Nomad of Mid-America
Merri-miracle
Gaggles of both geese and fisherman enjoy an abolutely glorious late-fall day recreating Lake Wisconsin and its abundance of freshwater prises lingering around the piers of the the Wisconsin & Southern's Merrimac bridge, atop which a somewhat atypical Saturday running of WSOR's L467 Baraboo Turn ambles back toward base at Madision at a leasurly 10 mph, the maximum authorized on most of its slow journey. This motley collection of 22 spans were built and modified over a 35 year period starting from the original construction in 1895 and in total stretch a length of 1,730 feet from bank to bank, easily absorbing the two SDs and 16 cars comprising the Baraboo Turn. The Chicago & Northwestern operated the bridge and this speedy, double-tracked, 400-running mainline corridor from Madison to the Twin Cities in earnest until the end was in sight for private passenger operations in the late '60s, deciding by then to heavily pare back the line and sever its status as a through route. In 1996, with the line chopped north of Reedsburg, the WSOR leased what remained to the south from post-merger Union Pacific and incorporated it into their system as the Reedsburg Subdivision.
Merri-miracle
Gaggles of both geese and fisherman enjoy an abolutely glorious late-fall day recreating Lake Wisconsin and its abundance of freshwater prises lingering around the piers of the the Wisconsin & Southern's Merrimac bridge, atop which a somewhat atypical Saturday running of WSOR's L467 Baraboo Turn ambles back toward base at Madision at a leasurly 10 mph, the maximum authorized on most of its slow journey. This motley collection of 22 spans were built and modified over a 35 year period starting from the original construction in 1895 and in total stretch a length of 1,730 feet from bank to bank, easily absorbing the two SDs and 16 cars comprising the Baraboo Turn. The Chicago & Northwestern operated the bridge and this speedy, double-tracked, 400-running mainline corridor from Madison to the Twin Cities in earnest until the end was in sight for private passenger operations in the late '60s, deciding by then to heavily pare back the line and sever its status as a through route. In 1996, with the line chopped north of Reedsburg, the WSOR leased what remained to the south from post-merger Union Pacific and incorporated it into their system as the Reedsburg Subdivision.