Visit to the Tomahawk Railway in It's Home Town

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I had never been in the town of Tomahawk, WI, until last week as the wife and I passed through on the way to Three Lakes, WI. I'm glad I stopped as it appears like the railroad in that town is rapidly shrinking, just like it is in just about every other town in the USA

Their main depot still stands and is obviously being used as a business:

Unfortunately, the yard that is (or should I say 'was') right next to the depot has recently been torn out

There was a single worker there, loading used ties into a gondola on the single remaining track. I was really bummed to see a stack of switch stands that had been removed and there was no one around to ask if I could have one!!! (I didn't want to bother the guy who was loading the ties.)

In this photo, I'm assuming all the area that is now dirt and grass between the tank car and the depot was once a yard that is no more:

What I found odd was that there was ribbon rail laying right next to the depot. So I'm assuming there must've been enough traffic at one time to justify the ribbon rail, but that traffic must've vanished...

Just outside of town, not far from the depot, are a few train sheds from what is apparently the Tomohawk Railway's main service facility. The service buildings are just steal sheds, so I didn't photograph them, but in front of one of the sheds was this Budd car! Does the Tohomawk own this, I wonder?

Snooping around a bit more, I found a "hidden treasure"...

This platform caboose has apparently been sitting there for quite a long time... I'm assuming based on the height of the pine tree that is growing-up through the tracks right in front of the caboose

And last but not least, the Tomahawk Railway yard office appears to be a depot as well:

I would've liked to have seen some motive power and some actual trains, but being late on a Saturday afternoon, all the trains were apparently sleeping so I had to be content with the photos I got.

http://www.youtube.com/user/JR7582 · ***

I see the CN has been busy tearing out unused track in the area. They also tore out the old Milwaukee Road yard on the north side of town which had been a fixture for many years.

The main depot which you photographed was the original Milwaukee Road depot. The line crossed through the former yard and crossed Lake Tomahawk on a bridge, and headed north a few miles crossing the SOO at Heafford Junction. The line continued further north all the way to Woodruff. The area between the depot and that tank car was probably filled with tracks. If I remember correctly there were at least 3-4 tracks in that yard.

Here is a little information about the line that will help people understand why the tracks from the TR crossing north are gone. This line was the former Milwaukee Road Valley Line. It ran from New Lisbon, Wisconsin, through Wisconsin Rapids, Wausau, Tomahawk, and eventually ended in Woodruff. The portion north of Heafford Junction, where the Milwaukee crossed the SOO, was abandoned in the 60s or early 70s (sorry I don't know the dates off hand).

The Milwaukee Road wasn't the only line in Tomahawk though. The Marinette Tomahawk and Western had a few lines through the area. For simplicity sake I won't explain the whole history, but the MT&W owned the line heading south out of the Soo Line Yard at Bradley WI (a mile or so west of Heafford Junction) and came into Tomahawk where you see the current yard today, and crossed the Milwaukee just north of the current connector. Eventually the MT&W was renamed the Tomahawk Railway.

Through the Milwaukee Road years and the short Soo Line era the lines in Tomahawk basically looked. As we all know the WC came along in 1987 after the SOO spun off much of it's Northern Wisconsin trackage. The WC ran the line as it was for many years and upgraded the tracks on the Milwaukee Valley line, even the tracks all the way through Tomahawk and to Heafford Junction. This explains why there was welded rail in the former yard. However there was always a problem. The main yard north of Tomahawk was in Bradley, a couple miles west of Heafford Junction. So the WC couldn't directly enter the yard from the Milwaukee Line. But the Tomahawk Railway had their line that crossed the Valley Line and connected directly into the Yard at Bradley. This was the superior route, so in 1997 the WC bought the TR's track and abandoned the Milwaukee Route north of of the depot.

During the WC era the Valley Line was very profitable due to the volume of traffic moved for the paper industry. The WC ran multiple trains through Tomahawk just to service the paper industry. Now CN only runs a night local up to Bradley and back down the Wausau. A far cry from what the WC use to run, but at least the tracks are still there.

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WCfan wrote:

Here is a little information about the line that will help people understand why the tracks from the TR crossing north are gone. This line was the former Milwaukee Road Valley Line. It ran from New Lisbon, Wisconsin, through Wisconsin Rapids, Wausau, Tomahawk, and eventually ended in Woodruff.

The Milwaukee Road "Valley Line" originally extended past Woodruff north to a point just across the Michigan state line called Blue Bill- which was really nothing more than a glorified log landing and load out. The line was first cut back to Star Lake very early on in the 1930s, where the North Woods Hiawatha originally terminated its run from Chicago.

The portion north of Heafford Junction, where the Milwaukee crossed the SOO, was abandoned in the 60s or early 70s (sorry I don't know the dates off hand).

The line north of Heafford Junction north to Minoqua and Woodruff was abandoned in 1972.

