSF is hard to photograph around La Crosse in the afternoon, so we passed up any tries there, figuring we see plenty of BNSF in the next few days. Here's the non-train views downriver and upriver from Dakota.

We could not pass this up -- the retired Presbyterian minister Rev. Steve Morse of Erie, Pa., is a rare-mileage train-trip rider we are friends with!

I'd said above BNSF is not real photographable around La Crosse in the afternoon, but I remembered it's not the best in the morning, either. So after a token visit to the yard office parking lot, where AFAIK railfans are still not unwelcome as long as they stay in the small area at the south end of the lot south of the office, revealed one eastbound ready to depart. So we did too, pausing for a quick shot from the street of this Cascade green yard engine, looking not too much different than when I saw them new in the Pacific Northwest many moons ago. I believe he was being run from a man on the ground, note the remote control sign. As we left, a CP eastbound went by, totally ignorable with two of the usual red GE's. Time here: 8:55 a.m.

As soon as the CP cleared, this BNSF eastbound got the signal and started up, so we pulled over on the just-wide-enough shoulder of the overpass approach on River Valley Drive. The middle of his train, or so, is on the CP Grand Crossing diamond. I'd never shot from here before. It's the NTN-GAL, Northtown-Galesburg, units NS 9630/NS 9887/BNSF 5002/ CSX 7712, with 117 cars, at 9:04 a.m.

We went thru the usual slow city traffic to Main St., then east just to check "the golf course shot" and whether the road up to Grandad Bluff is open again (it is not -- it's a 15-mile detour south and east to go up there). After a slide I was a split second late on this digital frame, but it shows you that Grandad Bluff is really not much good anymore to shoot down onto the BNSF anyway, as too many trees have grown up to be in the way; the situation behind me, to the south (timetable east) is even worse. You really have to go down in the south neighborhoods now to shoot BNSF in La Crosse, and the crossings are all no-horns with the paddles restricting parking. This train was delayed by getting a track warrant from  Graf, beginning of two main tracks, to Savanna, and other verbal instructions, among which gave us the knowledge that a big tie-gang based at DeSoto, Wis., would have a work window from 1000 to 1700 (5 p.m.). We did what we could with that. Time here 9:14 a.m.

Main St. crossing, just for the heck of it.

South of town on Wis. Route 35 we found two coal empties staged to go west onto single track at Graf after the NTNGAL cleared. First was this one, units 5761/9415/KCS 4022, at 9:33 a.m. at Goose Island Road.  I'm parked right on 35's shoulder.

Behind him was 5117/5211 West, at MP 294 at 9:47 a.m. Don't forget how backlit sunlight thru fall colored leaves helps out!

We were poking around looking for good spots and going back north, got skunked for a good shot of this eastbound stacker we'd known about but didn't realize was so close. I got a slide, then made a U and hightailed it back south, nabbing this thru the windshield. Then a Godsend--speed restrictions slowed him down, a long 25-mph-max zone, so we did good by getting him several more times. This is at 9:54 a.m.; he had 125 wells (or trailers).

Got ahead of him while he's doing 25 and got this nice shot showing one of the dozens of machines on 1 Track, meaning only 2 Track was open. (And owing to swinging boom type on-rail machinery, 2 Track wasn't always open, either.) Units are 5345/4728/4722, nothing special (compared with what we'd see later on on the Aurora Sub here), but still welcome!

Other shots were at 10:00, 10:12, and 10:17, before our final look.

We are not far from the Genoa Power Plant here.

I'm sorry, the "Genoa Station." This was our last view of 5345 East, at 10:21. We then backtracked, knowing one more train, the La Crosse-Savanna local was following him before the MofW window would close.

As we headed north, we kept an eye out for the local, and north of the village of Stoddard, we encountered him at 11:04, engines 501/524.

Our second shot was in Stoddard, at 11:08, and with two good encounters, we quit and turned around. I had found out from Amtrak how #8's timekeeping was, and figured we might make it to the Dakota, Minn., overlook platform for a shot, even with driving through La Crosse. We had no traffic problems, but as we got on I-90 at River Jct., I sensed I could not make it to Dakota, given his Winona departure time, and I was right. We exited at Dresbach, the town before Dakota, and waited only 3 or 4 minutes for him: engines 19/171 with 12 cars at 11:40 a.m.

When we were chasing the BNSF 5345 eastbound stack train, we saw an IC&E/DM&E freight across the river, northbound, and he was working at River Jct. below us on Route 61 as we passed through. We went on north as far as Homer, last town and siding before Winona, looking at possible photo spots, then turned around and went back until we encountered him. I got a slide only east of Lamoille, at 12:28 p.m., then sped ahead and set up here at Homer with both cameras, at 12:35. It's called train #171, with units CITX 3080/IC&E 6403/CP 5877/CP 8811, with 99 cars. After this shot, we were so close to Winona we just went on north to there and lunched at the A&W.

As we left Winona, we passed CP #281, the "Ford" train with hi-cubes and trilevels, with units 8818/9609 at 1:18 p.m. just west of Homer, but there was no opportunity to turn around nor distance available to get a shot -- no big deal. We went on south along the river, crossed back through La Crosse, then crossed back to take a look around Lansing, Iowa, back to Wisconsin, and on to Prairie du Chien. After securing our motel (reserved -- the town had since sold out acct. the fall colors, even on a weekday!), then, with no action yet on BNSF and no more evident on the IC&E, went over to Marquette, Iowa, just to look around. This southbound, #170, was parked in town, engines CITX 3056/IC&E 6446/CITX 3057. He had cut a crossing a few cars behind the units. Time here: 4:00 p.m. Many agree this CITX (former FURX) green and silver scheme is the best "leaser" scheme going, looks truly "railroad-like." Surely someone has used it on their model railroad?

In the small yard west on the Mason City Subdivision were parked these two single units.

Back over in Wisconsin, we elected to go south about 10 miles from Prairie du Chien to the village of Trempeleau, south of the state park which has an overlook down onto the BNSF Wisconsin River bridge, but the wrong time of day to consider that. This is the bluff above the county road thru Trempeleau.

We finally coaxed one BNSF train, this westbound intermodal behind two "coal-service" SD70MAC's in "Grinstein green," to me unusual. Units 9628/9809, 62 trailers, 5:10 p.m.. at Milepost 232 in Trempeleau.

We drove 4 or 5 miles south to Bagley, the next town, but heard nothing on the radio after waiting a while. This curve is north of the village. We gave up and went back to PDC for dinner etc., about 6 p.m. Someday I'm gonna get a train splitting these searchlight signals just north of Bagley!

This page was designed and is maintained by Mike Condren. If you have materials
that you would like to contribute, contact me at mcondren@cbu.edu