WCfan
Putting the NW in CNW
The intermediates at milepost 85 are the last set of signals trains will see on Union Pacific's Harvard Sub before entering South Janesville "yard" (the east end of the yard can be seen in the distance). Janesville marks the end of the trip for most Union Pacific trains. However, the occasional grain train does venture a little further up the old main before terminating at Evansville. Beyond that, the UP is pretty much done and the rest of their track is a tree choked mess. If you could keep going, you would end up at milepost 137.4, better known as Tower MX, the location of the previous photo.
It wasn't always this way though of course. The UP Harvard Sub was thee Chicago-Twin Cities mainline putting the North Western in Chicago and North Western. This status would not last forever though. Traffic levels have seen a slow decline for decades.
Against these odds, a lot of the "North Western" still exists. However, the mainline days are clearly over. The tree choked UP track ends at around Brooklyn where the WSOR Reedsburg Sub picks up. From Brooklyn to Oregon, there's more grass than ballast, but storage moves still roam these rails on occasion. Further northwest still, at Oregon, the tracks actually see regular moves all the way to Reedsburg. It's at this point, where the final miles of "North Western" to the CMO connection at Elroy is lopped off.
The truncated section is now a bike path called "The '400' State Trail". This name has to be the ultimate irony; the trail is named after the train that got its name from the Adams Cutoff, whose completion eventually led to the demise of this part of the "North Western". Someone must be rolling in their grave...
Putting the NW in CNW
The intermediates at milepost 85 are the last set of signals trains will see on Union Pacific's Harvard Sub before entering South Janesville "yard" (the east end of the yard can be seen in the distance). Janesville marks the end of the trip for most Union Pacific trains. However, the occasional grain train does venture a little further up the old main before terminating at Evansville. Beyond that, the UP is pretty much done and the rest of their track is a tree choked mess. If you could keep going, you would end up at milepost 137.4, better known as Tower MX, the location of the previous photo.
It wasn't always this way though of course. The UP Harvard Sub was thee Chicago-Twin Cities mainline putting the North Western in Chicago and North Western. This status would not last forever though. Traffic levels have seen a slow decline for decades.
Against these odds, a lot of the "North Western" still exists. However, the mainline days are clearly over. The tree choked UP track ends at around Brooklyn where the WSOR Reedsburg Sub picks up. From Brooklyn to Oregon, there's more grass than ballast, but storage moves still roam these rails on occasion. Further northwest still, at Oregon, the tracks actually see regular moves all the way to Reedsburg. It's at this point, where the final miles of "North Western" to the CMO connection at Elroy is lopped off.
The truncated section is now a bike path called "The '400' State Trail". This name has to be the ultimate irony; the trail is named after the train that got its name from the Adams Cutoff, whose completion eventually led to the demise of this part of the "North Western". Someone must be rolling in their grave...