Marshfield provided the Soo Line with a High Volume of On-line Originated and Terminating traffic. Many of the Customers the Soo Line serviced in Marshfield counted deliveries from the Soo in terms of TENS of cars Delivered per week, e.g., Hub City Jobbing Co. (Hub City Foods, now today's Fleming Corporation) received some 30+ cars Per Week. They are just one example; there are far more.

Marshfield was also a Junction Point for the Soo Line, for here the Freights to Wisconsin Rapids-Port Edwards-Nekoosa on the Aptly-named Nekoosa Line Arrived & Terminated each day; The Greenwood Line left the Twin Cities Main Line one block west of the Soo Line Overpass over Oak Avenue in Marshfield and struck out on it's 22.6 mile journey to Greenwood, and the "Medford Turn" Departed & Terminated here each day.

The 5 track yard here served not only for the incoming traffic for Marshfield Proper, the Nekoosa Line & the Greenwood Line traffic, but also was used as a Safety Valve for "Short Cars" destined for points West (East to JO in some cases) on the Ashland Line, the Superior Line and the Main Line West of Owen. Going back to pre-Wisconsin Central Ltd., there were cars set-out in Marshfield for other Local Points that never saw Stevens Point at all versus today's operating Scheme. These cars were set out in Marshfield, more-or-less alleviating Congestion at the Yard in Stevens Point.

There was enough work in Marshfield to require the Soo assign TWO Locomotives to work here between the hours of 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., and a Yard Engine that covered the Night Jobs from 3 p.m. to 7 a.m. Essentially, the Yard Engine worked 24 hours per day, 5 days per week; there were "Catch-all" Jobs on Saturday & Sunday as needed to do the work required.

The "Switch Engine" was the term applied by, and used more-or-less universally to, the Job that did all the Industry Switching in Marshfield. It also had the Monikers of "7:55 a.m. Switch Job" "Commercial Job" and "Uptown Engine", but, 99% of the time your Job that did the Industry work in Marshfield was known and called "The Switch Engine".

In the 1967-1980 years, the Switch Engine was Foremanned by the Late Matt Neilis. Matt enjoyed being known as a "Slave Driver" of first merit. Because Matt imply DROVE his crew all day long, and Matt could do 8 hours of work in 6 hours, which gave rise to the old saw, "Marshfield is quite a place. Too much work for one Engine, not enough for two".

I knew Matt to be a very-stressed individual on the Job, but a pretty nice guy off of the Job. Dad and I got along well with Matt, and we were all shocked when Matt took his own life in April of 1980.

The Yard Engine also had it's own Monikers besides being universally called "The Yard Engine". It was also known as the "6:55 a.m. Job", or, "The Downtown Engine". The Second Trick Yard engine was also known as "The 3:55 p.m. Job", and so forth. I began to pay attention to the Yard Engine during the mini-"War" between the Soo Line & the C&NW when there would be a Wreck or a Derailment on the Nekoosa Line, whence the C&NW & Soo shared track from Eastmar to Westrap and the Soo would embargo Their Traffic for up to 6 months over it----or, until Stevens Point became Congested with the Addition of Nekoosa Line Traffic, and the Job would get pushed back to Marshfield once again.

When the Nekoosa Line Job would be pulled off, then the Switch Engine would be abolished, and but ONE job covered the needs of Marshfield, or, perhaps I should say TWO, but on separate Shifts, a "7:55 a.m." Job and a "3:55 p.m." job would work, five days per week.

Until his Retirement, Ted Bratton was the Footboard Yardmaster on the Daytime Yard Engine in Marshfield. Ted was a Nice Guy, although I happened to run in to him years later after he had retired and he seemed to have become grumpy.

Going back to the early 1970's, the Saturday & Sunday Jobs were known variously as "The Weekend Engine" or, most often, "The Tramp". About 1973 the Saturday Switch Job as abolished forever, and one job retained for the work on Sunday, which involved pulling in # 27 from off the Nekoosa Line from Saturday (usually left Inside the Marshfield Yard Limits at East 4th Street), breaking the inbound consist apart into varied destination Pick Ups, Building a portion of Monday's # 26, and whatever Industry Switching needed to be done....which could lead to more work than it sounds like.

The Switch Engine had all of the M&T (Marshfield & Texas) Spur, the Industry along the Main Line/Siding West of the Diamond with the C&NW, and that located along the Nekoosa Line, which included the Industrial Park after 1968. The Industrial Park was Serviced on Recipricol Switching Agreements with the C&NW; The Soo Switched the Park on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays, C&NW on Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays. The Switch Engine conducted the Interchange with the Chicago & North Western along the Nekoosa Line where the Interchange Tracks, "Lower 1 & Lower 2" were located.

The Yard Engine (s) were not limited to just Classifying Cars, but, they, too, had Industry Work to perform. The Yard Engine was Assigned the Industry Switching along the Main Line East of the C&NW Diamond, or, along the North Side of Weyerhaeuser, all the way out to the Milling Company, later Prince Corporation. The Soo serviced two plants of Marshfield Milling Company; the Old Banner Mills/Sparr Cereal Company located on the M&T was referred to as "The Elevator" on Switch Lists, while the Present Facility constructed just outside of Marshfield's eastern City Limits was referrred to as"The Farm" on Switch Lists.

There were Three Spurs into the North Side of Weyerhaeuser that were the responsibility of the Yard Engine to be Switched; "P-Board", the Track that ran in from the Yard Lead into the Particle Board Plant, "Log Track", which also came off the Yard Lead and ran in parallel to the Weyerhaeuser Building, then "Veneer 1 & Veneer 2" which curved into the Oldest portion of the Weyerhaeuser ex-Roddis Venner & Lumber Company Building, and the "Coal Track", the North Half of the old Wye that ran from the Yard Lead through the Weyerhaeuser Plant Grounds and connected to the Nekoosa Line. The Wye was Stubbed in the Center sometime, possibly by 1955, and the North Half was used for spotting inbound cars of Coal for Weyerhaeuser's Boilers until 1975, when Weyerhaeuser turned to burning their own Sawdust/Waste for fuel. Soo pulled up the North portion of the Wye shortly thereafter.

I can't vouch for just what the Soo Line did going back far into the 1930's. It would seem the Need for two Engines working in Marshfield came about sometime after World War II, although Dad had told me they were both In Place already the first time he relieved in Marshfield in 1944. I can only take his word for it! Switching Jobs are not something well documented by virtue of their Reclusive Nature. It's very easy to ignore a Locomotive batting cars about, since this isn't what we railfans consider to be "True" Action. I'm lucky; I learned Railroading from the "Paperwork" end and fully understood what I was seeing, so I have always found a Switch Engine or Yard job swatting out cuts of cars to be Fascinating. There is a Method to it all!

As I saw it done, the Engine used as the Switch Engine would be that night's Yard Engine for the Second & Third Tracks, and the Daytime Yard Engine would go henceforth off on # 57 out to Greenwood or up to Medford. That arrangement stayed in place right up until the ill-fated take-over of the Milwaukee Road in 1985.

Locomotive Change-out was a part of the Story as well. You seldomly saw one particular Engine working in Marshfield for more than a week, then it was replaced with a different Locomotive, part of the Soo's "Locomotive Utilization Plan". Say, This Week it was the 2405 & the 404 working as the Switch Engine & Yard Engines respectively, next week you could have 707 & 2412. You can put any pre-1985 four-axle diesel in the slot, since the Soo never used a six-axle unit to my knowledge as either Switch Engine or Yard Engine prior to Lake States in Marshfield, although SD-9 2381 was here in 1967-68 being used on the Nekoosa Line, and Walley Abbey's "Little Jewel" shows her on # 57 in Abbotsford obviously getting ready to follow # 18 back to Marshfield. Perhaps on that day they had gone over to Athens with her. I've never heard of the 2381 being used on the Greenwood Line (YE GODS!) Going back to the days of RS-1's, you could have two examples in Marshfield until 1972, say, ex-DSS&A 100 & Old Soo 352 working their respective Jobs. When # 57 was assigned to Marshfield, one RS-1 was removed for the Most Part, replaced with a Geep, for the reliability over the road going up to Medford or out to Greenwood. The Soo Line was never "Hot" on the idea of using regular Switching Type Engines in Marshfield, although they were used here. The Last Switcher type to work in Marshfield was SW-1200 # 2125 in August of 1973, during the hiatus when the RS-1's left forever and the Soo Line realizing a Road-Switching-type engine was better suited to Marshfield providing better flexibility.

Marshfield's M&T Line was Festooned with Short, STEEP Knobs that bitterly Tested the Tractive Effort of a GP-30 with a 1200-ton train---at speeds that HAD to be kept well-below 6 mph and festooned with 16 street crossings--imagine what it did to an SW-something! That playing into the thinking around Marshfield, as well.

For you Steam Fans, all I can uncover of what was used as a Switch Engine or Yard engine in the Steam Era was ex-WC Class E-22, E-23, E-24 & E-25 4-6-0 Ten Wheelers. George Winkler tried telling me that the Soo used Class F-1 & F-2/F-3 2-8-0 Consols as Switchers in Marshfield, and, it could be so, since they were quite short and light of foot, but I have my doubts. I have never found evidence of 0-6-0 Switchers being used here, although they possibly were. Most often, and more likely, the Soo assigned a spiffy ex-WC C-22 or C-23 4-4-0 for a Switcher, maybe even a C-4 & 5 4-4-0 of Old Soo Parentage as a Switcher, but I doubt anything larger than a Ten Wheeler ever graced Marshfield as a Switcher.

Numerous Sharp Curves also Dictated the Power Used. The M&T had Two, one crossing West Second Street and South Spruce Avenue, and the other just south of Park Street before Crossing the Chicago & North Western Line to Merrillan, and Spurs into Roddis Veneer/later Weyerhaeuser, contained some sharp curvature that restricted the sizes of the Locomotives used, steam or Diesel.

Marshfield sported Two Yards. There was "The Uptown Yard" just east of the Depot in Marshfield, and "The New Yard" roughly a 1/2 mile East behind the Weyerhauser Plant, Constructed in 1936 to replace the Constricted Uptown Yard. In my day, the Uptown Yard Consisted of 3 through-tracks, House 1, House 2 & House 3, so named because 2 of the three had serviced the Marshfield Freight House. There was the Coach Track, which ended at the Wooden TOFC Ramp next to the Main Line (it originally extended right up to the Depot as the Station Track), The Team Track which ran to the foot of Maple Avenue on the south side of the Freight House, and the "Engine Track", which came off facing east and was where the Soo left the Engines Assigned to Marshfield when off duty. This track also serviced Asphalt Products/Felker Oil Co./Marshfield Brick & Gypsum (all the same set of buildings. They had several owners over the years beginning with Felker Oil.). Engines would also be left idling on the Coach Track, or at the Foot of Maple Avenue on House 2 or House 3.

All the above mentioned Tracks Uptown came off of the Nekoosa Line, making the Trackage after leaving the Nekoosa Line Junction Switch into a Yard Ladder. This was where you found the Switch Engine swatting their cars about as they placed the cars in the order they wanted them as they switched various industry, or cut out cars going to the C&NW in Interchange. The Uptown Yard could get PLUGGED very easily. There wasn't much capacity there folks!

It made for some tough Starts for # 26, the Train to Nekoosa. I recall a couple derailments to a just-departing # 26 in this trackage because of it's rough nature.

House 2 & 3 came together at Maple Avenue and Continued behind the Depot, essentially becoming the M&T. House 1 joined just before the Crossing from East 1st Street leading onto the Staion Grounds, and the Trackage began turning to meet the Main Line---which it did at one time, just after Central Avenue. This was changed years later, and the M&T connected to the Main with a Crossover, called "the Chestnut Street Crossover". The Switch Engine used this x-over to get out on the Main Line to go out 5 blocks west of the Depot to access the Spur that served Hub City Foods.

Prior to 1956 (?), the Soo Line had their Power Cared for by the Chicago & North Western at their Roundhouse here. Again, I'm not too sure what date the Soo terminated this arrangement, but it seems to have been terminated by the time Dad came back to Marshfield, briefly, in 1959, before going to North Fond du Lac, Maintowoc, and then Back Here to Marshfield in 1967.

The Soo used to leave their power sit behind the Depot to idle, but the Residents of the LaPointe Hotel directly BEHIND the Depot complained about the Noise and the Exhaust! Residents over on Vine Avenue near the Engine Hostler's Shanty (an old Wooden Box car set on the Ground) complained VIGOROUSLY about the Soo leaving their power to idle near there, as well! Soo fought a Running Battle over spots to leave their Engines Idle for years.....they settled on either the Coach Track or the ends of House 2 or House 3.

With this Groundwork Laid, Next is the M&T Spur and the Business along it.

Keith Meacham

I should intone here that in all my research of the M&T, I have NEVER come across ANY Equipment used by the Upham Logging/Furniture Company that was Lettered identifying it as being owned by Upham or the "Marshfield & Texas". Photographs of the Few Used 4-4-0's Upham had sport a Number, nothing else. "Old Van", an odd-ball, ex-New York Central Inside-Connected 4-4-0 that was Upham's First Locomotive, Didn't even wear a Number if Memory serves.

But no where have I found Official Record of an Actual "Marshfield & Texas Railroad" Company. Old maps have referred to it as "The Upham Logging Railroad", or erroniously, "The Marshfield & Southeastern" or the Marshfield & Southwestern." It was none of the Above so far as I have been able to determine.