The Milwaukee Road wasn't the only line in Tomahawk though. The Marinette Tomahawk and Western had a few lines through the area. For simplicity sake I won't explain the whole history, but the MT&W owned the line heading south out of the Soo Line Yard at Bradley WI (a mile or so west of Heafford Junction) and came into Tomahawk where you see the current yard today, and crossed the Milwaukee just north of the current connector.

This line continued a ways east of Tomahawk ending at a point called Kings Dam- it was abandoned in the early 1980s.

Eventually the MT&W was renamed the Tomahawk Railway.

When Owens-Illinois (owners of the mill in Tomahawk- in which the MTW was the company railroad. O-I also had other plant operations like this at their other mills such as the Valdosta Southern in Georgia) divested themselves of the MTW- they sold it to the Gennesee and Western who renamed it the Tomahawk Railway in 1992.

Through the Milwaukee Road years and the short Soo Line era the lines in Tomahawk basically looked. As we all know the WC came along in 1987 after the SOO spun off much of it's Northern Wisconsin trackage. The WC ran the line as it was for many years and upgraded the tracks on the Milwaukee Valley line, even the tracks all the way through Tomahawk and to Heafford Junction. This explains why there was welded rail in the former yard.

From what we were told on the MRHA tour- the Milwaukee Road was actually the ones who put down the relay welded first here at Tomahawk- they did it in the early 80s when the entire line was rehabbed, mostly of course for the Weston coal trains further south, but also because they valued the traffic out of Tomahawk, Merrill and Brokaw enough to upgrade that track too. When the WC took over the Lake States lines in 1987 one of the major bargaining chips was that the Valley Line be included in the sale- the Soo wanted to retain it originally, but relented when they were given rights to still serve Weston from New Lisbon. Per a Soo Line manager who attended the MRHA meet in Wausau, it was a decision the Soo immediately regretted.

However there was always a problem. The main yard north of Tomahawk was in Bradley, a couple miles west of Heafford Junction. So the WC couldn't directly enter the yard from the Milwaukee Line. But the Tomahawk Railway had their line that crossed the Valley Line and connected directly into the Yard at Bradley. This was the superior route, so in 1997 the WC bought the TR's track and abandoned the Milwaukee Route north of of the depot.

The WC first acquired trackage rights over the MTW/TR between Tomahawk and Bradley and utilized them for quite a few years before the TR sold the Tomahawk-Bradley line to the WC. The Milwaukee originally did all of their interchange with the MTW in town at the yards in Tomahawk, while MTW interchange with the Soo occurred at Bradley. After the MILW/SOO merger it remained this way until the WC took over and closed the Tomahawk yard and moved all interchange to Bradley- which was a bigger yard and not in the middle of town where switching tied up crossings and traffic- not to mention the MTW/TR interchange. Since the majority of the MTW traffic moved south through Wausau to Stevens Point, the WC negotiated the trackage rights (I'll have to look up the exact date but it was around the time O-I sold out to GW.) so that movements off the old Soo main could be done more effectively than running all the way over to Heafford Jct. and making a runaround movement since there was no north-to-west/east-to-south connection track. All of the information that I have annotated to Jordan's post came from a very good history of the MTW and railroads in Tomahawk that was given to the Milwaukee Road Historical Association convention attendees the day we toured the TR shops/headquarters at Tomahawk. The history was written by a long time employee of the railroad who actually was on hand at the headquarters building that Saturday of the tour- he was very kind and answered all of my insipid questions! The Milwaukee Railroader also did a series of articles on the Valley Line for the meet, which also included information on the furthest reach, abandonments and operations of the Valley Line up to the present. Tom Burg also has written a very good book on the Valley Line which I own that also details operations and abandonments (we got complimentary copies of this at the MRHA Wausau meet as well.)

To answer a couple of Todd's other notes and questions- the RDC car is owned by a private individual who was/is trying to build a childrens camp near Rhinelander, the RDC car would operate on a mile long stretch of track from the parking area by the highway back to the actual camp. Naturally the other lake residents didn't like the idea of a "noisy" train in their lakefront property so its been tied up in court for the last 3 years. Good thing the guy who owns the car and campground is a lawyer too- he was also on hand at the MRHA meet/tour in 2010 to answer questions about the car.

The ex-Milwaukee Road depot is a wood stove pellet business- it has been fully remodeled on the inside and no longer looks like a depot indoors. We took the MRHA meet photo at the depot. The LP gas dealer across the yard is the last remaining CN customer in Tomahawk- but it is switched by the TR for them. The old caboose you found is an ex-EJE transfer caboose the MTW used many years ago, the ballast car is an ex-SLSF/BN car. The yard office/depot is actually the TR headquarters building- they were very friendly and gave the MRHA pretty much the run of the place allowing us to tromp all through the building and speak with the general manager-she was also very nice and answered my stupid questions. My last thought is how you didn't find the MTW steam engine on display in the park at Tomahawk- I thought for sure you'd sniff that out too!

Neat photos- I wish I could share mine, but I lost all my photos in a hard drive crash earlier this year, which included all of my 2010 MRHA meet photos!

The Fuzzy World 3um

Visit to the Tomahawk Railway in It's Home Town

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