Wisconsin Chapter National Railway Historical Society Volume 66 Number 8 October 2016 Sparks and Cinders Our purpose as members of Wisconsin Chapter—National Railway Historical Society is to gather, preserve and disseminate information, both historic and current, pertaining to railroading in Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest. Visit the Chapter Webpage www.nrhswis.org Wisconsin Great Northern #423 sporting a Great Northern inspired paint scheme. The WGN #423 is actually a former Chicago and Northwestern F7A locomotive. Rode this train in August 2016. It was a nice ride through northern from Spooner, WI to Trego, WI and return. They also offer a dinner train and overnight visits. Photo by Keith Schmidt In This Issue From the President Chasing UP Heritage in Wisconsin State Funds Assisting Railroads 1 Upcoming Events October 2016 Friday October 7th Tom Burg presents the Roy Campbell Collection TMER&THS (Traction and Bus Club) www.tmer.org Saturday October 15, 2016 Come and enjoy as Tom Burg presents the Roy Campbell Col- Chase Bank - Cudahy 7:30pm lection. Roy Campbell was an employee of Kalmbach Publishing. SE Corner Packard and Layton Use East Lot Roy was hired by Al Kalmbach a good friend to be Sales Manager Business Meeting - Tom Poliak 8mm Movies Milw Trackless Trolleys and Good Will Ambassador for Kalmbach Publishing. Roy was also a rail enthusiast and photographers. Some of Roy’s works were WISE Division NMRA published in Milwaukee Sentinel and Milwaukee Journal. Roy also www.wisedivision.org traded and collected slides from other photographers. Sit back and Sunday October 16, 2016 12noon enjoy while Tom Burg presents some of the collection. See More Monthly Meet - Midway Hotel Moorland Road Brookfield Rd information on the presentation on Page 4 of Sparks and Cinders. Dave Nelson presenting Weathering Freight Cars The meeting will open at 7:30pm with introduction of any guests Trainfest 2016—Featuring the Milwaukee Road and announcements regarding rail activity near and far. Please November 12th and 13th 9am to 5pm bring a friend, guest or even enemy to the meeting. Wisconsin State Fair Park - Exposition Building Monthly meetings are held at the North Shore Congregational Buy your tickets in advance at local hobby shops Church at 7330 N Santa Monica Dr. in Fox Point. The church is handicap accessible. Please arrive on time as the doors must be Milwaukee Road Historical Association secured after 8:00pm for safety reasons. For more up to date infor- www.mrha.com mation on meetings and speakers and also any weather cancellations 2017 Convention check out the webpage at www.nrhswis.org. June 22nd to 25th Ames, Iowa C&NW Historical Society Wisconsin Chapter www.cnwhs..org Meeting Schedule Chicago Area Get Together November 19, 2016 Batavia, IL Friday November 4, 2016 - The UP Overland Route - Chicago to Salt Lake City by Dan Grudzielanek Soo Line Historical and Technical Society Friday December 2, 2016 - TRAINS Magazine presents “Railroad www.sooline.org Trivia Night” Jim Wrinn Hosting 2017 Annual Convention Check the website for more information MEETINGS NOW START AT 7:30PM !!! Programs Subject to Change NRHS National Convention If you would like to present a program www.nrhs.com at a Chapter Meeting July 19-24, 2016 Contact Dave Nelson at [email protected] or Denver, CO Mike Yuhas at [email protected] To Contact the Wisconsin Chapter NRHS President Dave Nelson October 2016 Meeting Summary Email at [email protected] President Dave Nelson greeted the 25 people in attendance Thank You to all those that contributed to this issue of at 7:31 pm. There were two guests—our new Railroad Com- Sparks and Cinders. Member contributions make this newslet- missioner Yash Wadhwa (see below) and Bob Fontana, a veter- ter YOUR newsletter. - Sparks and Cinders Editor an employee of multiple Eastern and Midwestern railroads. Two more people came in later, for a total attendance of 27. Wisconsin Chapter Now on Facebook !! The evening began with a presentation by our new State of Thanks to Keith Schmidt the Chapter now has a Facebook Wisconsin Railroad Commissioner Yash P. Wadhwa. Mr. Page. It Can be accessed at http://www.facebook.com/pages/ Wadhwa is a civil and environmental engineer. He worked Wisconsin-Chapter-NRHS/170129169765334 (Must enter the with several consulting firms on the design of the Milwaukee number string) Metropolitan Sewerage District’s Deep Tunnel Storage and Sparks and Cinders is published Conveyance System. He was a candidate for the Wisconsin by the Wisconsin Chapter, State Assembly in 2008. Governor Scott Walker appointed National Railway Historical him to fill the remainder of former Railroad Commissioner Jeff Society. President: Dave Nelson Plale’s unfinished term. Mr. Wadhwa took over the Commis- 1506 E Fox Lane Fox Point, WI sioner’s office on January 11, 2016. 