While getting acquainted with the Appleton, WI area the other day, a colleague and I took a drive that "magically" ran us by North Fon du Lac. Of course the yard was too hard to ignore and I kept things to a minimum to spare him that "drying paint" feeling. We were killing some time while at a debate tournament and taking a drive around Lake Winnebago. The first thing we found was the yard and shops complex of the recently departed Wisconsin Central Ltd. It had a nice supply of DM&IR ore jennies on hand and a few other easily seen tidbits. Heading out of town we found that a train was preparing to leave NB and soon discovered a yard air shack that featured a clean WC logo suitable for pictures on the tank.
We couldn't get at the head end of the train to photograph the power and it turned out it was shielding us from a SB that was being re-crewed.
We couldn't wait long for things to start moving so we headed back to explore
the south end of the yard. There we found the tower which still featured a WC logo on the awnings. As I stopped for that shot a hi-rail truck pulled out still in the maroon of the WC, complete with logo. Not a bad catch. I had some of the old company flavor in photos and wasn't really trying. A bit more viewing yielded an Illinois Central "death star" logo staring at me. That made 3 fallen flags in one yard.All this stuff just gave me the urge to return someday to check out this interesting location. It seems that about anything north of here converges a few miles north and funnels through this yard. Definitely worth visiting and plenty of public access where it matters.
As it turns out, my competitor did fairly well so time was short for railfanning.
It's a good thing I got these pics when I had the chance.
BC
1 comment:
I smell a new location to explore on an extended solstice trip someday! Death stars for the Coach - I love it. I'm sorry I missed this trip.
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