| Riding the "Wicket" in Wisconsin | |||
| On a cloudy Saturday, we climbed aboard an excursion train on the Wisconsin & Calumet RR, known as the "Wicket". The WICT operated castoff MILW trackage in southern Wisconsin, including the ex MILW "Southwestern" trackage that ran from Sturtevant, WI., to Beloit (and Savanna, IL.); and the "J" line that ran from Rondout (IL) to Janesville, intersecting at Bardwell Junction in southern Wisconsin. The WICT had a pair of F7s painted up in nice IC-style chocolate brown & orange along with a matching trainset of cars. We boarded at Elkhorn, WI., ran west on the Southwestern to Bardwell, then wyed the train on the connection that hadn't been used in years and ran on the "J" line to Janesville. At Janesville, we continued west past the old MILW yard (WICT then, now WSOR) and onto the old MILW line to Boscobel & Monroe. There were several photo runbys, and since this was mostly 10mph running, a leisurely attitude by the crew and passengers made it a fun day trip. Since the weather was so cloudy, many of my photos that day were unusable. However, I managed to salvage a few decent shots of our train and I've uploaded them here. The cool thing is that most of this trackage is operated today with higher and higher carloading counts yearly on the WSOR. At the time of our trip in 1989, the future of this trackage was in doubt. Some of the line hadn't seen service and was overgrown by weeds. But the State of Wisconsin had foresight to purchase the lines from the MILW trustee and today its a active, vibrant rail network served by the WSOR. The "Wicket" is just a footnote in Wisconsin RR history, so enjoy these photos of our little trip that day! | |||
 WICT 106 |
 WICT 106 |
 WICT 106 |
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 WICT |
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