The M&T originally ran southeasterly out of Marshfield 7 miles and terminated in what is today's North Wood County Park, or, "Richfield Park" as we refer to it today. The only way to find the M&T leaving Marshfield's Corporate Limits in 2001 is to take an Airplane Ride after the First Snowfall; it shows up that way. Otherwise, being a Typical Lumber Line Railroad, the M&T didn't make much of a scar on the Landscape.

The M&T never pretended to be or have been anything BUT a Logging Line, built with little---or NO---sub-roadbed or Extensive Grading. It essentially lay atop the ground, no more & no less. As such, in common with a Hastily-built Interurban, the M&T wound it's way up & over several short but STEEP grades.

One thing that always made the M&T stand out was the fact that for half of it's length, it was running next to, behind or--as in the case right across the street from where I live today--RIGHT in front of homes. That was an indicator of how little faith the early settlers of Marshfield had in future Growth. The M&T was originally RIGHT on the Western Boundary of Marshfield when Upham laid it in 1890. Central Avenue was the Main Thouroghfare through Marshfield for many years, and the M&T was a mere THREE Blocks from it! Obviously, no one foresaw the Growth that Marshfield experienced by 1900. That was synonimous with the "Company Town" thinking of those years; after all, Marshfield was a-typical of a Company Sawmill Town prior to 1900, complete with Company Stores, even Company Scrip money! Due to Unplanned, Unchecked and Unexpected Growth within Marshfield, by 1910, the M&T was WELL within City Limits! How well I remember how the Windows Panes in our Home RATTLED when the Switch Engine went past in either direction (Although a train going back Uptown with mostly empty cars made the house shake worse than a loaded train did) and how the Dishes clattered in the Cupboard from the Vibration. If it as like that in the house where I live, I've often wondered what my Next Door Neighbors put up with, or the Folks across the Street that had the M&T RIGHT OUTSIDE their front door!

The M&T gathered itself together in my day right Behind the Marshfield Depot, and wound it's way over Central Avenue. When the M&T was a separate Railroad, the Trackage behind the Depot Joined the Main Line, the M&T joined right next to this Switch. In my day, the M&T had been joined with the Trackage behind the Depot, and connected to the Main Line by a Crossover, the "Chestnut Street Crossover", which allowed the Switch Engine to get out on the Main for the run about 5 blocks west to Hub City Jobbing Co's Switch off the Main Line. Hub City Jobbing Co. --later Hub City Foods, now today's Fleming Corp.--was Sandwiched in between Central Avenue on the East, Chestnut Avenue on the west, the Railway Express Agency Building on the North, and West First Street on the South. The building Hub City used was built by the Weber Family, a Grocer, and had an engraved Iron Plate at the Top that read, "WEBER BUILDING". Hub City vacated this facility in 1973 for their newer and much larger Warehouse in the East Side Industrial Park. The old Building was razed about 1978 at the behest of the Soo Line---it WAS sitting on Railroad Property, anyways! The M&T crossed the "Hub City Spur" at grade just after it crossed South Chestnut Avenue. Just beyond, the Spurs that serviced the Marshfield Milling Co., Weinbrenner Shoe Co., and United Building Centers began curving off the M&T.

The Marshfield Milling Company began life as one of Wm. Upham's sideline Businesses, originally the Banner Mills. When the Upham interests began selling off their holdings in the 1920's-1930's, the Banner Mills was sold to the Sparr Cereal Co. Sometime in the 1930's, Prince Koenig purchased the Sparr operation and turned it in to the Marshfield Milling Company. As the Milling Company, they were a Good Soo Customer, getting in somewhere around 30 cars per week. They used to get in Tank Cars of Molassas, but I cannot recall Tank Cars in the place, only Box Cars and Shorty Covered Hopper Cars of Soy Meal and Bulk Feeds. The Milling Company, when sequestered in their Old Banner Mills buildings, required the Soo to switch them at least twice per day. The Switch Engine would make the first "Spots" around 10:30 a.m., after having gone to the Power Plant and returned, and the Second Trick or Third Trick Yard Engine would do the work for the second Switch sometime after 6 p.m.

Snaking up along the Western Side of the Milling Company "Mill" building was the Weinbrenner Spur, which serviced the Shoe Factory of the same name. This Spur was used by the Milling Company as well as by Weinbrenner. The Milling Company received "Off" inventory items on the Weinbrenner Spur, such as Shingles, Decorative Bark, Nails, Fencing, etc. Coming off the Weinbrenner Spur just after crossing West 1st Street was the "Conkey Spur", which ran in alongside the Milling Company's "Conkey Warehouse", so named because the Milling Company used to Handle Conkey Feeds at one time. This building still stands as of this Writing. The Spur next to it was long-since taken up by the time I was a Lad. It was connected to the Main Portion of the Milling Company by a Steel Sawhorse of sufficient height, with long wooden platforms extending out from the Conkey Warehouse and the outside Platform of the Mill. These were removable for the Switch Crews to access Weinbrenner, although, at least once, while Switching in the Dark, no one Protected the Rear Car shoving in between the Buildings going in to Switch Weinbrenners and the Saw House & Ramps were pretty well destroyed!

The Weinbrenner Shoe Factory provided the Soo with Inbound-Outbound Traffic right up until 1983. Originally, most of the Traffic was Army Shoes, e.g., Combat Boots, Dress Shoes, etc. When Weinbrenner held the almost exclusive Military Contract, Soo had to Switch Weinbrenner Twice per day, as well. Weinbrenner had added an enclosed Dock almost right atop the Spur's crossing with West Second Street. In earlier years, the Shoe Factory got in carloads of Milled Leather on the West Spur to the Building, later on they received & Shipped off their East Side Dock.

Weinbrenner loaded out MANY Soo Line 50' Plug Door XML type cars....that's what I always remember sitting in next to their Dock. Their Spurs were left over from the Upham Furniture Factory that had sat on the same site. The City acquired this land at the same time Upham sold out all their manufacturing Interests and the Land the Furniture Factory sat on. Weinbrenner's was lured by the City during the depths of the Depression as a way to provide jobs. The City leases the land the Shoe Company sits on to Weinbrenner for a PALTRY amount each year. I'm not sure Weinbrenner pays the City taxes because of this arrangement.

Service to Weinbrenners came to an end with the Cessation of the Military Contract in 1983. The Soo pulled up the Spur shortly thereafter---like ONE WEEK after. That was kind of funny, really; not long before, Weinbrenner's had installed a Wheel Chock on their Spur, and about one month afterwards the Switch Crew pushed a car over the Chock, completely demolishing it. Lot of good that did to instll that Chock.

The UBC (United Building Centers) never did a lot of Business with the Soo Line when I was a Kid. This was originally Gateway Lumber Co., and was sold to UBC around 1969. Of interest was a long, wooden, bunkered Coal Shed that ran along the UBC Spur that was dismantled over a period of several years. The last of it disappeared about 1980 or so. The UBC Track was originally one of Two tracks that serviced the Upham Sawmill, which sat where today's City Garage is located. Back in the 1950's, the City got in Tank Car loads of Asphalt from the Soo at the end of this spur, which ran to the edge of South Spruce Avenue. The Portable Boiler the City used to heat the Asphalt sat unused for many years at the rear of the Garage Yard.

The UBC's in Marshfield, Greenwood, Loyal and Spencer were all owned by the same Franchise Holder. When housing starts slipped in the mid-1970's, all four UBC operated under strict Cost Controls, with Spencer becoming a sort of Central Receiving point. If a carload came in for the Marshfield UBC, the other UBC's in the same Franchise got a share of the car. All I ever saw spotted on the UBC Track was carloads of Bagged Cement, Lime or Mortar. I never saw a car of Lumber unloading here, ever. They succumbed about 1981, and the City purchased the land and took it over as a part of the Garage. The Parks & Recreation Dep't. uses it now, but it is scheduled to be Demolished before the Boulevard Roadway is completed.

A little farther along was Johnson Garment Company. I can't say they ever did any business with the Soo, but their building is/was significant in that it was the Power Plant for the Upham Furniture Factory right across the street! It still stands, home to a Driver's Education academy.

From here, the M&T ran along the backside of Johnson Garment's building for roughly 1/2 a block, before turning South-Southwest to cross West Second Street and South Spruce Avenue through the Intersection of the two roads. At one time, before the M&T became Soo property, there was a Spur that led off westerly to service the South Side of the Upham Sawmill. Another Spur led off into the Lath Piles that had occupied the area to the west of Spruce Avenue.

The curve over Second & Spruce was a "Sharpie", and Freight Cars would HOWL in protest coming around it! It was a reliable indicator that the Switch Engine was on it's way to the Power Plant when you heard the "EEEEEE.....ROOOOOOOO........ARRRRRRRR" of the wheels of the Cars straining around that Curve!

For the next 4 blocks, the M&T ran alongside South Spruce Avenue. Just before crossing West Third Street, the Line Split, becoming the "East Armour" spur and "The Run Around". 1/2 a block farther along on the Run Around, the "West Weinbrenner" Spur left and ran up alongside the west side of the Shoe Factory. This spur received Milled Leather, which went right to the Stitching Machines located on that side of the Building. I saw but ONE car on it, a C&NW Waffle-side car that the Switch Engine pulled out on their way to the Power Plant one day. In fact, that day was the LAST time the Run Around Track or West Weinbrenner track was used; on their way back uptown from the Power Plant, the Switch Engine stopped at the South Switch of the Run Around, lined themselves up East Armour, then did the same thing after crossing Third Street. From that day forward the Trains always ran along the East Armour Spur, and the Section Crews pulled up the Run Around & West Weinbrenner spurs in 1973. Weinbrenners had had two Covered Docks along the Track, indicating they could only received & unload no more than two cars at a time. The outlines of the Flashing from the Roofs of these docks is still very visible to this day.

You weren't a kid in my neighborhood if you didn't get BODILY THROWN OFF your Bike trying to ride across the West Weinbrenner Spur. If you took it straight on, you got bruised & skinned-up knees--OR WORSE. It would grab your tire and throw you EVERY time!!!

Between Third and Fourth Streets was the Mid State Cheese Company, originally C.E. Blodgett Cold Storage & Hatchery. Before the Soo Line began using the East Armour spur and took up the Run Around, I never saw a Car on this Spur, ever. At one time there had been a wooden dock that ran the length of the Building Trackside, but a portion had been removed and what remained along the tracks was badly rotted through. Blodgett sold out around 1930 to Armour & Co., who in turn sold out to Steven J. Miller around 1950 or so. Miller ran Mid State until the Southern Front Half of their Building burned to the ground in 1976.

Mid-State was an Interesting Poly-glot collection of Brick & Wooden construction. The South Portion along West 4th Street was Wooden, covered with a Brick-embossed TIN Siding, Painted a dull Red. This portion contained the Lab, and much of the Cut/Wrap operations done for Hire for outside contract was conducted in the Southern Portion of the Building. The Second Portion was Blond Brick, and was the Portion of the Building where the Bulk Storage Coolers were. The rear portion was again wood, but with tongue & groove Siding. The entire building was painted Dull Red, one end to the other. Only a Sign painted on the West Third Street end of the Building proclaimed "MID-STATE CHEESE CO." On the 4th Street facade you could make out the "ARMOUR & CO." lettering at the top, but BARELY.

Mostly, one remembers the Semi Trucks sitting half-cocked in the Middle of West 4th Street loading/unloading with Cheese, the Tractor Barely clearing the West 4th Street Crossing with the M&T, prinicipally Watkins or Central Cheese Co. Tractor-Trailer rigs. Central Cheese Co. was the Company the owned the Mid-State building. All I know of the operations of Mid-State from my Childhood was that they did a lot of Storage & some Cut/Wrap operations there. There was a Lab for doing testing of Cheeses being Stored; these would be pulled out of a Barrel (most everything done there was Barrel Cheese---there was some Rounds in Veneer Cheese Boxes that were Proocessed for Contract with other firms) and the Tryer piece tested. Results were sent to the Company Storing their Cheese there, and decisions to either Sell, Cut/Wrap. Process or hold the product were made by the Company storing the Cheese.

About 4 carlengths farther along was the "Mid-State Spur", which left the M&T just before the West Fifth Street Crossing and serviced the West Side of the Mid State Cheese Company. In my day, this was where the Cars were always spotted for Loading. Years before I was even THOUGHT of, there was a second spur that came off the Mid State Spur and ran parallel to the first and Serviced an Ice House operated by C.E. Blodgett. I'm not clear on what year this was removed, but it seems like it was about 1939.

The Soo & Steve Miller, the Owner of, not only Mid Sate Cheese Co., but Also Central Cheese Co, S.J. Miller Cold Storage and the Marshfield Cold Storage, engaged in Tax Fraud for a number of years involving Mid State Cheese Co. In April, the Soo would gather up EVERY Ice Reefer they could lay their hands on, and PACK the West Side of Mid State FULL so Mid State could empty out their Coolers of any and all product to avoid Taxes! It could all be claimed as, "In Transit", so as not to be charged for Excessive Inventory on hand! The Soo had all they could do to shove in enough cars for loading; the process was reversed after the Tax Man visited and the Loaded Cars, stored in the Uptown Yard, would be brought back for UN-Loading as fast as the Warehousemen in the Mid State building could unload the cars!

Until Steve Miller filed Bankruptcy to avoid Prosecution in 1972, on "Regular" Up & Up Rail Business, Mid State loaded out about a car per week. After Bankruptcy, it fell to a car per month, and by the time the Southern Portion of the Building burned to the ground in a Spectacular Inferno on January 2, 1976, Mid State had only loaded out one car in a year, Ironically, the Last car I had seen here was about one year to the day before the Building burned.

