Tag Archives: Railroads

Historic depots

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While I was in northern Wisconsin a few weeks ago, I made a point of visiting two old railroad depots. Both are now museums run by local historical societies.

Chicago & North Western railroad depot at Mercer, Wisconsin

The depot at Mercer, Wisconsin, was built in 1906, and served passengers on the Chicago & North Western Railway. It’s the only remaining railroad depot in Iron County.

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Welcome aboard The 400

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postcard of Chicago & North Western's 400 Streamliners

It’s time to give this website a new look.

This design is based on the paint scheme of the diesel engines and cars of the Chicago & North Western Railway’s 400 passenger service. I’ve always loved that paint scheme, and decided to incorporate it here on my site.

On the coding side, I developed the design based on the WordPress theme, Twenty Thirteen. It is fully responsive and will display well on ANY device.

For more information on the Chicago & North Western Railway, and it’s 400 service, I recommend:

Now… who can help me travel back in time so I can ride these wonderful trains?

Crossing the bay

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railroad tracks cross a frozen bay

Former Milwaukee Road tracks cross a frozen Monona Bay in Madison.

There something about railroad tracks heading off into the distance that make me want to hop on a train and see where they lead. Pity there aren’t any passenger trains around here.

The Varsity

This past weekend, for the first time in 44 years, there was passenger rail service between Chicago and Madison. Named after the Milwaukee Road’s “Varsity” that ran the same route back in the day, this was a special excursion train run to coincide with the Wisconsin-Northwestern football game in Evanston Illinois.

Iowa Pacific locomotive 515 heads the train

I went downtown to see the train off on Sunday, and was greeted by two E8 locomotives and passenger cars painted in gorgeous colors, under a beautiful blue sky.

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