Wisconsin Central Ltd. is a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

subsidiary of

Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN ...

. At one time, its parent Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation owned or operated railroads in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

(

Algoma Central Railway The Algoma Central Railway is a railway in Northern Ontario that operates between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst. It used to have a branch line to Wawa, Ontario. The area served by the railway is sparsely populated, with few roads. The ra ...

), the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

( English Welsh & Scottish),

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

( Tranz Rail), and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

( Australian Transport Network).

Overview

Wisconsin Central Ltd. (WC) started in US in the mid-1980s using most of the original Wisconsin Central Railway's rights of way and some former

Milwaukee Road The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), often referred to as the "Milwaukee Road" , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until 1986. The company experienced ...

rights of way after the

Soo Line Railroad The Soo Line Railroad is the primary United States railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway , one of seven U.S. Class I railroads, controlled through the Soo Line Corporation. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sa ...

acquired the Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Minnesota holdings of the bankrupt Milwaukee Road and divested its older railway trackage in Wisconsin. In 1993 the Wisconsin Central also acquired the Green Bay and Western Railroad and the Fox River Valley Railroad. In 1995, Wisconsin Central acquired the Canadian

whose tracks ran north of Sault Saint Marie to Hearst, Ontario. The Algoma Central runs a popular tourist passenger train through the

Agawa Canyon The Agawa Canyon is a shallow canyon located deep in the sparsely populated Algoma District in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It was created 1.2 billion years ago by faulting along the Canadian Shield and then enlarged by the erosive action of th ...

and Agawa Canyon Wilderness Park near Lake Superior Provincial Park. In 1996, Chicago commuter rail agency

Metra Metra is the commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area serving the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs via the Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, and other railroads. The system operates 242 stations on 11 rail lines ...

inaugurated service on the WC's Waukesha Subdivision as the North Central Service. In 2001, the Wisconsin Central was purchased by

. Along with the former

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line al ...

, the former Wisconsin Central became part of Canadian National's United States holdings and its property integrated into the CN system. At the time of its sale to Canadian National, Wisconsin Central operated over of

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

in the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

region. The railroad extended from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

into and through

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

to Minneapolis-Saint Paul and

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior, Wisconsin, Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: Downtown Dul ...

, to Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, and north (through the

) to

Hearst, Ontario Hearst is a town in the district of Cochrane, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the Mattawishkwia River in Northern Ontario, approximately west of Kapuskasing, approximately east of Thunder Bay along Highway 11. At Hearst, Highway 583 extends ...

Timeline

* January 10, 1986: The Soo Line, nine days after purchasing the

, creates the

Lake States Transportation Division The Lake States Transportation Division (LSTD) was a wholly owned division of the Soo Line Railroad that existed from 1986 until 1987. The bankruptcy of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road) saw Soo Line acquire its ...

to operate its mainline between

Forest Park, Illinois Forest Park (formerly Harlem) is a village in Cook County, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, United States. The population was 14,339 at the 2020 census. The Forest Park terminal on the CTA Blue Line is the line's western terminus, located on the ...

and

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origi ...

. * April 3, 1987: The

announces the sale of its

to private investors, forming the new Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation * October 11, 1987: The first WC train runs, from Stevens Point to North Fond du Lac, Wisconsin * May 1991: WC shares begin trading under the ticker symbol WCTC, raising $36.2 million * 1992: ''

Railway Age ''Railway Age'' is an American trade magazine for the rail transport industry. It was founded in 1856 in Chicago (the United States' major railroad hub) and is published monthly by Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. History The magazine's ...

'' names Wisconsin Central the Regional Railroad of the Year * 1993: WC acquires the Fox River Valley Railroad and Green Bay & Western railroads * 1993: A Wisconsin Central-led consortium acquires New Zealand Rail through a new subsidiary, Wisconsin Central International, and renames it Tranz Rail in 1995 * 1995: WC acquires the

through a new subsidiary, Wisconsin Central Canada Holdings * 1995: A WC-led consortium acquires Rail Express Systems in the United Kingdom from the

British Railways Board British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

* 1996: WC partners with

(CN) and

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

, inaugurating a new intermodal shipping corridor between the west and east coasts of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

* 1996: The Loadhaul, Mainline Freight and Transrail Freight freight operators in the UK are purchased from the British Railways Board and merged as English Welsh & Scottish (EWS) * March 4, 1996: A Wisconsin Central freight train derails in

Weyauwega, Wisconsin Weyauwega is a city in Waupaca County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,900 at the 2010 census. The city is located mostly within the Town of Weyauwega, though it is politically independent of the town. Small portions extend nor ...

; the

derailment In rail transport, a derailment occurs when a rail vehicle such as a train comes off its rails. Although many derailments are minor, all result in temporary disruption of the proper operation of the railway system and they are a potentially ...

results in a 16-day evacuation * August 19, 1996:

, a commuter railroad agency based in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, inaugurates its North Central Service route on the WC's Waukesha Subdivision. * 1997: EWS acquires Railfreight Distribution in the UK from the British Railways Board and merges it into EWS * 1997: Another WC subsidiary, the Sault Ste. Marie Bridge Company, acquires of track from

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

forming a WC connection between

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea le ...

, and Ishpeming, Michigan * 1997: Australian Transport Network (ATN), in which Wisconsin Central owned a one-third stake, purchased Tasrail in

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, six months later ATN acquired the Emu Bay Railway in Tasmania * 1999: ''Railway Age'' names Wisconsin Central president Edward Burkhardt its Railroader of the Year * January 30, 2001: Wisconsin Central and

announce plans for CN to purchase WC for $800 million and the assumption of $400 million of WC's debt, it is completed on October 9, 2001 * December 21, 2011: Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific Railway and

Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway The Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway (DM&IR) , informally known as the Missabe Road, was a railroad operating in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin that used to haul iron ore and later taconite to the Great Lakes ports of Duluth and Two Harbor ...

, also owned by CN, are merged into Wisconsin Central * January 1, 2013: Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway is merged into Wisconsin Central Ltd indirectly as parent company CN made the acquisition

References

External links

Soo Line Historical and Technical Society

WC2scale - Wisconsin Central Motive Power Photo Gallery #1
(extensive online photo source of WC Ltd. equipment)
RailPictures.Net
– Photographs of the Wisconsin Central {{Authority control Railway companies established in 1987 Canadian National Railway subsidiaries Illinois railroads Michigan railroads Minnesota railroads Wisconsin railroads Railroads in the Chicago metropolitan area Upper Peninsula of Michigan Predecessors of the Canadian National Railway Former regional railroads in the United States Spin-offs of the Canadian Pacific Railway Companies operating former Canadian Pacific Railway lines Companies operating former Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad lines Companies operating former Chicago and North Western Transportation Company lines 1987 establishments in Wisconsin