Located next to Mid State was Mitten's Home Appliances, an old one-story Brick & Cinder Block building where Mitten's had gotten their Business Start. The building had been a Dry Cleaning plant at one time, Mitten's purchased it after the Cleaning Plant went bust. They did no Business with the Soo Line at this location, although they did get in Brand New appliances but unloaded these off of House 1 behind the Freight house. I was told once that Clarence Mitten had approached Steve Miller about the Possibility of having cars of New Appliances Spotted next to Mid State's building right next door to Mitten's warehouse, but Miller required an Excessive Charge for that use! Typical, that.

At West Sixth Street there had been a Switch into a Warehouse Owned by Trierweiler Construction. According to residents from that Neighborhood, Trierweiler never got in much---this Spur was used primarily by David Building Supply for Carloads of Lumber that they unloaded here. Trierweiler tore out his Warehouse sometime about 1959-1960, and a Duplex was built on the site. David Lumber continued to get carloads of Lumber on the Spur until 1966, when the Spur was removed. The Ties STILL inhabit the lawn next to the Duplex!
Across the Street there now stands a 7-story extravaganza Elderly Housing Apartment Building, constructed in 1966-1968. On one 1/2 of this Block once stood the O&N Lumber Co. O&N prior to 1955 had been a Steady Customer of the Soo, getting in Carload Lumber and Home Heating Coal. After 1955, O&N closed up and left, and Thompsen-Abbot Construction used this site as their Construction Yard until it was purchased by the City for the Elderly Housing Apartment Building. The Spur remained up until the Building itself was well along; the Brick for it's Construction came in Via Rail, and was spotted on the old O&N Spur. After removing the Spur, carload brick still came in for the project, but Spotted right on the M&T to be unloaded. The Switch Engine would simply couple on to the Empty Box Car or Flat, pushing it along ahead of the Engine to the Power Plant. Coming back the car was behind the Engine as God intended. Spotting a Carload of Brick entailed making sure the car was postioned Dead Last in the Train. They would stop, uncouple the car, block the wheels, and leave. Once the Building was finished in 1968, this traffic was done, forever.

The M&T wound it's way up and over a Short but Steep knob between 7th & Park Streets. With an Alco RS-1 and a 1200+ ton train, the crew would begin making a "Run" for this Knob after they had passed West 5th St. The hope was to try to build up enough momentum to get over the Knob without stalling; I have seen FOUR Stalls here, Three with RS-1's and one with a GP-30. Going between 7th & Park, the M&T run through Back Yards. Along the Eastern Side of the M&T's Narrow r-o-w there was a long Chain-link fence. Behind this fence resided a VERY LARGE St. Bernard Dog, that Attacked the Fence whether it was Human Traffic or Train! I have a fond Memory of watching the Switch Engine heading to the Power Plant, and I got ahead on my Bike and planted myself at the Pine/Park Intersection, thereby affording a View of the Train coming around the Curve between Magee & Pine. They were led that day by SW-9 # 2112. As the Engine drew up next to the Fenceline screaming for alkl it was worth, there was that Damn Dog, Standing with it's front paws on TOP of this Fence, barking at the 2112 as it went by; Ray Watson & John Starosta were the Switchmen riding the Battery Box Cover next to the Cab that day. That Damn Starosta sat TEASING this HUGE Animal as the 2112 "Sailed" by at 6 mph. Little did "Big John" (as Starosta was called) realize that had that Dog WANTED to, it could have WALKED over that fence and made a three-course meal out of him!

EEEESH!

To be Continued

Keith Meacham

The C&NW had a 120-car siding that split just after crossing South Oak Avenue. Here, the C&NW played "Take 'em Apart n' Put 'em Back Together" because the Siding & Main Line were about the only place to do so. C&NW's own "New Yard" was located on their line to Nekoosa, accessed by a Sharp Curve around the Wye that joined the Eland Line to the Wisconsin Rapids-Fond du Lac Line. You were more Apt to see the C&NW Switcher reworking the rear 1/3rd of the Train Bound from Eland to Merrillan at Oak, making numerous movements over Oak Ave. and the Diamond of the M&T. It was much SAFER that trying to Yard a 150+ -car freight train around the C&NW's wye in Marshfield! (Although it WAS done.....just no speed records were broken doing so! Not to mention the curious feelings one got in the Pit of one's Stomach watching--and LISTENING!--to a long C&NW Freight snake around that wye......) orking the rear of the inbound C&NW Train at Oak involved a lot of pushing/pulling cuts of cars through Marshfield.....but, the C&NW in Marshfield is yet another story.

The Second Sharp Curve lay just before the M&T crossed the C&NW in the Trees; this piece of Curvature was sharp enough to require Guaging Bars to keep the track in guage! Lord how the cars HOWLED in protest negotiating this curve as well!

Oak Avenue swung alongside the west side of the M&T, and the M&T swung due south at this point, and the General Layout of Marshfield took on a North-South alignment on the South end, instead of the Northeast-Southwest alignment the city lay upon by following the R-o-w lay of the Soo Line. Technically, the M&T was still curving when it crossed the C&NW; there after, the M&T dipped WAY Down again before climbing yet another Short but Steep Knob across West 11th Street. South of the C&NW, the area was one of few trees, mostly high meadow grasses. The Knob over West 11th Street crested in Front of the F.F. Mengel Ready Mix Plant, and here began the "Buttertub" track.

The "Buttertub" was the Soo-slang term for a piece of Joint Trackage shared with the C&NW from the Switch off the M&T by Mengel's all the way to the Spur's end at the foot of Central Avenue across from the C&NW's Marshfield Depot. The Soo Line called the ENTIRETY of all the Trackage "The Buttertub", including the spurs that Serviced Blodgett Lumber Co, the Blum Bros. Box Company, Marshfield Bedding, Dohm Oil Co., Retzer Oil Co., and, Yes, the Wisconsin Buttertub Company. It appears the Buttertub Track had been used as the Interchange Connection between Upham Lumber Co. and the C.St.P. M. & O/C&NW. The Buttertub connected with the M&T right at the Driveway into the F.F. Mengel Ready Mix Plant, and followed alongside the M&T to West 11th Street before curving gently to the Northeast to connect, eventually, to the C&NW itself behind the Blum Bros. office building. About a carlength in on the Buttertub the Spur for the Blodgett Lumber Co. peeled away, followed the Buttertub to 11th Street and curved sharply away to the East-Southeast. The Blodgett Spur ended atop four giant Concrete Bridge Piers where the Home Heating Coal Unloading Trestle was. These piers still stand in 2001, but bereft of Trackage atop them, removed about 1954. Blodgett had three or four Sheds along either side of this Spur where the Numerous sundries of a Lumber Yard were stored, i.e., Lumber, Bagged Cement, Motar, etc. These various sheds were still in place when I was a Lad; they were slowly dismantled over a period of some ten or so years.

The Switch Stand for the Blodgett Lumber Co. was an odd-looking thing; it had the Diamond-shaped Target of the C&NW, painted Yellow in keeping with the Practice of Yard Trackage Switches, on a Standard Soo Line Pettibone-Mulliken No. 6 Starr Switch Stand (C&NW generally used Racor Switch Stands in Marshfield---that's why this struck me as Odd), with the Target Bar bent in an " s ", and done that way a-purpose, this was not the usual Snow-plow bending Damage. C&NW Locks were used; Soo Switchmen had to Carry a C&NW Switch Key.

Apparently, Blodgett did more Business with the C&NW than the Soo, for the C&NW rendered the Spur into Blodgett Lumber unuseable by pulling out a 39-ft. length of rail from the Blodgett Spur over 11th Street. The spur itself did not come out until the C&NW Abandoned out of Marshfield in 1982.

About 4 carlengths in from 11th Street, another Switch diverted the Rails to follow in down between two of Blum Brother's Box Company's Buildings. In my day, this spur, too, was unusable, for the C&NW had removed the Switch Points and Frog, though the Switch Stand & trackage to the buildings still remained in place. This stand, too, was topped with a C&NW Diamond Target on a Soo Pettibone-Mulliken No. 6 Starr Stand, but the upper portion of the Target Bar had not been bent.

This Spur ran in between Blum Bros. odd-looking three-story, Slatted Window Warehouse and the Boiler House. Exactly what---if anything--that Blum Bros. may have Shipped Out/Received In is lost to me. No one paid too much attention to the Blum Bros. operations. I was able to ascertain that Blum Bros. got inbound shipments of Coal for their Boilers on this track-------via the C&NW. It appears, after years of sometimes futile digging, that the Industry on the Buttertub was mostly C&NW-served, at least, it seems, 99% of the Traffic came in via the C&NW and was placed at the various industries by the C&NW.

It explains why I never heard any other names for the Spurs along the Buttertub as well. I expect the C&NW had named all of the Spurs along the Buttertub, slang terms now lost forever.

From research, it sounds as though since the Buttertub as "Joint" Trackage (my two Soo Line maps of the M&T make a STRONG Point about what IS and what ISN'T Joint Trackage), "Recipricol Switching" agreements did not apply here. In other words, it was *Possible* to have BOTH C&NW & Soo Line Engines working here atop one another. Did it happen? It sounds like it was an *Occasional* ocurrence, though not something that happened all the time. In fact, it sounds as though the C&NW held sway over about 90% of the traffic that came off of/arrived for the Indusrty on the Buttertub Track; Soo got what was left.

Just to be "Nice", the Soo Line allowed the C&NW *Just* enough rights out onto the M&T very SHORT of Mengel's spur, about enough room for a Locomtive and three cars to clear the Blodgett Lumber Co Switch. Interestingly, this was all worked out Many years before Mengel's located in Marshfield.

Farther along, yet one more Spur left the Buttertub to run in along the Blum Bros. Production Building. On this Spur, carload Logs were spotted, and a Jill-poke stood here to knock logs off the cars they came in on onto a roller track that brought the logs into the Building where they were stripped into Veneer for Blum Bros. main product--Veneer Cheese Boxes. The Jill-poke arrangement worked well for years so long as the Logs came in on Flat Cars......Gondola-hauled logs created problems! When logs begam coming more and more in Gons, the Jill Poke was relaced by a Derrick to unload logs out of the cars.

From this aforementioned spur, the Buttertub ran up to connect with the C&NW Merrillan line. Two more Spurs diverted eastward just before the Buttertub connected with the C&NW and ran Parallel to each other before joining back together at the extreme Eastern End of the Wisconsin Buttertub Company. One ran behind the Buildings of the Blum Bros. office, The Marshfield Bedding Company, and Wisconsin Buttertub Company, in that Order going East towards Central Avenue. Just how much Traffic these firms provided the Soo Line, or the C&NW for that matter, remains debateable, although the thought of the sight of a Soo Line engine working along the C&NW's Merrillan Line is an Interesting one! I often wonder IF it actually happened, or how often, if it did.

Located beyond the Buttertub Company was a Small Ice House owned by J.E. Crillers, then the Leaking Storage Tanks of Dohm Oil Co, the Deep Rock Dealer in Marshfield. Just beyond Dohm was the Large Facility of Retzer Oil Co., the Standard Oil Bulk Dealer in Marshfield. I cannot say I ever witnessed any inbound shipments to either Dohm OR Retzer in my day; in fact, the C&NW Used this portion of the Buttertub to store Bad Order freight cars when I was younger. The Buttertub ended at the Foot of the Sidewalk on Central Avenue, some 15 Feet LOWER than the Sidewalk-Roadway above and the C&NW Grade alongside of it!

I remember the Buttertub for another reason: The Soo Line Switch Crews would try to store Extra Cars for Mengel's & the Power Plant on it! This was SOP into 1969, a way to give the Crew more Room in the Uptown Yard, since the Capacity Uptown was quite small, but, exactly what happened to foil the Soo's impromptu storage of excess cars on the Buttertub is vague at best. I suspect the C&NW jumped on the Soo about leaving cars north of 11th Street on the Buttertub, but not telling the C&NW about it. Mostly, this practice was done with Mengel's cars, when Mengel would ship far more than they could fit within limits on Mengel's Spur. The last time I recall seeing Cars stored on the Buttertub was about 1972, where the Switch Engine had stuffed in about 8 extra cars (Pullman-built 50 ton Slope Ended Ore Cars) that simply wouldn't fit on Mengel's Spur.

Blum Brothers went out of Business by 1966, and the Buildings stood empty for about 8 years before becoming the first home of Mall Furniture. The Wisconsin Buttertub Company had succumbed right after WW II due to different Storage/Packaging techniques involving Butter, and became Modern Sleep Company about 1955. Modern Sleep evolved into Modern of Marshfield, and, in a curious switch, about 1977 MoM & Mall Furniture effected a "Swap" of their Buildings, Mall Furniture took over the old Buttertub Building and the ever-expanding Modern of Marshfield moved in and now uses the entirety of the old Blum Bros. Box Company Buildings. Mall Furniture used to get in a Box Car of Furniture per month from the C&NW, always in Southern Railway 40-ft. box cars. Mall Furniture never conducted any business with the Soo Line.

MoM DID get in carloads of air-dried lumber via the Soo, about 5 cars worth in the period 1978-1980. Seeing the sight of this Lumber going past my home on it's way to the Factory was eye-brow raising, (It also explains why I REFUSE to buy their product!!!) but it didn't amount to much. MoM trucks in everything they need today in 2001, as well as ships out their finished product. Rail Transport never figured in significantly in the Movement of Furniture.

