Just got back from the Mid-Continent Railway Museum located in North Freedom Wi.I have a bunch of great pics of Milwuakee Road,Soo Line, Great Northern, C&NW Steam and rolling stock. I even got to ride in the cab of their Alco S4 switcher for an hour trip. Great time had by all. Should I post pics here or on the appropriate FF sites or both. It will be about a week before I get the film developed!!
Darren, If you don't want to ait for my pics you can go to www.midcontinent.org and check it out. They have a lot of stuff for such a small outfit!
It's always fun to see the photos taken from a visitors point of view. What do they have operational these days? What's the status of C&NW 1385?? Boxcab E50
Ken, All steam is down and will be probably for another year. Only thing running is the switcher. Also a small black boxcab looking thing. The Milwaukee RS2 runs but it's really rough and it also needs a new paint job.
Andy- Is that the RSC2? I was wondering where it was these days! Is it still privately owned? Boxcab E50
I have a bunch of pictures when I went up in June. It was the first time I'd been there since I was about 8 or 9. Not much had changed....which was kind of nice! Matt's Rail Images Page
Ken, Sorry about leaving the C out. As far as I know they own it, it was donated to them. On there site they have pictures of it running or should I say the diesel engines were running. The outside of it dosn't look to banged up but it needs a coat of paint real bad. They have it sitting outside all the way at the very end of what my daughter called the junk yard. (kids) They also had the old Milwaukee flanger made from a tender that I want to model, that was a plus because I didn't know it was even there! It was coupled to the RSC2.
Mid-Con is interesting. If you walk Northeast of the station the trackage continues on over a creek and into the town of North Freedom. I'm assuming this is their link to the outside world if needed??? My wife and I walked around for a couple of hours on a Friday and, no one bothered us. They have some interesting stuff abck in the "junk yard."
I hope they still have a connection to the "outside" world? Used to be the MILW? Now perhaps WSOR? Otherwise, transporting in new stuff is costly via trucks and cranes. I suppose the last movement off the property, was operation of C&NW 1385? Boxcab E50
I'm not sure who thye connect with....the tracks run north into town but, look unused. The actual train rides head south from the station. Do they dead end? Or, is that their connection?
The train ride south dead ends at the quarry, northbound used to hook up to the Milw. like Boxcab said. I don't know who owns it now. The engineer did tell me though that they took one of the steamers up to Tunnel City on the C&NW line Ken, From what I was told the last thing brought in under its own power was the RSC2!
Found it. Their connection to the outside world, is ex-C&NW. Now under the control of WSOR. But I cannot say that WSOR is actively operating that segment. Boxcab E50
I ws at worktheday the 1385 made its last run on the Omaha branch through Camp Douglas. I heard that steam whistle a long way away and just knew it wasn't no diesel. I ran to the doorway just as it was crossing the old Milwaukee line. Two days later a crew came in and tore out all the track and made a bike trail out of it.
