Website www.watcocompanies.com Reporting mark WSOR Locale Northern Illinois | Length 837 mi (1,347 km) Founded 1980 Dates of operation 1980–Present | |
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Track gauge 4 ft 8 ⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge Headquarters Madison, Wisconsin, United States Parent organization Watco Transportation Services, L.L.C. | ||
The Wisconsin and Southern Railroad (reporting mark WSOR) is a Class II regional railroad in southern Wisconsin and northeastern Illinois. It operates former Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road) and Chicago and North Western Transportation Company (C&NW) trackage, mostly acquired by the state of Wisconsin in the 1980s.
Contents
Within Wisconsin, WSOR connects with four western Class I railroads: BNSF Railway, Canadian National Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway and Union Pacific Railroad. Through trackage rights over Metra, WSOR accesses Chicago to connect with the two eastern Class I railroads, CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway. WSOR also has access to harbor facilities in Prairie du Chien, and transload facilities are located in Milwaukee, Janesville, Madison, and Oshkosh. 22 grain elevators have located rail load-out facilities on the WSOR system.
For train operation purposes, the WSOR system is divided into two divisions, the Northern Division and the Southern Division. The Northern Division is essentially the original WSOR trackage from 1980, with a few new lines that have been added around the Milwaukee area since the 1990s. It includes the line northwest from Milwaukee to Horicon, where it splits into branches to Cambria and Oshkosh, as well as a line from Milwaukee north to Kiel. The Southern Division includes the lines acquired from the Wisconsin and Calumet Railroad in 1992, centered on Madison and Janesville, as well as several lines acquired in the 1990s in the Madison area. The two divisions are not physically connected with WSOR owned trackage, but trackage rights over a short section of Wisconsin Central Ltd. from Waukesha to Slinger provide a link between the two divisions.
WSOR is headquartered in Madison, which is also a central hub terminal. The train dispatching office is located in Horicon. Locomotive maintenance is centered in Janesville, with secondary work also being performed at Horicon. WSOR's Horicon paint shops perform contract work on both rolling stock and locomotives.
History
WSOR began operations in 1980 when the state acquired several Milwaukee Road branch lines, and signed a 50-year agreement with the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, organized by the FSC Corporation, which also owned the Upper Merion and Plymouth Railroad. In August 1992, WSOR gained control of the Wisconsin and Calumet Railroad, which had been created in 1985 to replace the Chicago, Madison and Northern Railroad's operations on state-owned lines formerly part of the Milwaukee and Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. (The latter has since been abandoned except for a short stub at Madison.) WSOR thus gained access to Chicago (through trackage rights over Metra from Fox Lake), Janesville, Madison, and Prairie du Chien. Further expansion came with a lease from the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) of Madison-area ex-C&NW trackage in 1996, and of an ex-Milwaukee line between Madison and Watertown from the Soo Line Railroad in 1998 (sold outright in 2003). The most recent acquisition was north of Milwaukee in 2005, when the state purchased the ex-Milwaukee line between Saukville and Kiel, which Wisconsin Central Ltd. was going to abandon. Soon thereafter, WSOR leased in part and bought in part an ex-C&NW line to Sheboygan from the UP.
WSOR was named the 2009 Regional Railroad of the Year by Railway Age Magazine.
On April 11, 2011, WSOR's president and chief executive officer, William Gardner, was charged with two felonies after he was accused of funneling more than $60,000 in illegal campaign contributions through WSOR employees during the 2010 gubernatorial election in Wisconsin. Gardner agreed to plead guilty to two felony counts. Under a deal, prosecutors agreed not to seek jail time but instead would seek two years of probation. In a statement, Gardner acknowledged his mistakes and said he took full responsibility. The vast majority of the contributions were to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
On November 29, 2011 it was announced that WSOR will be acquired by Watco Companies, with the deal to close on January 1, 2012.
In December 2012, the state of Wisconsin issued $17.1 million in financial aid to WSOR to rehabilitate an 11 miles (18 km) line between Plymouth and Kohler, connecting with existing WSOR tracks at Plymouth. Service has begun as of 2015.
Routes
South Division
North Division