Coming back out on the M&T, the Spur into F.F. Mengel's was located about four carlengths north of the Crossing with West 14th Street. Mengels was ONE Busy Customer! Their inbound loads were Pea, Rock, Stone and Sand for their Ready-mix business, of which Mengel's had just about all the Concrete needs of Marshfield all to itself! Until 1972, Carload Bulk Cement, loaded in Manitowoc, Wis., was a part of the Traffic Mix all year long, about 7 cars per week. But the big Commodity was the Raw Material, about 20 cars PER DAY. When there was Saturday Service by the "Tramp", Mengel's got Switched TWICE on Saturday, as Well, and once on Sunday! Those cars are not included in my Tally, which could run as high as almost 40 cars per week counting the Weekends. Whatever Short Haul the Custer-to-Marshfield run had was more than made up by the Sheer Volume of Cars Mengels got inbound! The Highest Volume commodity Mengel's got in was Sand, followed by Pea (Gravel to you people--don't forget, the F.F. Mengel Pit at Custer was part of my Dad's Traveling Agency after 1978...Mengel's didn't ship "Aggregate" or "Gravel", NOR was it identified on Waybills as such!), then Rock and then Stone. Pea, to clarify, was about the size of a Marble; Rock was about the size of a 50-cent piece, Stone fell in between Pea & Rock.

Mengel's in the Construction Season, required the Soo Switch them Three Times Per Day. The Construction Season began, on the Average, around mid-April, and could last into Early December. Mengel's began shipping Raw Material to Marshfield as soon as the Frost left the ground and they could dig without impunity at Custer.

When we first moved to Marshfield in 1967, Mengel's got their Raw Material in in Soo's 50-ton Twin and 70-Ton Triple Open Hopper Cars of 34' and 40' variety. Most of these cars stand out in my mind as being pretty well beaten up, so rusty they were almost BLACK (maybe the WERE black!!!). I recall both Offset Side and Rib Side Twin Hopper 34' cars in Mengels, with the very occasional appearence of the Offest Side 40' Triples. These cars VANISHED after 1967, replaced with---of all things---the Soo's still-large fleet of Time---and Service---worn, Pullman Standard built 50-ton Slope Ended Ore Cars, although one got to see EVERY Ore Car the Soo Owned come down the M&T loaded for Mengels, including ex-DSS&A cars on Arch Bar Trucks, the 70-ton Pullman-built cars of 1922, and the Flat Sided cars built in 1950. Yes, they all came here at one time or another, but the cars that held down the job of ferrying Mengel's inbound Raw Materials was almost exclusively held by the Slope-ended Pullman-built Ore Cars, some of which were built BEFORE WW I !!!!! Ore Cars lasted in this service from 1968 well into 1973. Then, after a Knuckle Pin broke on a cut being hauled back Uptown and ran away Downhill into the Cars standing at the Power Plant (Causing ONE HELL of a Wreck---luckily, no one was injured!), the remaining Ore Cars DISAPPEARED forever from Marshfield, replaced by Brand-spanking NEW Bethlehem-built 100-ton cars of 1971 Vintage. I'm old enough to recall the days of "Mixeds" on the M&T, where the 100-ton cars came down to Mengels in company with Ore Cars yet. In fact, I believe some of the First Loads these cars received and hauled were to Mengels; I STILL recall being able to smell the Fresh Paint on those cars!

The cars I saw going to Mengel's was the Reason I built the Soo's 100-ton Quad Hopper Fleet out of Walther's near-perfect HO Scale Model. Yes, saw those cars on the M&T, headed for Mengels as well!!! I witnesed EVERY Hopper car the Soo Line owned waddle down the M&T, including the last new Open Hopper Cars bought in 1977 from Mid West Freight Car, the All-white 100 ton triples. Looked nice when new, but one year of service with Rubber Tires and what-not being burned underneath in attempt to unfreeze a load pretty well made that White Paint a MOOT point!

Years later, some of these same cars would be at Custer Pit as I did the Yard Check for Dad, walking Both Ends of the Pit, the Pit Lead, and the House Track, taking down Car Numbers on the Yard Check. I get a Wistful Feeling anytime I see one of these cars unrepainted in a WC Coke Train or Coal Train. I've watched their entire careers! No wonder I feel OLD, gee whiz.

Mengels was an very straight-forward Switch. A Power Plant-bound Train would pull it's ENTIRE Consist past the Spur going in to Mengels. The Switchman would line in to the Spur, and the Engine would BACK their train-most all of which was on a hill at this point--it was Uphill both ways to the knob at 11th Street--into Mengels, coupling up to the Empty Cars, which Mengels rolled down to the Derail as they Unloaded them. They would have four empty 100-ton cars rolled past their in-plant crossing, another two next to the Mixing Tipple clear of their Unloading Pit. (Using Ore Cars, if Mengel's ordered 600 tons, which was typical, it translated into 12 ore cars, which coupled together was the same length as Six 100-ton Hopper cars! Mengel's would have 8 empty ore cars rolled to the derail, with four empty ore cars next to the Tipple).

With the Couplings made, this extravaganza was pulled out to clear Mengel's Switch; realigned, then the Empty Cars, with 6 loads for the Power Plant AND the 6 loads coming in for Mengels were backed up the M&T to clear West 11th Street. The Mengel's cars were cut off from the Power Plant Loads and the Empty Mengel's cars, the Engine and Mengel's loads ran down to clear the Switch. Realigned into Mengels, the incoming loads were Back In alll the way to the End of the Mengel's Spur, to clear the "Road" in the rear of the Mixing Tipple, cut off, and the Engine ran back out light, and back onto their Train. It was a fun move to watch; No matter what Locomotive as doing this task, ALL Howled loudly trying to move 1700 ton train Backward over a Short but NASTY Grade!

In the Middle of all of this, Concrete Trucks and Mengel's Quad Axle Dump Trucks were moving in & out of the Plant at the same time the Soo was switching the place. It resembled a scene of "Organized Bedlam".

Mengels invested in a Small Fleet of Oshkosh Concrete Trucks of Tri, Quad, QUIN and SEX-tuple Axle arrangements! These were 6-yard trucks, and most of the reason Oak Avenue is in the poor shape it's in is from the Years of Mengel's Concrete Trucks pounding the DEATH out of Marshfield's Streets. You could stand in my Front Yard, look west to Oak and See a Mengel's Concrete Truck going to or coming from their Plant on Oak just as often as you saw an Ambulance heading to the Hospital!!

Mengels invested in a Brand-new Mixing Plant in 1974, thereabouts, from the Rex Corporation. The new Tipple and Mixing Elevator came in via Flat Car over the M&T. It was funny to watch, as the Switch Engine dragged these cars at what seemed to be an even slower speed, as though the train were running on Eggs!

Just across West 14th Street Crossing was Superior Gas. They came on-line in 1959, but, in my Day, Superior was never much of a Customer to the Soo until the Energy Crisis of the 1970's. Then, Superior began getting in Tank Car Loads of LP, about 20 cars per year. That slacked off in 1979-80, only to rebound again for 1982-1984, then it came to a sudden halt again. The last car into Superior came on the Wisconsin Central in 1988, a carload of Butane.

Superior was Switched after the work at the Power Plant and the Canning Company was finished. The Crews would make sure the Tank Car (or Cars) were headed out First behind the Engine pointed on the way back Uptown. They would eith come up the Hil from West 17th Street to West 14th Street with the Train behind or leave the Train sitting at the bottom at 17th Street and come up with the Locomotive and cars alone to do the Work Here. The Superior Gas Switch was a Hard One to throw; I recall watching TWO Switchmen Struggle to get the Damn thing open! All this to spot a White or Black propane car!!

After crossing West 14th Street, the M&T went Uphill a tad, then "Bounded" over the last Knob that led to the Power Plant. On the East Side of the M&T r-o-w stood the Warehouse of Roy Paape's Conoco Dealership. Behind that was Mauer Implement; Mauer may have gotten in New Farm Implements, and unloaded them off the Canning Co. Spur, but I can find no Concrete evidence of it. The Canning Company layout splayed out along the M&T 40 feet farther along, with the Can House metal building providing a Wall between the Canning Co. spur and the M&T. Empty Cans were dumped on the Can Track conveyor system inside this building, where they rolled down a Track, outdoors, to a small, one-room shed about 50 feet farther along. Inside this shed, the cans were Turned to face East, then put onto a chain conveyor that pulled the Empty Cans Up onto and OVER the Canning Co Spur. The Track was not that high, not nearly high enough to clear the Roof of a Boxcar, and this portion of the Can Track was Removable to allow the Switch Engine in and out. The Soo would call the Canning Company well ahead of time to let the Canning Company know the Switch Engine was on it's way down, so these tracks coyuld be taken down and removed before the Switch Engine arrived. Sometimes that didn't happen, and it would send Matt Neilis striding through the Canning Company with STEAM emitting from his ears, as he Hunted Down the individual responsible for taking the Can Tracks down---but Hadn't!!!

The Canning Company used to do around 400 cars of business per year with the Soo, that's everything coming in (Seed, Salt, Canstock) and the Finish Product going back out. At one time, when the Boilers of the Canning Company where powered by Coal, the Canning Co. got in carload coal as well as everything else. The Marshfield Canning Co. was furnished ith Soo Line RBL and XML cars to load out their Canned Goods. Those cars are just as familiar to me as anything else; somehow, after Lake States, the Canning Company didn't look so "familiar" anymore without a White w/Red Doors Soo Line RBL or two sitting in loading on the Canning Company Spur.

The Canning Company Spur held a Locomotive and six cars---and played a large part in how cars were Switched on the South end. I'll explain this shortly.

The M&T Crossed West 17th Street, then sawed across a narrow strip of land that Displayed Soo Line/Ex-WC Class F-22 2-8-0 Consolidation # 2442 sits behind a Fence on, then crossed the Driveway into the Parking Area of Wildwood Park & Zoo, before Crossing South Central Avenue which put the rails on the Marshfield Electric & Water Department Municipal Power Plant Grounds. At the Foot of the southeast side of the Street, the Rails once again split, creating a Run-around track which came back to meet the M&T at the very corner of the Power Plant Building. This curved around to run beside the Power Plant ("Water Works" in Soo Line Parlance) and formed a tail track that ran back beyond the building where the track ended on a high embankment.

Alongside the Power Plant building there were no less than SIX Chutes to Unload Hoppers into; there were "Flow 1" and "Flow 2", Flood-type unloading Pits that fit an entire 40' hopper car and discharged the contents directly to the Boilers. Flow 1 & Flow 2 were located at extreme ends from one another on the Power Plan't track alongside the Building, out of sight from view. Between those two, there were four other Chutes between the Tracks, "Chute 1", Chute 2" and "Chute 3", and the Auger to the Coal Pile. The Chute unloaders were simply between the Rails and would only accomodate 1 hopper bay at a time, and there was no provision for catching the caol that spilled out the sides. That had to be Hand-shoveled into the Chute when the Hopper Bay was empty.

There was a Method to the Power Plant's madness in unloading Coal, but to be truthful, I haven't had much success trying to pry the information out of ex-MEW workers. I *thought* that of 6 cars to be unloaded, 4 went directly to the boilers and 2 were put on the pile.

Coal came to Marshfield from two sources: Southern Illinois High Sulfer Coal via the Illinois Central, and Pennsylvania Anthracite from New York Central & the Pennsy. Until Merger Madness of the late-1960's--early 1970's took hold, all one saw were IC, NYC & PRR Hopper Cars going to the Power Plant every day. When IC became Illinois Central GULF, we began seeing Gulf, Mobile & Ohio 50-ton rib-sided cars; a change in Coal Contracts brough C&O & Louisville & Nashville Hopper Cars to Marshfield. Once, I got to see old CB&Q Composite Side Hopper cars left over from WW II; Cambria & Indiana cars; Burlington Chinese Red Offest Side Triple hoppers......it ran the gamut at one time. Penn Central cars came to Marshfield.....I wish I had taken photographs of it all.

C&NW had a hand in the Coal Traffic; they had the Haul on the Southern Illinois Coal. Soo had the haul from Chicago for the Anthracite traffic. The City of Marshfield tried not to show favoritism to neither Railroad and tried to divvy up the traffic between the two.

The last time the City invested any Money to expand the Power Plant was in 1966. Thereafter, Marshfield became very disenchanted with producing Electricity itself, and in 1973, began purchasing more & more power produced elsewhere. With each passing year the City relied more & more on Power Produed elsewhere, which is why the Soo was able to abolish the Saturday Tramp job. There really as no need for it. By the time the City closed up the plant in 1988, the power plant traffic had dwindled down to THREE cars of Coal every-other-day, from the High back in 1972 of 18 cars of coal per day, 5 days per week, 12 on Saturday, 6 on Sunday. Yes, the Power Plant provided a lot of traffic for the Soo Line!

The track arrangement I drew for the Reference map is how the M&T looked from 1966 until it was all pulled up in 1999. This was the last revision of the Trackage on Power Plant property. Prior to this, I am under the impression the Trackage took on several forms, revised over the years as the City continued to Expand the power producing capabilities of the place.

The Power Plant, by the way, was built by Upham in 189?-something. It, too, was sold off to the City in the 1920's.

