TrainWeb.org Facebook Page
New Page 1

Mike's Train House

 

Main Page

Photo Departments

Amtrak
Our Nations Christmas tree travels by Rail. 
Amtrak Boxcars
Milwaukee Road
See Pictures of A derailment that happened in Sturtevant in 1984!
Milwaukee Road MP15AC, 5/20/2000
Norfolk Southern
Photos from my last trip to the Curve, 1999.
BNSF Pictures
Joliet 1999
Ill, HY 59,  5/20/2000
261,  5/20/2000
Highlands 5/20/200
Galesburg RR Days 2000 at the depot
Galesburg RR Days 2000 at  the hotel
Galesburg RR Days 2000 from the bridge
Galesburg RR Days 2000 at the park
BNSF6132
Iowa Interstate
Union Pacific
Hay every Web site has to have a page of junk, this is mine.
Elmhurst 1999
UP Dead/ Scrap Line, 5/20/2000

Wisconsin Central

Franklin Park
WC Railfanning 
WC Railfanning Part 2
W.C. Locomotive Details of Current Roster Loco's
Shops Dead and Damaged Line
Shops Part 1 
Shops Part 2
Shops Part 3
Byron Hill 1
Byron Hill 2
WC Ex Algoma Central Ore Freight Car Detail Section

Canadian Pacific Railway

Franksville
Sturtevant

CP9303 Special Edition

GBW

Jim Kube's Former GBW Site

581
My SDL39, 581 photos.
My models
About myself
Links

Maps of the GB&W

and predecessor lines

The Green Bay and Lake Pepin Railway Co. was mainly constructed over a two and one half year period, during 1871-1873. The name was changed to Green Bay and Minnesota Railway Co. shortly before the mainline was completed. Eastern terminus was the town of Fort Howard (now part of the city of Green Bay), while the western end of the line was a rail-to-water facility on the Mississippi River named Eastmoor. Directly across the river lay the city of Winona, Minnesota. The history of the far west end of the "West End" is of particular interest.

 Entry into Winona came in 1875 through a trackage rights agreement with the Chicago and Northwestern Railway, over their line and bridge from the GB&M crossing at Marshland, two miles east of Eastmoor. A small depot and stub track was set up by the GB&M in downtown Winona. This set up lasted fifteen years until 1891, when GB&M's successor Green Bay, Winona and St. Paul Railway Co. partnered with Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad to build a bridge into Winona themselves.

 The Winona Bridge Railway Co. was owned 2/3 by the CB&Q and 1/3 by the GBW&SP. It completed a long iron truss bridge which featured a swing span in the navigation channel, thus allowing river triffic to pass by. WBR began in downtown Winona and ran down Second Street to the southeast edge of the city. There, it curved sharply and climbed a grade to rise above the flood levee along the river. Off the bridge, the track set foot on Wisconsin soil and connected with the CB&Q mainline from St. Paul to Chicago at a spot called Bluff Siding (later known as East Winona). The Eastmoor facility, which had burned down numerous times, was abandoned.

 Numerous branch lines were also constructed over the length of the line, some under the guise of becoming mainline extensions. Most of these started as independent operations, later merging into the GB&W proper.

 Below are three maps; one depicting the early days in Green Bay, one showing all lines built by GB&W and predecessors, and one showing the final route and neighboring lines.

 

 

Green Bay and Western Lines in 1955

(From A Functional Analysis of the Green Bay & Western Railroad by Raymond E. Specht, 1959; pamphlet printed by GB&W RR Co., 1959. 

Jim Kube collection.

 

 

GB&W subsidiaries

Green Bay and Western and it's predecessors either directly built or backed the construction of several smaller railroads; changing economic conditions prompted the abandonment of most of these. Others were successful enough to last to the end in 1993. One prospered as an important leg of the GB&W system, not giving up it's own corporate identity (and reporting marks) until 1969.

 

Below is a listing of GB&W and subsidiaries, with route miles, locations, construction years, disposition types and years, and abandonment years.

 

GREEN BAY AND WESTERN MAIN LINE/BRANCH LINE/SUBSIDIARY SUMMARIES

(from east to west)

Name

Miles

Location Built Disposition/Notes Year Abandoned
GREEN BAY & WESTERN RR AND PREDECESSORS MAIN LINE 212 GREEN BAY -EAST WINONA

1871-1873

MERGED INTO FOX VALLEY & WESTERN LTD. IN 1993.

(FV&W IS A SUBSIDIARY OF WISCONSIN CENTRAL, LTD.)

BETWEEN PLOVER AND BLACK CREEK, FROM 1994 TO 1999.
KEWAUNEE, GREEN BAY & WESTERN RR 33 GREEN BAY- KEWAUNEE

1891

MERGED INTO GB&W 1969. SURVIVED INTACT UNTIL FV&W MERGER (1993). REMAINDER ACTIVE.
AHNAPEE & WESTERN RY 32 CASCO JCT.- STURGEON BAY

1891

SOLD TO INVESTORS IN 1947; CAME UNDER COMMON OWNERSHIP WITH GB&W AGAIN (1978). STILL EXISTS AS A SEPARATE CORPORATION, OWNED BY WCL. EAST OF LUXUMBURG IN 1997.

NORTH OF ALGOMA, 1968. REMAINDER, 1986.

WAUPACA-GREEN BAY RY 10 SCANDANAVIA- WAUPACA

1907

MERGED INTO GB&W 1922

1947 

IOLA & NORTHERN RY 4 SCANDANAVIA-IOLA

1893

MERGED INTO GB&W 1914

1956 

STEVENS POINT & NORTHERN RY 5 PLOVER- STEVENS POINT

1882

MERGED INTO GB&W 1896 STILL ACTIVE AS FV&W BRANCH.
BIRON BRANCH- GBW&SP/GB&W 2 COYNE- BIRON

1890

SERVES CONSOLIDATED PAPERS BIRON MILL. STILL ACTIVE AS FV&W BRANCH.

LA CROSSE BRANCH- GB&M/GBW&SP/GB&W

6

ONALASKA- LA CROSSE

1876

REACHED VIA TRACKAGE RIGHTS ON C&NW LINE MARSHLAND- ONALASKA, 22 MILES.

1922

WINONA BRIDGE & RY 1 EAST WINONA- WINONA

1891

BRIDGE BURNED AND WAS CONDEMNED (1987); SUPERSTRUCTURE SINCE REMOVED.

1987

 

 

Above and below maps from The Story of the Green Bay and Western (Railway and Locomotive Historical Society bulletin #115, October 1966) by Ray and Ellen Specht.

From the Jim Kube collection.

 

In the early days of the railroad, much of the westbound traffic came from the docks of Fort Howard; the GB&LP/GB&M's first yard was there. In the late 1870's, GB&M moved to a new yard one-half mile west. This came to be known as Norwood Yard. One hundred years later, GB&W considered building a larger, modern facility several miles farther west; nothing ever came of it.

 Many fascinating hours can be spent chasing down abandoned lines, including those of the GB&W. In the days before rail banking and rails-to-trails, many lines were simply ripped up and walked away from. Ownership usually reverted to the previous titleholders, or their estates. This abandoned right-of-way was often re-incorporated into existing land usage patterns (in the case of the GB&W, farmland, usually), or left to go fallow. It's this disused land that often remains as reminders of their former histories as railroad rights of way