Three Railroads

Engines of the three railroads servicing Menasha pose in front of the Whiting Paper Company in the late 19th century- the Chicago and Northwestern on the left, Wisconsin Central in the middle, and the Milwaukee and Northern Railroad on the right.   The Milwaukee and Northern was the predecessor of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific, also known as The Milwaukee Road. 

But, as it often happens in big business, mergers and bankruptcies changed the face of railroad history.  

The Wisconsin Central was first merged into the Soo Line in 1961 but as we'd call it today, the   "brand" was spun off and saw new life in the mid 1980's using most of its original rights of way and some former Milwaukee Road rights of way after the Soo Line acquired the Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Minnesota holdings of the bankrupt Milwaukee Road and divested its older railway trackage in Wisconsin in 1985. In 1993 the Wisconsin Central also acquired the Green Bay and Western Railroad and the Fox River Valley Railroad.  The Union Pacific absorbed the Chicago and Northwestern in 1995.

In 2001 the Wisconsin Central was purchased by the Canadian National Railway. Along with the former Illinois Central Railroad, the Wisconsin Central and the Soo Line became part of Canadian National's United States holdings and its property integrated into the CN system. 

Occasionally, you can still see the old names on box cars as they go by as you wait at railroad crossings.  And they live on in countless model railroad layouts around the country, but especially in our memories.