Switching the Power Plant involved: Once the Switch Engine & Train had come part way down the Hill from 14th Street, the Train would stop, with the loaded Power Plant cars first out in the train. The Engine would cut off and run light to the Power Plant, and grab 6 empty cars off of one or the other tracks there. The Engine and 6 cars would run back towards their train, but instead of coupling back on their train, one of the Switchmen assigned had thrown the Canning Co. switch lining the train into that spur instead. Once the last car cleared, the inbound train, standing air-less on the Hill (one of the Switchmen would bleed the air from the cars as the Switch Engine grabbed 6 empties; the Hand Brake was applied to the First car, holding the train back) the Hand Brake was kicked off the first car, and the 12 cars standing on the hill--6 loads for the Power Plant, 6 empties from Mengel's---would roll don the hill by gravity, past the Canning Co. Switch into the Power Plant. Descent was controlled by a Switchman riding the Handbrake on the Leading car. As soon as the Last Car of the inbound cut cleared the Canning Co. Switch, a Switchman positioned at the Canning Co. Switch would throw the switch and the Engine & 6 power plant empties would pop out and grab the rolling cut, couple to it and stop it. Sort of a Dynamic Brake.

Try this in today's hyper-sensitive Safety minded Railroad enviroment today! FRA men witnessing this would have a FIT of apopelexy! Over the years, this move, which, admittedly, was NOT a safe one, produced some interesting results if a cut of cars got away from the Switch Engine and I have some old Marshfield News Herald photographs of cars that ran off the end of track.

The Engine would continue Shoving the train until they had cleared the Canning Co. switch, and the new 6 loads were placed on whichever track was clear. Cars for/from the Canning Co. added a wrinkle to this proceedure; they were placed in between the Mengel's & Power Plant cars, so as to be at the rear of the train after the Switching at Mengel's had been completed and would be left standing after the cars going in to the Power Plant & the Mengel's empties had been released under their own power for placement after Sitching the Power Plant. In that case, loads from the Canning Co. would be pulled out of the spur first, tacked on the cars inbound, then fished out of the tangle once the empties were removed and the loads run in to the Power Plant. Add the occasional car of LP, and the Switching moves became somewhat invovled on the South end of the M&T. The Switch Engine could be busy pestering around with Switching moves on this end for up to two hours if there were cars going to other than just Mengel's & the Power Plant.

The Power Plant also got in Poles, about 3 cars worth per year, and the Pole Transformers used up on the Power Poles rode the M&T for Delivery. The Power Plant used to get an occasional Box Car load of SOMETHING....I have no idea what. I'm thinking it was Pyranol Oil, possibly; it almost always showed up in a Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Box Car.

....to be continued......

Keith Meacham

Hub City Jobbing was a GREAT Soo Customer, getting in 30+ cars per week in their Old Facility. In Fact, Hub City also leased & used the Soo Line Freight House in Marshfield; there were an assortment of 6 or so Box Cars/Reefers set on the Ground off the Ice House Track Hub City used for Storage; there as a one-story warehouse attached to the back of the old Thomas House Hotel behind the Soo Line's Marshfield Depot, which was used for Storage....basically, Hub City was EVERYWHERE in Marshfield! Their business continued to grow with each passing year, until 1972, when Hub City Jobbing Co. became Hub City Foods and built a Gigantic Warehouse/Distribution Center out in the East Side Industrial Park (Along the Nekoosa Line to replace their thoroughly worn out, and far too small, building next to the Soo Line Main Line & the M&T right Down Town.

Recall, I described Hub City's Space situation in my M&T Installment. Hub City also used the old Railway Express office for storage as well!

Hub City's Spur started off about 5 blocks west of Central Avenue. The Switch Engine had to get Permission from the Dispatcher to Enter the Main Line and occupy the Main for about 45 minutes to go out to do the Switching. Such items as Jell-O, Cereals of all Brands, Catsup from all Manufacturer's, you-name-it, came in Via Rail by the Soo for Hub City. The switch for Hub City was three carlengths in from the " s " curve that took the Main Line and Siding to the south before crossing Oak Avenue. When pulling out the cars they were Switching, the Locomotive would sometimes encroach upon the Oak Avenue Bridge. That gave rise to folks not familiar or interested in the goings on asking the question why the Soo Line had a Locomotive go back & forth behind the City Garage for nothing. Ah, well.

Problem was, the Soo could only get around three cars (of the 50' type box cars) next to Hub City's Buildings, so the Soo had to Switch Hub City Twice per day. Sometimes three times during a day if needed. With the wide variety of products that came in, you saw a wide variety of Freight Cars unloading at Hub City. After time, one got proficient enough to guess within 90% accuracy what it was that came in by the cars sitting next to the building! Grand Trunk Western cars meant Kellogg's Cereals; Union Pacific was Something From General MIlls; Great Northern was bagged flour; a Reading or Lehigh Valley car was Campbell's Soup, Chesapeake & Ohio cars were Morton Salt, and on & on. Because of the Nature of the goods being handled, Hub City got in some nice Equipment like Plug Door Box Cars.

Switching Hub City was the Second Task the Switch Engine would do prior to Hub City vacating their Old Building in 1972. The Switch Crew had their Hands Tied, however; they were NOT allowed to go out on the Main Line to do this work until # 26, the Nekoosa Line Train, had Backed up the Main Line and then departed Marshfield. As soon as # 26's caboose ambled past the Chestnut Street Crossover, the Switch Engine wasted little time getting out on the Main Line to Switch Hub City! The Engine & incoming cars for Hub City would pull all the way out on the Main to clear the Hub City Switch, then back down in to Hub City, grabbing the Empty Cars, which the Crew would then pull alllllll the way back out onto the Main Line. Cars remaining, if there were any, would be re-switched in with the Incoming cars as per the request of Hub City and what Door they may want the car (s) at, then the Switch Engine would shove back in with the Hub City's incoming cars and make their spots. If I was over at the Playground a 1/2 block from my home around 8:30 a.m., I would see the Switch Engine going about this task.

After Hub City left the Old Facility for the new, Johns-Mannville leased it for storage for a short period, and, even though Johns-Mannville was a Good Soo Customer, they never had anything spotted next to the old Hub City Building. Johns-Mannville left, and Marshfield Book & Stationary took over the lease for two more years, but, they, too, did no business with the Soo through this building.

Backing up the Hub City Spur, right after the spur crossed the M&T, there was Penetred Corp., that specialized in Penetreds in Rubber Tires, Boots, etc. Along the North Wall of the place had Rail Dock Doors, I've often wondered just how much Business Penetred did with the Soo, if any at all.

Farther up the Hub City Spur was Weiler Oil Co., what had been the Shell Oil Bulk Plant, later it became a Skelly Dealership. This was as large an Oil Dealer as I have ever seen. I believe there *had* been upwards of 8 tanks here at one time, but by the time I saw the place, some had been removed, and the place only dealt in Home Heating Oil, that was it. Of the Tanks that remained on the property, One was labeled "ETHYL", another "HIGH TEST" and so forth. The Unloading Rack stood at the top of the Embankment the Hub City Spur was on going up to reach the Level of the Main Line. Next to the Tank Farm, Weiler had a long, one-story Warehouse where Packaged Lubricants were stored at one time, and, this building, too, once accepted Rail Shipments. There was a long, very Steeply-pitched unloading Dock from Car floor height at the top of the embankment back down to the rear door of this building. This Warehouse Building was "Torched" in 1996, but all that was left inside were Antique Gas Pumps the owner had stored there. None the Less, the Marshfield Poilce Department became very jittery about ANYONE being back near this building, and your being seen back there elicited a LONG Interrogation by the Local Gestapo!

Across the Main Line & Siding west of South Chestnut Avenue was the Felker Brothers Manufacturing Co. Felker Brothers was (well, actually, still is) a Stainless Steel fabricating concern, that built Bulk Storage Tanks, Piping, etc., for the Food Industry. They, too, were a Good Soo Customer, but the Chestnut Avenue Facility was on it's final days when I saw it for the first time in 1967. I saw what had to be the LAST Carload spotted in by Felker Brothers one day in 1968. Thereafter, I saw no cars on their spur, ever again.

The Felker Brothers Plant IS an old one; parts of the place date to 1900. Mid Way back there was an Overhead Traveling Crane that came out over the Felker Spur that was used to unload both Railcar (Felker's got in Covered Gondola's of Coil Steel) or Flatbed Semi. Felkers still maintains their Corporate Offices in the Chestnut Avenue Plant, but the rest of the Building is Empty, parts of it used for Warehouse by Fleming Corp, the Successor to Hub City Foods. Felkers built a new Manufacturing Plant along side the Soo's Marshfield Yard in 1967....they slowly added on and expanded over the years until economic downturns in the Late 1970's early 1980's forced closure of the old Chestnut Avenue production Facility altogether. Any inbound carloads were taken at the New Facility, nothing went in by the Old Plant, that I ever saw, after 1967.

Soo also got Outbound Scrap Trimmings from Felkers, as well as some of the Larger Stainless Steel Tanks produced here. I have old News Herald photographs of the Largest Order ever Taken and Produced by Felker Brothers for NINE Stainless Steel High Pressure Tanks, loaded on 9 Soo 54' Flats, topped off by RS-1 2361, circa 1965.

The Felker spur was a long one. Originally, this Spur came off the Siding just East of Central Avenue, and ran almost to Oak Avenue. The Soo Line stubbed the Spur at the Sidewalk in front of Felker Brothers sometime in the 1950's and re-installed a new Switch just west of the Chestnut Ave, crossing. Those rails remained in the Street from the old spur until very recently! Out behind Felker's to the West, there had been yet Another Ice House, and the Stand Pipes that ran UNDER West Depot Street to Roy Paape's Conoco Bulk Oil Dealership. Paape did no business with the Soo, at least, not that I ever saw, and the Ice House was LONG gone before I was transplanted to Marshfield. In fact, it was WC that took up the Entirety of the Felker Spur about 1997!

Across Chestnut to the East stood Marshfield Lumber Company next to Central Avenue, and, across the Street from Felker's was Stock-gro, both on the same City block serviced by the same spur. Stock-gro was also long gone by the time I came to Marshfield; in a poorly planned--and Handled--closure, the owners of Stock-gro simply shut the doors and left, period. Stock-gro made Animal Feed from Whey; during WW II they produced Powdered Eggs here. It was a Smelly place from what persons older than me have said, but I was never able to ascertain how much business Stock-gro did with the Soo Line, if any. For the last 40 years, this land sat empty, used as a Parking Lot by Felkers until Production at their Chestnut Ave, facility ceased in 1979. The City owns this small parcel of land, but has done nothing with it in 40 years.

Marshfield Lumber Company ranks as one of the Older Buildings in Marshfield, originally owned by Wm. Noll Hardware Co. Somewhere under the Crappy Brown Paint applied to the Facade of the Warehouse Building the "NOLL HARDWARE" Lettering still remains. As Noll's, this was a Good Soo Customer into 1950. Lumber and the like was spotted next to the Building; I saw the last car spotted here, as well, in 1967, just before Marshfield Lumber Co. moved into their Bigger Facility out on County ' A ' on the Nekoosa Line in 1971. Soo took up the Spur in 1969 when Central Avenue was completely re-paved from 9th Street to Arnold, about 1 mile.

Across from the Marshfield Depot is the Marshfield Cold Storage Company. Marshfield Cold Storage came on line sometime in the 1920's. It ended up in the Hands of Steven J. Miller sometime about 1951, and shortly after Miller got control, Storage capacity was increased by adding a "Tilt-Up" pre-cast concrete warehouse addition to the eastern end of the Original Building. Marshfield Cold Storage was Originally PUBLIC Cold Storage Warehousing (a sign hanging on the North side of the building still says that); so long as I have lived in Marshfield, they have had an almost exclusive Storage Contract with Land O' Lakes of Spencer. Indeed, MANY Folks in Marshfield believe Marshfield Cold Stoarge is OWNED by Land O' Lakes! (which it is not. It resides in the Miller Family yet, relatives of Miller, the Testrakes)

That was the Traffic the Soo Line got out of Marshfield Cold Storage, Land O' Lakes Cheese by the Barrel. Thinking back, Cold Storage did about a carload outbound per week to 1972, thereafter business became sporadic. For a long period there would be NO cars spotted there, then traffic for a long period of about a Month. Cold Storage shipped out their last car around 1980. If you go back far enough, Cold Storage used to get in cars of Meat for the Local Markets in Marshfield, as well as some of the Local up-scale (for Marshfield) Restaurants, sides of Hanging Beef. I've no idea what year this ceased.

East of the Cold Storage was the S.J. Miller Co., another cold storage building, owned also by Steven J. Miller. In my day, I NEVER saw a car spotted next to this building. It was built about 1953, had two Trackside Dock doors, of which only the Door farthest east, near the Elevator Shaft within the building, shows any use. A News Herald photo of a Truck loading Flatbed Trailers off the TOFC Ramp across from the Miller facility showed I was right on that point, as an ART Reefer shows up spotted by that door in the photo! Mostly, from the look of the rust rings on the Concrete floors, Miller used this facility for Aging Cheese; in connection with the Mid State facility on the M&T, if a Shipping lot of Cheese was going to be shipped, it was TRUCKED from this Facility across town to Mid State to be loaded on a Refrigerator Car. Don't ask me the reasoning for that; knowing a little about Mr. Miller and some of the stories connected to him, it probably was added in the Cost of storing the cheese!!!

Miller Building was served by a spur that came off of the Ice House Track, which in turn left the Siding, ran parallel to the Siding to Vine Avenue where the Ice House Track rejoined the Siding.