53217. Send all address changes The Office of the Railroad Commissioner is responsible for and dues to the treasurer, Tom the safety of railroad operations in the State of Wisconsin. Hoffmann, 1102 Aspen Dr., These currently include about 4500 miles of track and 4200 Waukesha, WI 53188. Send all grade crossings. Traffic is mostly freight, with some hazardous material for publication to the inter- materials. There are two active Amtrak passenger services. One Chicago Metra commuter line extends to Kenosha. There im editor, Keith Schmidt 3286 S 2 Springfield Ave Milw, WI 53207 or at [email protected] Meeting Summary continued from Page 2 January 6, 2017 will be the annual business meeting, with the are several tourist and museum operations. The Railroad Com- election of 2017 officers. missioner and his staff work closely with the Federal Railroad We are seeking presentations for that and other 2017 meetings. Administration (which is also responsible for safety), the State Jeff Marker announced that Saturday, September 17 will be of Wisconsin Emergency Management Agency, first responders Kenosha Streetcar Day. All Kenosha museums, except the throughout the state, and Operation Life Saver. Civil War Museum, will admit patrons without charge on that Rail Safety week begins on Monday, September 12, and ends day. on Friday, September 16. The focus for 2016 will be on tres- The announcements above ended at approximately 8:05 pm. passing. Most of the people killed by trains in Wisconsin have The traditional September Favorite Slide Night followed. been unauthorized trespassers. Contrary to popular misconcep- There were five slide presentations by Jerry Hilton, guest Bob tion, the public is not authorized to cross railroads anywhere as Fontana, Bob Baker, Jerry Krug, and Dave Stanley. There long as they go directly across. Bills to allow unlimited direct were three digital presentations from Keith Schmidt, Tom crossing have been introduced, including one in 2016, but have Hoffmann and Mike Yuhas. all failed. The public is only authorized to cross at legal public Those presentations ended at 9:42 pm. grade crossings, underpasses or overpasses. The proposed Great Lakes Basin Railroad is a high-capacity Respectfully Submitted far outer belt line around Chicago. It would start around La Thomas W. Marcussen Porte, Indiana. (Your secretary thinks he heard part of the route Wisconsin Chapter Secretary would follow at least parts of the former Kankakee Belt. He does not recall where he heard this, or know how reliable that information is.) It would go through or near Rockford, Illinois, From the President and end up at or near Janesville, Wisconsin, or Madison, Wis- consin. It would handle primarily oil, coal, and grain unit trains, Well, that was a first! We have had members or visitors who and other trains not requiring switching in Chicago. It is intend- interrupt our speakers or who hold conversations during ed to relieve the pressure on that city, and reduce the current presentations, but to my knowledge we have never had an actu- average 30-hour transit time for switched freight cars to get al heckler at one of our meetings before. Fortunately our guest, through Chicago. Estimated cost ranges from $8 to 12 billion. Wisconsin Railroad Commissioner Yash Wadhwa, seemed to Two major carriers have indicated they will not participate due take it in stride, and perhaps he is accustomed to this. Our to this high cost. There is strong local opposition along the like- thanks to Keith Schmidt for arranging to have Commissioner ly route(s). The Federal Surface Transportation Board is solely Wadhwa visit us. I hope he enjoyed the opportunity to speak to responsible for deciding whether the government will allow it to us about the duties and activities of his office and feels free to be built. They are currently accepting public comments from the visit us anytime. I didn't sense our heckler friend had any in- three states involved. terest whatever in trains or railroads so I suspect we shall not In response to questions, Mr. Wadhwa indicated that six peo- be seeing him at future Chapter events. He missed some good ple work in his office—one attorney, one policy analyst, one full slide and digital image presentations during the "favorite slide" -time and one part-time investigators, one administrative assis- portion of the evening. In fact he left using the north stairs out tant, and himself. There is a proposal to add more investigators of the basement which we never use or light up and I hope he in 2017. The railroad companies fund the above staff through wasn't still wandering around the Congregational Church look- assessments. There is also a separate $4.2 million annual budg- ing for an exit when their Sunday services began. et, which can only be used for improvements to grade crossings. Our meeting schedule is pretty much set for the rest of 2016, That funds 15-20 grade crossing improvement projects per year.