3M Rail Spur on the west side of Wausau

This mile marker is on the 'mainline' which is no longer a mainline. It's at the sidewalk on the south side of Marathon Park. The CNW went from Wausau to Marshfield once, but most of that was torn out in the ?1980's?
Now it's just a dozen miles from the east side of Wausau to the west side, ending at the newer industrial parks along Wisconsin Highway 29.

I might be getting ahead or even sidetracked from my story, trying to figure out the mile.
But it doesn't matter after all, because, the spur to the 3M shingle granule plant doesn't seem to have mile markers any, it's a branch from this branch.

this is my crude map of the west side of Wausau.

.

Looking west at sidings south of Marathon Park. Around the curve is 17th Avenue. But today's page doesn't go there.

.

I am walking southeast from the switch, but still looking west at the mainline.

.

And the next thing I see is the old location of Wausau Iron Works. There used to be rails into there. I barely remember that some gondolas went there.

.

5

.

Looking northwest yet, back towards the mainline. There would have been track switches going left to Wausau Iron. All those parked cars are for a special event at the Park, normally it's very quiet here.

.

Walking southeast, and now looking southeast, here's the S-curve that leads to a residential area.

I never paid much attention to this building before, on South 8th Avenue. It's currently shown on maps as a pond supply business. There was a rail spur, and a big door is still there. I don't know how long ago since those rails were pulled.

.

A city block east is a chimney in a nice City Park.

.

(this a pole camera picture, taken from the sidewalk of South 5th Avenue) There's ties of an old spur in the grass. There used to be a single story dark color brick building here. It had a shallow slope roof, and made me think of a European style design. The whole place was almost a black color. It was some kind of a chemical processor. With that tall smoke stack. I could guess that it had just one spur track? I remember just one tank car there, once, 50 years ago. I think that factory was closing about then. And I could guess, but don't know, if hoppers of coal were delivered for the boilers for that stack.

.

I marked up a crude picture to show how far we have traveled from Marathon Park.

.

82

This is walking further east, while looking west. At the bottom of the picture is a small business that actually had a short spur on this side. I could suspect the little loading dock wasn't there, and the rail car snuggled tight to the building wall. I remember (50 years ago) that a grimy orange Sante Fe refrigerated car would be placed there, maybe once a month. I would guess the place was a food distributor when I first saw it, 50 years ago.

.

Here is a crude model of the area, as seen from 1st avenue and looking east. This whole curve is on a slope, going downhill as it gets near the river and 3M. One night, 50 years ago, the CNW switch crew pulled the car out of there, and placed it on the main track. Without releasing the hand brakes. All those wheels didn't turn a bit. I watched little blue and orange sparks hiss from under the wheels, while the car was moved both ways. I suppose that saved time, and kept the car from rolling away while the next car was placed.

.

And this is the end of this journey, looking south at 3M.

A place where a CNW FM switcher could spend 3 hours in the morning and again in the evening, 50 years ago.

.

There are 4 pages in this series:
3M Railroading
Aerial view of the Wausau granule factory
3M Rail Spur on the west side of Wausau
Railroad flag men

to My Main Index Page on the TrainWeb site.