WSOR Prairie du Chien Subdivision
Author: Andre Wehrle
The Milwaukee Road's line between Prairie du Chien and Madison was another abandonment candidate in the early 1980s to be rescued by the WRRTC and is today operated by the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad. The line has its western terminus on St. Feriole Island in Prairie du Chien, crosses the BNSF mainline at Crawford Junction, winds its way through the scenic Wisconsin River valley, and cuts through the UW-Madison campus before joining WSOR's Reedsburg Subdivision at Broom Street, which trains coming off the line take to get to the yard at Johnson Street (seen in the album "Ex-C&NW Tracks Around Madison").
Photo Gallery
Eastbound PDCM approaches Whitney Way on a fine August afternoon.
The Whitney Way crossing was the first in Madison to get B&B ARMR full-barrier gates, although several others now have that feature as well.
We had to come to a stop to wait for the train to finish crossing Campus Drive. This train is seen again in the album "Ex-C&NW Tracks Around Madison" as it nears the yard.
I suspect this string of covered hoppers is destined for points further west on the line currently inaccessible due to recent flooding and washouts.
Crossing Randall Avenue.
Ahead of the locomotive is a small 3-track yard and a couple spurs for sorting and delivering coal cars for the UW power plant. The Milwaukee Road used to have a massive yard and engine servicing facility here, adjacent to its W. Washington Avenue depot, and the Illinois Central branch from Freeport, IL crossed the MILW at grade to get to the IC yard. Construction of the Kohl Center and other UW buildings finally doomed the railyards after being passed from short line to short line from the late 1970s through the early 1990s.
Looking west on the WSOR ex-MILW line. The BNSF (ex-CB&Q, BN) mainline runs north-south across the picture. Just a couple miles beyond here is the western terminus of the WSOR system.
Incoming loads for the UW Heater plant.
Heavy vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic through several unsignaled grade crossings in the campus area make this a hair-raising switching task for train crews.
No slow order through here for a change.
Former MILW depot on the right, Old Feed Mill in the background.
The train sat for almost another half hour after the conductor got back from the Kwik Trip on Highway P.
First of three crossings of this river going west on this line.
Passing a farm along Highway 133 just west of town.
As much as I would have liked to chase all the way to Prairie du Chien in the increasingly golden light (especially after being dogged by clouds most of the way to Avoca!), I had to be back in Stoughton by 7:00. 2025 edit: LOL, why is this crappy photo marked as an Editor's Pick? More stupid metadata errors stemming from the massive site crash of 2024.
T007 glides past a pasture approaching Valley Road midway between Cross Plains and Black Earth.
Not sure who owns these or how they ended up here, but they've been sitting here on this private spur at the end of the WSOR line for at least 10 years.