C&NW Train 281 on the Hortonville SUB

Another of the shots buried in my file, nothing spectacular or really identifiable, except it says "Oshkosh" on the slide mount, and the train number with the consist of 1533, 1534, and 1598 - Lake Shore and Peninsula Divisions denizens calling Green Bay shop their home. On a day excursion from Iron Mountain to Fondy and back I seem to recall this one going under US41 and taking the first exit I could to head west and try to intercept it. I'd never seen a train on this line before. Bear with me - this was one of those C&NW trains referred to as "Second Class" in the timetable, and for us fans of C&NW a "time freight", or through freight, with pickups and setouts at several points but not working industries. Trains 281/282 were a pair that basically worked between southern WI and Ashland, with varying routes over time. At the time of this photo, they might have had Fondy or Butler as the southern terminal, and the oddity was that the northbound as shown here cut off the Valley at Oshkosh and ran to Hortonville thence to Eland and Ashland, whereas the southbound continued east at Hortonville to Appleton thence south on the Valley. That didn't last long as slow orders and eventual abandonment of the Hortonville Sub put both on the Appleton to Eland segment. Perhaps in another time I'd have chased it all the way to Hortonville, but this was a grab and go, and I had many other places in mind that day.July 25 1969, probably early afternoon and I'm shooting from the north side.

Done