Next door to the Miller Building, Clover Cream Dairy had an ultra-small steel-sheathed shed with two loading dock doors trackside. I never saw anything spotted here, either, nor was Clover Cream big enough to need to load anything out. They did get in cans of Cream from Soo's Passenger Trains, but that was it. This building was removed and replaced by a Water Treatment facility owned by Clover Cream's successor, Beatrice Foods, also never a rail customer.

Just beyond the Clover Cream Shed, The Spur that served Owen Block and Central State Supply diverged to the Northeast. In the space between the Owen Block spur and the Soo Ice House Hub City foods had 5 or 6 old Wooden double sheathed box cars set on the ground, actually, set on Cribbing to keep the old cars at Standard Freight Car Floor Height; according to Dad this was where Hub City had received Meat at one time. (ITEM: Hub City also used to get sides of hanging beef in at the Soo Line's Freight House; stored in the Basement of that facility on meat hooks---just like the Soo had done when the Freight House was still operating yet!) Although Hub City used these old cars for Storage yet as late as 1972, no Freight Cars were ever spotted there for loading/unloading.

Owen Block and Central State Supply were good Soo customers at one time. Owen Block got in two cars of Cinders per day and a three carloads of Bulk Cement per week. Central State Supply received such sundry items as Water Heaters, Pipe Fittings and occasional carloads of Dynamite!!! They had no dock to speak of, rather, they hand-unloaded their cars in their Yard, of which the Owen Spur crossed a portion of to reach Owen Block. The Cinders for Owen Block always came in in Soo Pullman-built Slope ended Ore Cars! Switch Crews complained about switching Owen Block; they had to get permission from the DS to enter the Main Line, then get permission to occupy the Siding. If they could clear up on the Ice House Track, all well and good. Owen Block and Central State Supply were usually the First switch the Switch Engine would perform each morning. They would be allowed to enter the Main Line at the Nekoosa Line Junction Switch, then proceed eastward to the Maple Street crossover, then over onto the Siding. (ITEM: This Crossover mentioned above was actually at Vine Avenue; for all the years I hung around the Soo Line it was called the Maple Street Crossover. WC Calls it the Peach Street Crossover----I give up). Switching Central State Supply and Owen neccesitated having to Unlock the Chain Link Fence gates through the Central State property on both sides the spur pierced Central State's property.

When Dad held the "Swing Man's" job as Telegrapher here from 1967 to 1971, at PROMPTLY 6:59 a.m. everyday, the Telephone would begin Jangling in the Depot; Owen Block would be calling to get the Soo to Switch Him ASAP!

Owen Block went under in 1973, lost through an ambitious idea of pre-cast concrete foundation walls, the company was called Dytec, Inc. (Had Dytec worked, the three individuals involved in it would have been Billionaires over night) The Block Operation was put up as collateral in forming Dytec; when Dytec didn't pan out, rather than declare Bankruptcy, Owen Block went up on a Sherriff's sale to pay the debts incurred by the Venture into Dytec. Sternweis & Sons Concrete bought the Facility at a Sherriff's sale and has operated Owen Block ever since, and they never used the Railroad, ever. Shortly after Owen Block went up for sale, Central State Supply expanded their Warehousing capacity and built right over the spur, severing Owen from the Railroad. The rails were only recently removed from either side of the Warehouse that stands where the rails were up to the Warehouse and into Owen Block.

In a final bit of irony, The Warehouse built over the Tracks is now leased to Fleming Foods, the successor to Hub City, which uses it for Tobacco Storage! Fleming is in the same bind Hub City was in years ago for Storage Space!

Central State Supply built on the tract of land originally owned by the Marshfield Stave Company. The spur that sreviced this company came in through where the Miller Building stands now; it was nicknamed "The Hole In The Wall". Don't ask me!

The Soo Ice House was located next to the Old Box Car Bodies to the East yet. When the Soo put up this Ice House, or how long it was used by the Soo, is forever lost on me. Dad, who worked here in the 1940's said it wasn't used then already; it seems the place was closed up sometime in the 1930's and all Icing for Reefers done thereafter in Stevens Point. The Ice House was leased out by the Soo Line, first, to Marshfield Milling Company in the mid-1950's, which used it for a period of 7 years for Storage, then by Roy Paape's Conoco Oil Dealership. The last Leasor of the place I'm aware of was Central State Supply, who had stored Bathtub/Shower Stall combinations in it. They had the lease when the Ice House burnt to the Ground in August of 1984. In my day, I never saw a single car spotted there.

Also with a bit of Irony, the Ice House burned down ONE DAY After Central State Supply had Emptied the Building out.

Next door to the Ice House was Bilek Distributing, the Local Pabst/Schlitz Distributor in Marshfield, and the Owner, George Bilek, was my Next Door neighbor for 7 years! (The last name is pronounced BEE-lick). George started this Business in the small-ish building in 1955 that still stands there today. It originally had two Rail Dock Doors facing the Ice House Track; a few years after the Main Cinder Block Building was put up, George acquired an old Wooden Sheathed Ice Reefer, had it taken off it's trucks and set next to his Building to the East. Bilek's did some Business with the Soo into 1966; thereafter, all the Beer Bilek's got in was via Semi Trucks. I never saw a car spotted here, either. After George sold the Business off in 1974, the New Owners operated here until 1976. They built a Large Warehouse/Office far south out of Marshfield's City Limits. Charley Ress bought the Bilek Dist. property, and ran his Central Candy Company out of it until 1993. Charley sold the Business, not the Building, to another party in 1993, and this struggled along to 1995 went, it, too, went under. Charley was using the building for Storage of Auto's and such until late last year, when Max Phillips & Sons bought the Property and now run a Scrap Yard, i.e., copper tubing, aluminum cans, from this building. Central Candy nor Max Phillips & Sons does no business with the Railroad.

Lastly, coming off the Ice House Spur was the Track into Central Cheese Company, a Plant originally built by Kraft Foods. This spur left the Ice House Track just before it curved back to rejoin the Siding. In my day, I never saw any cars spotted in this spur next to the building, either. Steve Miller also owned this building, as well, but how much Storage was done here I have no idea. The Offices for Miller's operations were partly here; the Roving Warehouse Crew Miller Employed reported to work at this building everyday. When Miller went Bankrupt in 1972, this Building stayed pretty much as it was and used as the same. After 1976, the Local Morning Glory Milk Dealer leased it and used it well into 1984, but doing no business with the Soo. A portion of the Building was sub-let to a Beer Distributor, the local Tuborg Gold route. By 1986, the Central Cheese building was DONATED to St. Vincent DePaul, and is used today chiefly for Dry Storage of Donated Clothing and the like. There are no plans to remove the Building as far as I know of; the WC ripped out the Central Cheese spur around 1987.

Across Vine Avenue is the Section House, a Steel affair erected by the Soo sometime in the 1950's. It STILL has a double Motorcar Garage, but no Motor cars! Across the Tracks from the Section House was what had been Asphalt Products, the last Industry I'll tell you of in this installment.

Asphalt Products, and the Two Steel Quonset Huts located south of the Nekoosa Line, were once all part of Felker Oil Company. (Not the same family of Felker Brothers Manufacturing, but Cousins--they also owned Penetred located on the Hub City Spur) There was a Quonset located between the Nekoosa Line and the Main Line; behind were two large Oil Storage Tanks. The ring for the Port Edwards, Centraila & Northern Railroad Turntable still remains on the south half of the Property next to the Nekoosa Line main today (but will be dug out in 2002 due to Road Construction) Felker Oil was a good Soo Line Customer so long as they remained in Business, getting in about two cars per week. I'm not sure what year Felker Oil called it quits and left the Business and sold this facility to Asphalt Products. Asphalt Products was in place when we moved to Marshfield in 1967.

As Asphalt Products, they, too, were a Good Soo Customer, getting in around 12 cars of Asphalt per week during Construction Season, although they would have a Car unloading here what seems to be all the time. They were FAST unloading a car; if the car was spotted here early in the Morning by the Switch Engine, they would be pulling it Empty out before they tied up at 3:00 p.m.

Asphalt Products was serviced off a spur that came off the Nekoosa Line. This spur also doubled as the servicing Track for Locomotives. Soo had a Outside Braced Box Car set on the Ground west of Vine Avenue for Hostler & Crew use. Due to the "Racket" created by an Idle Locomotive, and some residents of this area claimed, EXHAUST FUMES from an idling Locomotive, after 1970 they weren't too predisposed to leave an Engine sitting next to the Shanty idling on the Weekend!

Asphalt Products went under about 1979-1980; the Property was purchased and turned in to Marshfield Brick & Gypsum Co. Where the two Storage Tanks has stood, the Tanks were removed and an open air Storage Shed was erected. Marshfield Brick & Gypsum went great guns as a Soo Customer at Start up, but Slow Building Starts and an inability to compete in a Hostile Market dominated by other Brick Companies forced Marshfield Brick & Gypsum out of Business by 1989. The property has sat vacant ever since. WC uses the Quonset Hut between the Main Line and the Nekoosa Line for Storage, although this building will be obliterated by Road Construction in 2002.

That brings us to the Crossing of the Siding, Main Line and the Nekoosa Line with the Chicago & North Western's Line to Stratford, Edgar, Wausau and eventually to Eland. In the next installment I will pick up here, and proceed ever eastward until we end at Today's Prince Corporation. Still to come is People's Gas, Lakeshire & Marty, the Stockyards, Brandt Brothers, Weyerhaeuser on the North Side, the Belt Line, Shapiro's Mobile Plywoods, the New Yard, Consolidated Badger, Marshfield Homes and Felker's new Plant.

Hope that you all find this informative and entertaining thus far. A Map of the Main Line will follow.

Keith Meacham

The C&NW's Tower sat in the Northeast Quadrant of the Diamonds. C&NW had but one track crossing, going south in direction, first, the Siding, then the Main Line, then a short space before crossing the Nekoosa Line. The C&NW's Eland Line ran between Asphalt Products and the L. Shapiro Scrap Yard. Since the C&NW was the Junior Railroad crossing the Soo Line, the Senior Railroad by virtue of beating C&NW predesessor Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western to Marshfield by a couple of years, C&NW was compelled to provide the Protection to all the Trains crossing one another at this Spot. The C&NW had Three Tricks of Operators here, mostly guiding Soo Line movements through the Plant more than their own operations later on. At one time, between the Soo Line and Chicago & North Western, there were some 25 arrivals & departures of PASSENGER Trains alone!

The Interlocking consisted of a Derail in each direction on each set of tracks Crossing here, on each side of the Diamond. These were controlled by the C&NW, as were the Signals governing Movements through the Plant. To line up the Plant for Movement, the Derails would Close. In "Neutral" position, or Opposing Movements on the C&NW, the Derails were Open to Opposing Movements through the Plant.

Alas, the C&NW automated the whole Plant about 1953, with the Control going to the Soo Line Operator in the Soo Line's Marshfield Depot. The Plant was still Maintained by the C&NW right up to the end; the Signal Maintainer had to come to Marshfield from GREEN BAY (!) to do any work on it! That, in itself, is yet ANOTHER Story, for some other time. I WISH I had saved the Signal Case with the toggle switches to control the Plant from the Marshfield Depot when it was removed. The C&NW unceremoniously demolished the unique Tower that guarded the Diamonds around 1956, although well into the 1970's you could still make out a foundation of sorts in the weeds yet marking where the Tower stood.

Actually, we begin this installment here at the Diamond, for there were Rail Customers right behind the C&NW Tower to the Northeast. First was the People's Gas Company, serviced by BOTH Soo & C&NW. My Soo Line maps seem to show the Spurs servicing People's Gas and Lakeshire & Marty as being SEPARATE Trackage, although the C&NW Spur that ran along side the Soo's spur into People's Gas and ALSO Served Lakeshire & Marty connected east of Lakeshire & Marty and west of People's Gas. People's Gas was a Coal Processing Plant, i.e., coal was "Squeezed" to get the Natural Gas out of it. This was common at one time, and quite a few Cities the size of Marshfield sported one of these Plants. I cannot tell you just how much Business the Soo or C&NW had here. Just how much coal had to be delivered to keep People's Gas operating is a Mystery. I have an Aerial Photo of the place, taken circa 1950, nary a car anywhere near it.

I can't tell you if they were more of a Soo Customer or C&NW.

I CAN Tell you that in 1960, the Plant BLEW UP in a Thunderous Explosion, putting People's Gas out of Business forever. A very small portion of the old People's Gas building remains YET to this very day, used for Storage. About 1960 or so, the Property of People's Gas was purchased by Great Plains Gas, which dealt in Liquid Propane. In 1994 Great Plains was bought by National, which itself was purchased in 1998 by Columbia Propane. This whole Operation still continues on in the same location in 2001.

What I've always considered Odd: When the C&NW left forever in 1982, the Soo Line never expressed one iota of Interest in serving Great Plains. Great Plains was a VERY Good rail customer for the C&NW; they got in, at the very least, two cars of LP per week. The track to serve Great Plains was there running in from the Soo past Lakeshire & Marty/Bordens....I've never understood the Soo's rejection of Great Plains as a Rail Customer.

Peoples Gas was serviced by the Soo from a Spur that left the Siding about one block east of Peach Avenue. This track joined to old Stock Yard Track just off the Switch off the siding. It canted off to the North-Northwest, crossed East Depot, then Split, with the South Set of Track belonging to the C&NW, and ran along side of the Street all the way to Peach. Farther in on the C&NW, there was a Switchback taking a spur back to the North parallel to the C&NW's Eland Line back into Green Bay Foods, the Pickle Plant in Marshfield. This spur ran in between the Warehouse/Processing Building and the Pickle Vats, but this was strictly C&NW served.

