customers of the old CNW rail line in WI

[Randy Stahl]

Paper mills , lots of them .

The traffic to and from the mills was very competitive , I believe that after 1988 the WC got the bulk of it .

[Lord Atmo]

scroll down to the second paragraph if you dont want t read my long intro

when i was young and watching CNW at the nearby crossing, i would see a lot of trains on that particular track in any given day. and usually one or two long manifests. well, when i was out of it after i moved as well as after the UP merger, i went back and found the track nearly-deserted. and since then, i had been blaming UP for cutting the train jobs on the track and not caring about small businesses. well it seems i was wrong. and i'm terribly sorry, Union Pacific.

what's my point? who were some of the customers on the old CNW line from Altoona to Itasca? the reason for the sudden lack of trains was BEFORE the UP merger when CNW lost all their customers on the track and ripped out all the track north of Rice Lake as a result. i later discovered that the 2 long manifests that used the track were NOT terminated by UP and are actually still in use today. they just use a CN line now.i believe what remains of that track is now used by the Wisconsin Northern shortline. does anyone know if the WN serves customers in Rice Lake or if UP goes up there? and if there is enough interest by possibly new businesses north of rice lake, is it at all possible and/or probable that the track might one day be returned? and who did CNW once serve north of Rice Lake and did they all close down or just switch to truck service?

and again, i apologize to Union Pacific for blaming them for the lack of traffic on the track now. sorry