Kewaunee, Green Bay and Western Railroad

Last updated
Kewaunee, Green Bay & Western locomotive #49 (2-8-0) & tender, on display at Mid-Continent Railway Museum. Kewaunee, Green Bay & Western - 49 steam locomotive (2-8-0) & tender.jpg
Kewaunee, Green Bay & Western locomotive #49 (2-8-0) & tender, on display at Mid-Continent Railway Museum.

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. [1]

The KGB&W also connected with other rail lines such as the Ahnapee & Western at Casco Junction; the Green Bay, Winona, & Saint Paul (later the Green Bay and Western Railroad), Milwaukee Road and the Chicago and Northwestern in Green Bay; and the Pere Marquette Railway and Ann Arbor Railroad via carferries at Kewaunee. [2]

In 1896, the KGB&W, along with the GBW&SP, were sold to a group of east coast and local investors, and operated together as the Green Bay Lines. The merger would be fully completed in 1969, when the KGB&W was fully absorbed by the Green Bay Route.

On January 19, 2000, by decision and notice of interim trail use or abandonment (NITU) served on August 3, 1998, an interim trail use/rail banking agreement for 16.7-mile line of railroad, known as the Luxemburg-Kewaunee Line, extending from milepost 18.9 near Luxemburg to milepost 35.6 at the end of the line near Kewaunee, in Kewaunee County, WI was granted. [3]

See also

Green Bay Route

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kewaunee County, Wisconsin</span> County in Wisconsin, United States

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Menominee, Michigan</span> City in Michigan, United States

Menominee is a city in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 8,488 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Menominee County. Menominee is the fourth-largest city in the Upper Peninsula, behind Marquette, Sault Ste. Marie, and Escanaba. Menominee Township is located to the north of the city, but is politically autonomous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Algoma, Wisconsin</span> City in Wisconsin, United States

Algoma is a city in Kewaunee County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 3,167 at the 2010 census. Algoma is part of the Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The Pere Marquette Railway 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green Bay and Western Railroad</span>

The Green Bay and Western Railroad 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicago and North Western Transportation Company</span> Rail transport company

The Chicago and North Western was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of track at the turn of the 20th century, and over 12,000 miles (19,000 km) of track in seven states before retrenchment in the late 1970s. Until 1972, when the employees purchased the company, it was named the Chicago and North Western Railway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Trunk Western Railroad</span> American railroad

The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company was an American subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Railway, later of the Canadian National Railway operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Since a corporate restructuring in 1971, the railroad has been under CN's subsidiary holding company, the Grand Trunk Corporation. Grand Trunk Western's routes are part of CN's Michigan Division. Its primary mainline between Chicago and Port Huron, Michigan serves as a connection between railroad interchanges in Chicago and rail lines in eastern Canada and the Northeastern United States. The railroad's extensive trackage in Detroit and across southern Michigan has made it an essential link for the automotive industry as a hauler of parts and automobiles from manufacturing plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Arbor Railroad (1895–1976)</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Company</span>

The Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Company was the Grand Trunk Western Railroad's subsidiary company operating its Lake Michigan railroad car ferry operations between Muskegon, Michigan, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from 1905 to 1978. Major railroad companies in Michigan used rail ferry vessels to transport rail cars across Lake Michigan from Michigan's western shore to eastern Wisconsin to avoid rail traffic congestion in Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northwestern Pacific Railroad</span> Regional railroad in California, US

The Northwestern Pacific Railroad was a 271-mile (436 km) mainline railroad from the ferry connections in Sausalito north to Eureka with a connection to the national railroad system at Schellville. The railroad has gone through a history of different ownership and operators but has maintained a generic name of reference as The Northwestern Pacific. Currently, only a 62-mile (100 km) stretch of mainline on the south end is operated by Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART), which operates both commuter and freight trains with plans for future extension north to Cloverdale. The north end from Willits to Eureka is currently out of service, but saved by 2018 legislation to be converted into the Great Redwood Trail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bay Coast Railroad</span>

The Bay Coast Railroad operated the former Eastern Shore Railroad line between Pocomoke City, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia. The railroad interchanged with the Delmarva Central Railroad in Pocomoke City and Norfolk Southern in Norfolk; the interchange in Pocomoke City had been with Norfolk Southern prior to December 2016, when the Delmarva Central Railroad leased 162 miles (261 km) of Norfolk Southern track on the Delmarva peninsula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Pacific Coast Railroad</span> Railroad in California

The North Pacific Coast Railroad (NPC) was a common carrier 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge steam railroad begun in 1874 and sold in 1902 to new owners who renamed it the North Shore Railroad (California) (NSR) and which rebuilt the southern section into a standard-gauge electric railway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahnapee and Western Railway</span>

The Ahnapee and Western Railway (A&W) was a common carrier short line railroad located in northeastern Wisconsin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Escanaba and Lake Superior Railroad</span> Railway company in Wisconsin and Michigan

The Escanaba & Lake Superior Railroad is a Class III shortline railroad that operates 347 miles (558 km) of track in Northeastern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Its main line runs 208 miles (335 km) from Rockland, Michigan, to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and it also owns various branch lines and out-of-service track. In 1897, the Escanaba River Company built a seven-mile (11 km) railroad from Wells, Michigan, to tap a large hardwood timber stand at LaFave’s Hill. In 1898, the company name was changed to the Escanaba & Lake Superior Railway (E&LS).

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.

SS <i>Spartan</i> Railroad car ferry

SS Spartan is a railroad car ferry on Lake Michigan owned by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) from 1952 through 1979. It alternated routes from Ludington, Michigan, to Milwaukee, Kewaunee, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walsh, Wisconsin</span> Unincorporated community in Wisconsin, United States

Walsh is an unincorporated community located in the town of Porterfield, in Marinette County, Wisconsin, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wabash Railroad</span> American Class I railroad

The Wabash Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. It served a large area, including track in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Missouri and the province of Ontario. Its primary connections included Chicago, Illinois; Kansas City, Missouri; Detroit, Michigan; Buffalo, New York; St. Louis, Missouri; and Toledo, Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahnapee State Trail</span> Multi-use trail in northeastern Wisconsin, Unirted States

The Ahnapee State Trail is a multi-use trail along the Ahnapee River and the Kewaunee River in northeastern Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin & Michigan Railway (W&M) was incorporated October 26, 1893, under the general laws of Wisconsin for the purpose of constructing, maintaining, and operating a railroad as described in its articles of incorporation.

References

  1. John Kelly (September 6, 2001). "Lake Michigan carferries". Trains.com. Archived from the original on September 26, 2010. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  2. "Green Bay & Western Lines: The East-West Short Route". www.greenbayroute.com. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  3. Vernon A. Williams (January 19, 2000). "STB Docket No. AB-402 (Sub-No. 5X) FOX VALLEY & WESTERN LTD.--ABANDONMENT EXEMPTION--IN KEWAUNEE COUNTY, WI". SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD. Archived from the original on January 5, 2012. Retrieved 6 August 2021.