Across Peach Avenue to the East was the Lakeshire & Marty Cheese Factory, as mentioned before, was serviced by both the Soo & the C&NW. This building still stands for now, although by this coming Spring 2002 it will be demolished to make way for an underpass under the tracks here. Lakeshire & Marty was a Cheese Factory, but, once again, I have no idea of how much Rail Business they did with the Soo or the C&NW. I've lived in Marshfield for 34 years, and I never saw a car spotted there. By the time we had moved to Marshfield in 1967, Lakeshire & Marty had been sold to Bordens, Inc., and was being used as a Cold Storage facility. Bordens closed up this Plant, used only as a Cold Storage, at the same time they vacated their Cold Storage operation in Loyal, 1982.

Behind Lakeshire & Marty to the East, GTE had a Concrete unloading Ramp, and the Soo used to spot an occasional carload of Wire on Spools here. Soo also got out the Empty Spools later on. The last car I saw go in here was about 1974, and the Yard Crew CRABBED about this task the entire time!

Now, we venture across East Depot Street to the Industries located along the Stockyard Track.

Where Brandt Bros. Oil Co. used to stand near Peach Avenue ( it has been removed for the Underpass to be Constructed in 2002 through this location), this had been the Location of the Marshfield Stock Association Stockyards. This was also the Spot where Hobo's used to Congregate; their "Jungle" was located near the Turntable, which was about 200 feet south between the Nekoosa Line/Beltline & the Main Line. Once again, I'm not terribly sure of How much Traffic the Soo Line got out of the Stockyards. According to Long-time residents here, there was at least a Car per week being loaded here. Dad never mentioned the place, but, when he worked here his chief interest was selling Tickets and Copying Train Orders! So, I wouldn't expect he was paying too close of attention to anything going on there----if Dad was even aware it existed at the time he first worked in Marshfield for the Soo.

The Stockyard exited business about 1955. Roman & Chuck Brandt built their Bulk Plant on a portion of this site; a Garage, owned by Jim Franklund, went up behind Brandt's. Brandt's, at the beginning, got in about 2 carloads of Fuel Oil per week, until the Koch Refining Pipeline went in in the mid-60's, after which the Brandt's trucked in all their fuel from Junction City, the site of the Pumping Station/Tank Farm/Truck Loading Facility. Franklund's Garage was never a Soo Customer. Brandt's, btw, Fueled all the Soo's locomotives assigned to Marshfield, after the Soo Line terminated their Arrangements with the C&NW in maintaining Soo Power at the C&NW's Marshfield Roundhouse.

The only Cars I can recall seeing on the Stockyard Track were either Soo Line MOW Flats stored in on it, or, after the Bankruptcy of the Rock Island, a string of about 6 or 8 Rock Island 40' ft Box Cars that were stored for almost a year there. These cars had come in loaded with Shavings for Weyerhaeuser, but once unloaded, they had no home to be sent back to.

Time now to introduce you to the Yard Lead & the Beltline.

Marshfield had TWO Switches to the Yard off of the Main Track on the West End of the Yard; the first was 10 carlengths east of Peach Avenue, the second very near the Yard Throat. In the days of the Soo, I NEVER saw the First Switch used---ever. WC Uses it everyday, now. Soo set out & picked up from the Second Switch near the Yard Throat, always. It seems the First Switch to the Yard Lead was what was installed when the New Yard was built in 1936. It became a PAIN to have a Train Set Out & Pick Up and have the longer distance to back in/pull out. I'm not sure when the Second Switch was installed. I can imagine putting # 26 together on the Main Line was a PAIN when having to pull it alllll that extra way out to clear the Switch, which probably went into the thinking of installing that Second Switch closer to the Yard.

Where the "Old Lead" connected to/became the Yard Lead itself, was the Beginning of the "beltline", the Connector between the Nekoosa Line and the Yard Lead. I'm not really sure what year the Soo Line connected the Nekoosa Line & the Yard Lead with the Beltline. It was NOT Installed when the New Yard was built. Originally, Yard Jobs had to go to Work in the Yard either via the Main Line, or a short hop around the Wye connecting the Nekoosa Line & the Yard Lead through the Roddis Veneer & Lumber Company---later Weyerhaeuser---since Soo locomotives assigned to Marshfield were serviced at the Chicago & North Western Roundhouse, the Trip around the Wye was the S.O.P. Dad, when assigned here in the 1940's and early 1950's, made a vague reference that an Engine had to use the Main Line to get into the Yard from the West, which entailed getting Permission from the DS, etc. The Beltline was a way around having a Yard Engine having to get on the Main to go to the Yard.

'Course, this idea worked so long as an Engine hauling cars to the Yard via the Beltline didn't have a Derailment.....I recall Matt Neilis having 13 cars all hit the ground at once while pulling a cut into the Yard over the Beltline, which put the Beltline out of Service for a solid WEEK. No one will EVER tell you the Beltline looked to be Main Line Trackage. It was Rough and Undulating, with Standing Water alongside of it 99% of the time, even in the Driest of years! A locomotive using the Beltline would sway sickeningly as the Loco traversed over it....Matt should be Happy he hadn't put those 13 cars on their sides---I am NOT kidding!

Going west on the Beltline to the Nekoosa Line, the first Switch you encountered was that which led to the Turntable. Here, in my day, the Soo used this table exclusively for turning cars, nothing more. I'm not sure where this Table came from, and I can only guess as to what year it was installed. My Soo Line Map accurate to 1923 shows it in place already, complete with a Sand House AND a single stall Enginehouse. The Track leading to the Turntable originally came off the Nekoosa Line from the Southeast; upon building the Beltline the lead to the Turntable was rearranged to come to the table from the East. Wisconsin Central removed the Turntable in September of 1999, and Donated it to the Laona & Northern in Laona, Wisconsin. Prior to this, the Switch had been removed to the Marshfield Turntable about 1988. It sat unused for over 10 years.

About 4 carlengths farther West was the Switch into the Marshfield Co-op's Fertilizer Plant and, across Peach Avenue, into the L. Shapiro Scrap Yard. This track was fairly new; Shapiro's moved to the Building they occupied on Peach Avenue about 1961, from their old Location behind where Marshfield's New City Hall is currently. (Who says City Politics aren't Junk!??) The Fertilizer Plant was even newer---I believe the First Section of this to be built was in 1968. Both the Co-op Fertilizer Plant and Shapiro's were Good Soo Customers---the Fertz Plant was getting in about 120 carloads per year until 1989. Shapiro's business was steady into 1985, about two carloads of Outbound scrap per week. Lake States put the end to Shapiro's business, saying it was COSTING them Money to move these cars, as they usually only went as far as Waupaca Foundry in Waupaca. The Soo was forever re-weighing Shapiro's cars when they got to Stevens Point, and more times than I care to recount here a Loaded Car would return a day later to be re-loaded!!!

In their Old Location, Shapiro's loaded out their cars on the Chicago & North Western, right next to Bauer's Farm Service's Feed Mill. Shapiro's even had a working arrangement with Bauer's to have the Feed Mill Weigh the Scrap for them!

I should note that at the Spot where the Beltline connected to the Nekoosa Line, the Main Line and the Nekoosa Line were only about a 1/4 block apart. In between the Main & the Nekoosa Line Shapiro's & the Fertilizer Plant built in the Marshy Void space between the two separate lines.

Now, we come back out to the Yard Lead. The First Switch encountered on the Yard Lead going East to the Yard was the Wye from the Nekoosa Line. Having already Described the Wye's usage in getting Soo Line Yard Power over to the C&NW Connection at Palmetto Street, let me simply say that there is Argument over how the Soo Line used this wye, and for what. George Winkler, our resident Marshfield Rail Historian, has told me (and we've argued over it) the Nekoosa Line Train used it daily, but that would be going back into 1936. Dad, who worked here in the 1940's, told me that the Yard Engine used it primarily to access the Connection Track at Palmetto AND to Deliver cars to the Interchange Tracks to the C&NW. When I saw it, a portion had been removed from the Middle, and the North Half was being used to Spot carloads of Coal for Weyerhaeuser's Boilers. It probably WAS used for the Nekoosa Line Trains, but the Radius was quite tight on it. Nekoosa Line trains were built on the Main Line, backed through Marshfield to Clear Chestnut Avenue, and left to Stand at Chestnut (two blocks from the Marshfield Depot) until the Nekoosa Line crew was ready to depart. Dad informed me that the Nekoosa Line Train being assembled on the Main & backed up the Main was in place already in 1944 when he worked in Marshfield the very first time.

In any case, the Soo Line ripped out the Northern Half of the Wye in 1975 after Weyerhaeuser turned to burning their own Scrap Sawdust for generating their Power. I believe Weyerhaeuser got in something like 7 cars of Coal per day; this Trackage was Switched by the Yard Engine.

I should describe here: The Yard Engine was responsible for the Industry Switching East of the C&NW Diamond along the Main Line out to the Marshfield Milling Company. They did no Local Work aside from that along the Main & Siding east of the C&NW Diamond. I have no idea when this arrangement came in to being. Everything else was the propriety of the Switch Engine.

A little Farther Along was "Veneer 1 & Veneer 2", tracks that entered the Roddis/Weyerhaeuser Plant from the Yard Lead. This Spur Split just inside the Fence to create Veneer 1 & 2. As you might have guessed, Veneer 1 & 2 was where Roddis and later Weyerhaeuser loaded out carloads of finished Veneer. Veneer played a larger role in the Outbound Traffic from the Roddis/Weyerhaeuser plant here at one time. From what I have been able to determine, Soo Line got 4 cars of Finished Veneer per DAY out of these tracks. When I saw them, these tracks were mostly unused. I saw but ONE car inside the plant there. (It wasn't out-of-the-weather, but covered.) Soo pulled these out in 1984, on the eve of the Milwaukee Road Acqusition. I'm not sure when Weyerhaeuser quit--or began to exit the Commercial Veneer Business--but it sounds as though it became a "Once in a While" Spot for the Yard Engine after 1967.

Getting closer to the Yard, another track left the Yard Lead and ran in next to the Weyerhaeuser Plant, the "Log Track". Here, this Short Spur (It held two cars comfortably) serviced a Log Stripper, that literally---and Physically---stripped off the Outside Bark and rolled off a lilly-white strip of Veneer from a Saw-log. This Machine could turn a rough saw log into a long strip of Veneer in a matter of MINUTES! If the Soo wasn't spotting Gon Loads of Logs here, there was a steady stream of Log Bunks bringing logs to it from the two Log Yards adjacent to the Plant on either side. Weyerhaeuser could empty two gon loads of Saw Logs in less than 8 hours. The last cars I saw on this Spur were there in 1977. This spur was removed about 1980.

Then we come across the Yard Track Switch from the Main Line to the Yard Lead near the Yard Throat, which I described earlier.

Not quite to the Yard was the "P-board" Track, so named because it serviced the Particle Board Plant of Weyerhaeuser. Particle Board was BIG Business for the Soo Line: 9 cars outbound per day, 5 days per week, with 3 on Saturday and 3 on Sundays. This spur presented some interesting problems. First, it ran in and came up alongside of Willow Avenue, which terminated at the Yard. You couldn't tell it, but P-Board had a nasty Grade coming out toward the Yard Lead. If you were standing on the P-Board Switch on the Yard Lead looking in, you could see the Grade coming out. Second: Part way in to P-Board, Weyerhaeuser unloaded Shavings Cars. These were rough wood shavings, used in the Particle Board manufacturing process. Shavings came in to Weyerhaeuser in Rock Island 40' box cars, always, until Rock went Bankrupt. Weyerhaeuser got in 6 cars of Shavings per day; they were spotted to be unloaded next to a concrete dock outdoors, usually only three cars at a time (that's about all that would really fit). When Switching P-Board, these Shavings cars had to be removed first, put on a Yard Track somewhere out of the way. Then the Engine could go back in to go INSIDE the Weyerhaeuser Plant (Not all the way inside, but pretty close) to pull out the loaded cars. Respottinf empties worked in reverse, with the Shavings Cars having to be respotted back where they had been before the Loaded cars were removed.

That grade was just steep enough that a Geep couldn't quite get enough footing to bring out 6 cars.

P-Board was the recipient of some interesting mishaps on the part of the Soo. The most memorable, happened on a Saturday Tramp job. The Shupe Brothers were working this job together, and neither had too much use for the other. As it happened, since they didn't communicate effectively, when going in to Pull P-Board, one Assumed the other was protecting the Last Car, and had gone ahead to get the Overhead Door Opened. Well.....neither did, and the Car being pushed in to P-Board CRASHED through that expensive Overhead Door with predictable results!!! In the end, the Shupes were never assigned---or allowed, as I understand it----to work on the Same Job together again, not that it hurt either's feelings!

There was a time, and I believe Bob Wundrock possibly remembers this, as he pulled the Yard Engine in Marshfield a few times in his Railroad Career, that the Soo Line finagled putting in 86' Auto Parts Cars in P-Board for loading!!! Geez.....I can hardly imagine THAT manuver.....P-Board's Track was festoooned with a TIGHT Curve going in! Something happened that cut this practice of using 86' Auto Parts Cars for this Service.....Dad told me an ICC Inspector, or a Soo Official, caught this going on and put a HALT to it Post-Haste!

