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![]() Ex-LS&I #2407 at the Illinois Railway Museum | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Headquarters | Green Bay, Wisconsin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reporting mark | GBW | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Locale | Wisconsin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dates of operation | 1896–1993 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Successor | Wisconsin Central Ltd. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technical | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Green Bay and Western Railroad( reporting mark GBW) served central Wisconsin for almost 100 years before it was absorbed into the Wisconsin Central in 1993. For much of its history the railroad was also known as the Green Bay Route. At the end of 1970 it operated 255 miles of road on 322 miles of track; that year it reported 317 million ton-miles of revenue freight.
The Green Bay and Western Railroad was formed in 1896 from the bankruptcy proceedings of the Green Bay, Winona & St Paul and the Kewaunee, Green Bay and Western. The existing route, originally built by the Green Bay and Lake Pepin Railroad, linking Green Bay, Wisconsin, and East Winona, Wisconsin, formed the bulk of the new railroad. The Green Bay and Western acquired on August 1, 1906, a majority of shares/interest in the Ahnapee and Western Railway. The GBW established in 1929 the Western Refrigerator Line Company (WRX) to operate a 500-car fleet of reefers. Passenger traffic ceased in April 1949. The Line had carried 50,000 passengers yearly in the 1870s, 310,000 in 1915 but only 1,000 in 1947 having reverted to mixed trains. The Green Bay and Western sold off the Ahnapee and Western Railway to Vernon M. Bushman and a group of private investors on May 31, 1947. The Itel Corporation purchased the Green Bay & Western in 1978. The Green Bay & Western and the Fox River Valley Railroad were merged into a new Wisconsin Central subsidiary, the Fox Valley and Western Railroad August 27, 1993. Wisconsin Central was, in turn, purchased by Canadian National railway in 2001.
The GBW prospered from 1892 when a train ferry was introduced across Lake Michigan from Kewaunee eliminating transhipment and bypassing the congested Chicago area. Ferries ran to Frankfort, Michigan, operated by the Ann Arbor Railroad and Ludington, Michigan, operated by the Chesapeake & Ohio.
Frankfort services ended around 1980 and those to Ludington in 1990. [1]
Kewaunee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 20,563. Its county seat is Kewaunee. The county was created in 1852 and organized in 1859. Its Menominee name is Kewāneh, an archaic name for a species of duck. Kewaunee County is part of the Green Bay, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the Green Bay-Shawano, WI Combined Statistical Area.
Algoma is a city in Kewaunee County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 3,243 at the 2020 census. Algoma is part of the Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Kewaunee is a city in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 2,837 at the 2020 census. Located on the northwestern shore of Lake Michigan, the city is the county seat of Kewaunee County. Its Menominee name is Kewāneh, an archaic name for a species of duck.
The Pere Marquette Railway was a railroad that operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections included Buffalo; Toledo; and Chicago. The company was named after Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste Marie.
The Ann Arbor Railroad was an American railroad that operated between Toledo, Ohio, and Elberta and Frankfort, Michigan with train ferry operations across Lake Michigan. In 1967 it reported 572 million net ton-miles of revenue freight, including 107 million in "lake transfer service"; that total does not include the 39-mile subsidiary Manistique and Lake Superior Railroad.
The Great Lakes Central Railroad is an American Class II regional railroad, operating in the state of Michigan. It was originally called the Tuscola and Saginaw Bay Railway, which was formed on August 26, 1977, to operate over former Penn Central lines from Millington to Munger, and from Vassar to Colling. TSBY's name was derived from the three counties it operated in: Tuscola, Saginaw and Bay.
Two distinct and separate railroad refrigerator car companies have operated under the name Western Refrigerator Line.
State Trunk Highway 54 is a Wisconsin state highway running east–west across central Wisconsin. It is 243.12 miles (391.26 km) in length.
Wisconsin's 8th congressional district is a congressional district of the United States House of Representatives in northeastern Wisconsin. It officially has been vacant since April 24, 2024, following the effective date of the resignation of Mike Gallagher, a Republican. Gallagher won the open seat vacated by Reid Ribble who retired in 2016. It is also one of only two congressional districts to ever elect a Catholic priest, in the case of Wisconsin’s 8th, Robert John Cornell.
The Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad (F&PM) is a defunct railroad which operated in the U.S. state of Michigan between 1857 and 1899. It was one of the three companies which merged to become the Pere Marquette Railway.
The Chicago and West Michigan Railway (C&WM) is a defunct railroad which operated in the state of Michigan between 1881 and 1899. It was one of the three companies which merged to become the Pere Marquette Railway.
The Ahnapee and Western Railway (A&W) was a common carrier short line railroad located in northeastern Wisconsin.
The Green Bay metropolitan statistical area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is a metropolitan area in northeastern Wisconsin anchored by the City of Green Bay. It is Wisconsin's fourth largest metropolitan statistical area by population. As of the 2020 Census, the MSA had a combined population of 328,268.
The Kewaunee, Green Bay and Western Railroad, constructed with Lackawanna Trust and W. W. Cargill backing, was incorporated on May 19, 1890, for the purpose of moving cargo between the port cities of Green Bay and Kewaunee in Wisconsin. At first, cargo was transferred between freight cars and steamships manually, but before long carferries equipped with rails on their decks began transporting the railroad cars themselves across the lake between Kewaunee in Wisconsin and Frankfort and Ludington in Michigan.
Casco Junction is an unincorporated community located in the town of Luxemburg in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin. The community was an important railroad outpost for the Ahnapee and Western Railway where Casco Junction acted as the southern terminus of the railroad. Today the now defunct railroad's track has been converted to a walking trail that connects the village of Luxemburg to Algoma and Sturgeon Bay via the Ahnapee State Trail.
Pray is an unincorporated community located in the town of City Point, Jackson County, Wisconsin, United States.
The Ahnapee State Trail is a multi-use trail along the Ahnapee River and the Kewaunee River in northeastern Wisconsin.
The Winona Subdivision or Winona Sub is a railway line operated by Union Pacific Railroad. The Union Pacific owns 1.8 miles (2.9 km) of rail in downtown Winona, Minnesota. The UP reaches Winona using the River Subdivision and Tomah Subdivision of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The railroad services the Winona Terminal area on the Mississippi River.
Edward Decker was an American businessman, Democratic politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He is known as the founder of Kewaunee County, Wisconsin, and was a member of the Wisconsin State Senate during the 1860 and 1861 sessions.