KGBW 49 at Green Bay in 1934...turned out by ALCO Schenectady in 1929, one of the later 2-8-0 Consolidations to be constructed in the US for US use - only Great Western 60 came later (of course with exception of WWII USA 2-8-0 locomotives that ended up being kept in the US)...
Originally #49, renumbered to 350...front line road power until the 400-class Mikados arrived in 1937...Class C-38...55 inch drivers...38,200 lbs of Tractive Effort...
Mogul 251 crossing the Sturgeon Bay ship channel...
Mogul working the yard in Sturgeon Bay...
KGBW Mogul 2-6-0 260 at an unidentified location...
KGBW 2-6-0 Mogul 259 in Green Bay...Ahnapee & Western was a subsidiary from Casco Junction to Sturgeon Bay...it followed the course of the Ahnapee River from Algoma north towards Sturgeon Bay...
KGBW 2-8-2 Mikado 404...handsome locomotives that would have made a great excursion runner...unfortunately none were preserved...some of the latest Mikados constructed in the US for US service...
Ferries in Kewaunee WI making smoke like the dreadnoughts at Jutland...view looks north and Lake Michigan is to the right so the wind is blowing from the west...
KGBW Mikado 2-8-2 402 loading Ann Arbor ferry boat Viking in Kewaunee WI...with Pere Marquette ferry boat Marquette in Slip 2 waiting to be loaded...view looks south and Lake Michigan is to the left...
Kewaunee WI 1950 with ferry approaching - car ferry slips are just to the left of the channel on the small peninsula...ships would enter in to the turning basin, spin around to port about 45 degrees and then back in to the slips...
Kewaunee WI ferry slips view from the north - Lake Michigan is on the left...two ALCOs have the Boat Train today....The Green Bay Route was an ALCO customer right to the end...
KGBW Mogul 2-6-0 256...this plucky Mogul was built by ALCO in 1924...originally numbered 56...
KGBW Mikado 2-8-2 401 ALCO builder's photo in 1937...64 inch drivers...47,247 lbs of Tractive Effort...4.27 Factor of Adhesion...
KGBW 49 on display at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in 2004...
How much of what we see in these photo's is lost? Rails lifted? Bridges intact?
Mike #404 is a beauty . At least there is #49. Adore those Moguls In the photo's.
What remains of freight operations today?
MiningmanHow much of what we see in these photo's is lost? Rails lifted? Bridges intact? Mike #404 is a beauty . At least there is #49. Adore those Moguls In the photo's. What remains of freight operations today?
From 2 years ago on a drive to Door County:
All rails are pulled up in Kewaunee that led to the docks. I am not sure which city (suspect it was Manitowoc to the South) still had a decent class I rail line running into it from the West (which surprised me and I am guessing CN). I do not remember crossing any active rail lines into Kewaunee from the West. Service between Manitowoc and Sheboygan on the former C&NW is halted, though some of the rails are still in place. The former Anahappe and Western that branched from the Green Bay to Kewaunee line and headed into Wisconsin's Thumb up to Sturgeon Bay is now a bike trail.
Pretty sure Kewaunee is landlocked with no rail service now unless it is still served from the South from Manitowoc.........have my doubts there.
Downtown Manitowoc, no rails leading to the lakefront former dock area. However, approach rail bridges in odd areas still exist. In sections again I think you could still see the former C&NW rails in place but no traffic had been on them in years and the rails only exist in broken sections.
Suspect they could have kept the ferry operation in place with faster ferries and more efficient rail service BUT it would have cost a lot of money for the upgrades. The Badger is way too slow for me to ever consider and would never be a viable rail operation again because of it's slow speed and costs to run.
I know independent truckers love it because it saves wear and tear and they can sleep / relax during the transit per their logs. I think most National Chain Truck drivers drive around Lake Michigan.
I think you could potentially make the crossing competitive again with faster ferries but after all the money on upgrades was spent the margins (if it ever rose above break even) would still be razor thin because the ferries cannot operate year round. So you have to store the ferries for part of the winter (pay for that) and layoff most of your employees.
