Wisconsin Northern Railroad
Arlyn says, "On Thursday, July 24th, Mike Bearden of Cameron and I did a short railfan trip of the WN. We caught the train coming south into Bloomer." Webmaster says, "Click on the picture to see it full-size."
	The train was coming back from Chetek with 2 centerbeam cars. e01 - http://tinyurl.com/5a5sqw
	They'll pick up engine 34 on the Bloomer Plastics siding and work their way back to Norma. e02 - http://tinyurl.com/5t2zc8
	We headed north and stopped at the CNW repeater between Bloomer and New Auburn. e03 - http://tinyurl.com/5a5vl2
	The building was locked but we looked around. We noticed 2 types of antennas. The tall one and apparently another system of 2 wires strung between 2 poles. The tall one looked older so I assume it was replaced with the 2-wire system. e04 - http://tinyurl.com/5zokhm
	Part of the 2-wire system. e05 - http://tinyurl.com/55xeqo
	Next to the repeater were 2 bridge ties in the track. They had a cable buried in the ballast between the ties and two angle bars spiked to them. I asked the section crew the purpose of this and they had no idea. Anybody else have an idea?? e06 - http://tinyurl.com/5o9tkj
	Another view -- e07 - http://tinyurl.com/5jwlja
	We found the section crew at the curve on the west side of Cameron. They will be replacing 54 ties in this stretch. You can see the condition of some of the ties in this photo. e08 - http://tinyurl.com/56pbha
	How old are these ties? Up the line the crew found a tie with a date nail of 1948. This tie on the passing siding is dated 1984. Anyone know what the 04 means?? Maybe April? e09 - http://tinyurl.com/5bofns
	Hydraulics make hard work a lot easier. The old tie is slid out of place. e10 - http://tinyurl.com/5ty9yt
	e11 - http://tinyurl.com/6cudyc
	New ties are really heavy but are slid into position by hand. e12 - http://tinyurl.com/56mk8d
	Again, hydraulics make heavy work a lot easier as the tractor slides the tie in. e13 - http://tinyurl.com/5c552d
	Setting spikes in the tie plates. e14 - http://tinyurl.com/6ld34r
	Again, hydraulics save a lot of work. Even though the jack hammer is very heavy, it is easier to use than hand spiking. e15 - Track8.jpg - http://tinyurl.com/6kf32s Even though it is hard work in the hot summer, the section crew is very efficient in their efforts.
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