• Railroad in Abbotsford, Wisconsin

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in the American Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas. For questions specific to a railroad company, please seek the appropriate forum.
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in the American Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas. For questions specific to a railroad company, please seek the appropriate forum.

Moderator: railohio

  by fauxcelt
 
My wife and I were in Abbotsford earlier this month to visit with relatives and I noticed a railroad track running through the middle of town. When I asked the relatives about this track, they replied with a vague comment about two or three freight trains a day on this track but they didn't know which railroad owns or uses the track. Does anyone know which railroad serves Abbotsford? I did try to do some research but the best answer I could find was that it might belong to the Wisconsin Central. Is that correct?
  by CarterB
 
Was Wisc Central, then Soo , now Wisc Central (C'dn Nat)
There was (is??) a wye in Abbotsford.
  by fauxcelt
 
Thank you CarterB. I didn't notice whether or not there was a wye in Abbotsford and I forgot to ask whether or not we could drive by there. The relative who was chaffeuring us around probably would have taken us there if I had thought to ask. When she noticed that I was interested in trains, she told me about something called the Lumberjack Steam Train near Laona, Wisconsin and offered to take us there the next time we come to visit.
  by Scoring Guy
 
It's more than likely that there was a wye at Abbotsford, as there used to be a (original Wisconsin Central) line to the west from there toward Chippewa Falls and the Twin Cities, via Owen, along with the north-south line that remains today, and in fact in the early years of Wisconsin Central passenger service, the Chicago <> Twin Cities/Duluth trains went through Abbotsford as well as the Chicago <> Ashland trains. In about the 1920's the Chicago <> Twin Cities/Duluth passenger trains took the short cut from Spencer to Owen, , , that route remains today as does the line from Spencer straight north through Abbotsford as far as Medord. The line from Abbotsford to Owen has been abandoned. Today those lines are all a part of the Canadian National (which aquired the holdings of the second incarnation of the "Wisconsin Central" (a - former - Northern Wisconsin regional RR made up of parts and pieces of former, SOO, Milwaukee Road, C&NW, and other, lines). At Owen, northbound from Chicago, the CN line divides to go north to Duluth or west to the Twin Cities.
  by fauxcelt
 
Thank you for the information, Scoring Guy.