CN owns what is left of the Green Bay & Western. The track from Green Bay to Kewaunee still is active to Luxemburg where there is a decent-sized grain loading terminal. The remainder from Luxemburg to Kewaunee is a State bike trail and connects to the State bike trail to Sturgeon Bay at Casco Junction. Both trails are very scenic, but not great for road (thin-tired) bicycles. A hybrid touring bike or mountain bike will fare best on the trail surface.
The Green Bay & Western is intact from just east of Plover WI (just south of the division point at Stevens Point) all the way to the Winona Junction interchange with BNSF on the east bank of the Mississippi River. Major traffic contributors are paper mills at Wisconsin Rapids, Ashley Furniture in Arcadia, and various sand and grain facilities.
kgbw49Both trails are very scenic, but not great for road (thin-tired) bicycles. A hybrid touring bike or mountain bike will fare best on the trail surface.
Yeah I think that might be true across the board these days. Long gone are the days of a sturdy built American made Schwinn.
I had to flip to Cannondale Rock Hopper down here in Texas because the street bikes cannot handle large bumps at speed without the wheels going out of alignment and a small host of other issues. Got tired of braking almost to a stop to go over bumps "gently". Soooo, Wide tires, Titanium Rims, heavy duty spokes, and shock absorbers.......full speed ahead!!!.
Is there any rail service to Kewaunee from the South (Manitowoc)? I know UP abandoned the C&NW North from Sheboygan to Manitowoc but I think there was also a C&NW line connecting Kewaunee to Manitowoc, never had a chance to check on that segment and thought perhaps CN could have bought it with their line into Manitowoc (if that is their line from the West).
I grew up in Casco about 10 miles NW of Kewaunee.
There was never C&NW service to Kewaunee. C&NW had a branch off the Lakeshore main from Manitowoc to Two Rivers where it dead-ended.
Manitowoc still has rail service from Appleton via the former Soo Line branch, which is owned by CN.
On the Michigan side, all the connecting car ferry operations are gone. Rail (ex-C&O) is still active to Ludington, however, the rails no longer go to the dock area. Except for the dock still served by the Badger (converted to an auto/truck ferry) the old dockside rail yard is covered by parks and condos.
In Frankfort, the ex-AA rail has be cut back 30 miles to a sand pit in Yuma. Recently the sand pit was idled, and the line west of Cadillac is out of service. The dock yard area is a park, turntable still there. One of the ex-AA car ferries sat for a while in Frankfort harbor, but there was little interest, so it was moved to Manistee, where it is now a museum ship.
kgbw49There was never C&NW service to Kewaunee. C&NW had a branch off the Lakeshore main from Manitowoc to Two Rivers where it dead-ended.
My mistake, I am getting old. Thats the old Milwaukee, Lakeshore and Western (map below)...
http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/maps/id/1034
Interesting, look at page 6 item 6 below......looks like they intended to build from Two Rivers to Kewaunee but never did...
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101066802149;view=1up;seq=16
Oh cool, check this out, first Milwaukee Lakefront Depot before C&NW built that huge depot at the foot of Wisconsin avenue. Check out where the lakefront starts back then. Today landfill (as with Chicago) has pushed the lakefront out several hundred feed away from it's former location.
http://urbanmilwaukee.com/2015/04/07/yesterdays-milwaukee-when-the-lakefront-was-at-its-ugliest/
As George W. Hilton once pointed out, the Lake Michigan carferries fit rather nicely with railroading in the pre-WW2 era as a carferry could hold a trainload as generally operated at the time. They also provided a rate advantage to eastern points from the cities on the western shore of Lake Michigan. The size of the ferries became disadvantageous as train lengths grew after WW2 and dereg killed the rate advantage.
Home base for the Green Bay & Western...
Switching to internal combustion...
Heading to the ferry slips at Kewaunee...
Way freight...
Eastbound from Winona...
Working the ferries at Kewaunee...
Kewaunee ferry slips in winter...
Working the ferry slip...
Wow....great photo's. Parks and condo's eh? You lost too much. Not good.
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