Alas, Weyerhaeuser exited the Commercial Particle Board Business in 1992, and Wisconsin Central, still getting 5 carloads of outbound Particle Board (Plus the inbound Shavings cars---from Iowa Interstate) yet at that date, lost all this outbound and inbound Business. P-Board track was taken up in 1999. It wasn't the fault of Wisconsin Central that this Business left the Railroad.

A little farther along was the "Lakes" Track, which serviced Consolidated Badger, a Former Land O' Lakes Plant, sold to Morning Glory about 1966. I believe Consolidated Badger's plant was built in 1955 by LOL. The Lakes left the Yard lead and curved gently over Willow Avenue, where upon it curved due Southwest to run in between the Buildings. Just after the Willow Crossing, the Felker Brothers spur left the Lakes Track and ran down to Felker Bros. New Plant, built "Back Here" in 1967.

I cannot tell you just how much traffic the Soo Line got out of Lakes. Traffic from this plant was Down to about a Carload per week after Morning Glory purchased it, and it continued to dive even farther, to about a Carload per month or less. The last car I saw sitting in next to Consolidated Badger loading, was about 1980. The Spur to the building itself was pulled up in swatches; I believe the rails still go near the Building, but the Switch itself is buried under the Asphalt Parking Lot belonging to Weyerhaeuser.

Felker's business was that transferred here from the Chestnut Avenue Facility, Covered Gondola's of Coiled Stainless Steel, about a car per day to around 1982. There was some Black Iron Plate that came in for use in building Black Iron Tanks, but I'm not sure when this business came to an end.

The new Felkers Spur ran inside the Facility, practically across the building from end to end, west to east. Soo would put the Car just inside the Roll up door; Felkers would move it inside the Plant by Fork Truck to where it was needed.

However, from the time Felker's built this new Facility, the Soo & Felkers were at odds over the Soo Line using *Their Spur* (Felkers had paid the Soo a pretty penny for building this trackage!) as a sort of "Sixth" Yard Track! Yes, the Lakes Track, and specifically Felker's spur, were used to store cars considered to be, pardon the Soo-Slang term of, "Sluff", i.e., Greenwood Line Cars, Marshfield Proper cars, etc.

And the Lakes track came in oh-so handy for the times when the Yard Itself became Full, chiefly of short cars to other places (Spencer to Prentice, Marshfield to Stanbery, Owen to CF Yard; Local Cars) and Nekoosa Line cars.

Hence, Felkers tended to get a bit Testy to find a LONG Line of Freight Cars standing on THEIR Track, sometimes pushed in VERY Close to their Building!!. So, Felkers would call the Depot and Complain; the Agent would read the Riot Act to the Yard Crew, end of tale..........for a while. This act happened enough that by 1978, Felkers erected a Chain Link Fence around the entire Factory Property, with a Locked Gate over their Spur. The inevitable happened, three times I believe, where a Night Time Yard Engine simply shoved far too many cars back on the Felker section---------and through the Locked Chain Link Gate.

After the third incident, Felkers insisted on the Installation of a derail short of their Fence, which the Soo did install, but, in one those cases of Irony, Felkers Production took a downswing, and they Terminated Rail Service. I don't believe Felkers has gotten a carload since 1983.

That brings us to the Yard Itself, looking East, left to right, Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and the RIP Track.

Here I'll stop for now, and I'll pick up in the Marshfield Yard in the Next Installment.

No. 1 Track holds: 47 Cars

No. 2 Track holds: 39 Cars ....later reduced to 38 cars

No. 3 Track holds: 40 Cars ....Later reduced to 38 cars

No. 4 Track holds: 39 Cars ....Later reduced to 37 cars

No. 5 Track holds: 37 Cars ...later reduced to 35 cars

The RIP Track holds: 5 Cars

LAKES: 10 Cars ....later removed from Storage because of obvious abuses described in part 5!

The Reductions shown are from the Soo's expansion of a Nominal Freight Car Demension for equating Freight Car Room, from the 46 feet used for years until 1983, when it was raised to 53 feet. Also, the Soo did some track relocation in the Yard which I will touch on later.

FYI, the Track Capacities of the House Tracks:

House 1 holds (Held): 20 cars

House 2 holds (Held): 15 cars

House 3 holds (Held): 12 cars

The TEAM TRACK holds (held): 20 cars

One strange fact of the New Yard: EXACTLY what would fit on the Siding, fit in the New Yard with all the tracks filled! I have no idea if this was done a-purpose, or was just plain coincidence/happenstance.

It didn't take much to PACK Marshfield's New Yard FULL, especially if Business was up all over, in particular on the Nekoosa Line. It was not unusual to have Main Line Through Trains Setting Out MORE Cars than the New Yard could fit, and Trains Setting Out on the Greenwood Line, the Ice House Track, in the House Tracks Uptown, the Stock Yards track, and, in the End of the 1960's and early 1970's, occupying the East End of the Siding from the Peach Avenue Crossover to the East Power Switch! These were not unusual occurences in Marshfield, and such things happened with tireless regularity into the early 1980's!

There was a "Method To The Madness" in utilizing the Yard Tracks in Marshfield in the New Yard as well: The Head End of # 26 was built on No. 1 Track if room permitted, then the Second Section of # 26 was put in on # 2, and so on. That is, when room permitted it. Most Often, the Main Line became a Yard Track when things packed in in the New Yard! Still, the Yard Engine would have to Double out the Second---and, sometimes, TRIPLE, even QUADRUPLE out--the THIRD and FOURTH sections of 26's train onto the Main Line! This manuver would have the Yard Engine making multiple movements over Peach Avenue pulling out cuts of cars as they assembled # 26's train; needless to say, the Unknowing Public had no idea what was going on, thinking the Soo Line was simply Blocking the Crossing!!

There were enough complaints from Residents forced to wait for # 26 to Back Up the Main Line it's entire length from the Yard to Chestnut Avenue, as well. With all the Crying/Whining about Trains Holding Up Traffic in Marshfield today, I often am cause to Wonder where these Crybabies were 25 years ago when the C&NW trod Marshfield at 10-mph with 2-mile-long Freight Trains, and a # 26 backing up at 10-mph or LESS against the grade out of the Yard past the Depot to Chestnut Avenue???

Ah, those were the days, though, of a Pair of F-Unit types shoving in tandem for all they were worth, Screaming a Staccato 567 Tirade to the World they were going to move this train if it was the LAST thing they ever did, against a Train of mostly depreciated rolling stock, heavily laden with the Raw Materials of the Paper Making Industry. Of a # 26 with 100 or MORE Cars, ........yes, I DO miss it all!

The New Yard was built on the side of, and through the "Fold", of a hill. the Siding and Main Line start at Peach above East Depot Street (Peach Avenue climbs up to meet the Tracks on Peach, hence, the reason this is looked at as an ideal location for another underpass---the other is Oak Avenue), and stays there for most of the way, well above East Depot Street running alongside to the North. The Yard Lead and Yard, at the Yard Track Throat, are below Roadway Grade Level at Willow Avenue; the Gravel Access road that runs along the South Side of the Yard to Weyerhaeuser's old Log Yard/Trailer Storage Yard is 6 to 8 feet ABOVE the Tracks for some distance, until 7 cars from the East End Yard Switches, also the Location of the Spurs to service Marshfield Homes off of Track 5. However, at this point the Main Line and Siding were BEHIND an embankment, on the north side, as the Track was graded through a small hillock. About where the East End Yard Switches are, the Railroad is once again on a High Embankment all the way to Galvin Avenue, the Eastern Boundary of Marshfield's Corporate City Limits. Just ask Dennis Holmes or Kent Rengo about how much "Fun" keeping a Train under Control through this section can be!

The Grade that crests Westbound at Central Avenue begins near the Center of the New Yard. This helped in "Fly-Switching" cars in the Yard by Gravity. The Yard Tracks themselves are slightly lower than the Main Line and Siding. To the south, once the Tracks all converge near the East End, the Land slopes gently to the South, mostly from extensive grade work done by both the Soo Line, when the "Mobile West" Spur was put in, and from Marshfield Homes to help water drainage around their property.

Marshfield had two Yard Offices, one of which had been the Hoyt, Wisconsin Depot, moved to Marshfield in 1966 to replace the First version of a Yard Office, an old Outside-Braced Soo wooden Box Car set unceremoniously on the Ground. The ex-Hoyt Depot was plopped equally unceremoniously in front of the Old, and the Old Car was taken over by the Carmen as their Office/Storage/Shop area. In one of those MANY examples of Lack of planning, BOTH Yard Office Buildings were located much too far from the "action". In fact, the Clerks that followed the Yard Engine as it Swatted cars about in the Yard usually were forced to either Sit in their Personal Auto's to take down car numbers, or Stand outside in all weather, down near the convergance of the Lakes Track and the Yard Ladder. It wasn't until 1984 that the Soo moved the ex-Hoyt Depot down farther near the Yard Ladder, where it remains today! At the same time, the old Wooden Box Car used by the Car Department, was Demolished, and an old Steel 40' Box Car was set off on the Ground on the site of the Old. Both still remain in service on CN today, although the Section Crew uses the ex-Car Dep't Box Car now; there are no Carmen at Marshfield. This car still has the Venus Bold Extended SOO LINE Billboard lettering very visible on it's sides yet.

The Yard itself appears to have been Hastily Constructed. When Bob Wundrock worked the Yard Engine in Marshfield Years ago, there was Standing Water/MUD everywhere! In my Younger days, the Soo was, forever, throwing "Left-Over" Ballast on the Yard Tracks on places that needed it most. In fact, it took nearly FORTY YEARS to get the Yard Tracks to resemble anything STABLE----I am NOT Kidding. Only this past summer, Wisconsin Central put money in putting in NEW Ties (Soo always used Used ties as replacements in the Marshfield Yard) and LOTS of Uniform Ballast. In short, this is probably the BEST the New Yard has EVER looked!

After the Switch to Track one, sometime in 1975/1976, Soo Line replaced the West End Yard Ladder Switches with Switches with Self-guarding Frogs. There are no Guard Rails on the Yard Throat Switches on the West End of the Yard. I never understood this, and still do not. The Yard Ladder always looked to be in decent Shape; the Yard Tracks themselves tended to make you wonder how the cars stayed upright on them, some had NOTICABLE Leans toward one track or another! Funny more cars didn't sideswipe one another, and that is no exaggeration.

As originally Constructed, Track 2 came off of Track 1. Soo Line rearranged this around 1976/1977. As built, the Switch Stand for Track Two was OUTSIDE of the ties of the Lakes Track!!! No Kidding. An extra-long throw bar ran from the Switch Points UNDER the Yard Lead and the Lakes Track to the Switch Stand. This arrangement made for some *Interesting* language, especially in the Wintertime when that "Mile-long" throw bar became Iced In under all the track it ran under to the Switch Stand. As re-aligned later, Track 2 now comes off of Track 3, which reduced the capacities of 2 and 3 tracks accordingly. Although the Switchmen complained for years about the Switch to Track 2, the complaints about relocating the Switch to come off of Track 3 and the consequent reductions of Car Storage Capacity of those two tracks drew BITTER Criticsim from those "Bending The Iron" in Marshfield's Yard.

With the use of Wood Chips, since the 50' Double Door cars the Soo Line used were not what one would call "in The Best Of Shape", the Trackage in the Yard was inundated almost to the Railheads with Spilled Wood Chips that leaked out through the floors of the Cars. Even the Main Line, beginning at Peach Avenue to the West and alllllllllll the way past the Yard to the East Power Switch for the Siding was covered almost to the Rail Webbing with Spilled Woodchips! Can you imagine the Incongruity of it all, having to SWEEP OUT Switch Points in JULY?? I assure you, until the Soo Line brought in a Ballast Cleaning Machine in 1979, there were enough Spilled Chips that Switchmen were forced to Sweep the Chips out from between the Yard Switches Switchpoints. My God.

Track 5 served as a Switching Lead for Two Spurs into Marshfield Homes. The first switch was located about 6 carlengths West of the East End 5 Track Switch, and is still in use today. Here, the track ran in behind Marshfield homes alongside a Concrete Loading Dock. Marshfield Homes has forever gotten in Car Load Lumber and Paneling via the Railroad; in recent years, Sheet Rock (Dry Wall) comes in via Box Car as well. Marshfield Homes's business has remained fairly stable over the years, about two cars per day, on the Average.

Just before track 5 turned to join the East End Ladder, another spur left to service Marshfield Homes, their old Ramp Track. The Ramp Track was where, until 1972, Marshfield Homes loaded their Trailer Houses on Flatcar. This was a simple affair, a Concrete Pad atop an earth berm. Alas, this stood unused for almost 30 years, and a Substantial Tree managed to PUSH that concrete Ramp well off it's earthen foundation. WC removed this Spur in 1996. At it's peak, Marshfield Homes shipped out two Houses per day via the Soo.

To switch Marshfield Homes, the Yard Engine had to pull everything off Track 5 to do their Work. This task usually involved having to get permission to use the Main Line to store Track 5's cars on. Not the most favoraite noves the Yard Engine had to do; it brought about rather "Sulferous" language!

It was more the Soo's reluctance to deal with Mobile Homes than the increase in Width that dealt the Death Blow to this Traffic. Soo Line hauled a lot of Pulpwood in these parts, and a Meet between Train # 1 and Eastbound Train # 18 in the Cut west of the Marshfield Depot, one of MANY examples of this, revealed that Mobile Homes were better Suited to Trucks: Mobile Homes are susceptable to Damage from Pulp Sticks hanging off the car carrying them!! The home in question was RAKED by a Pulp Stick hanging out too far, which essentially tore the side off the House! This happened one too many times, and the Soo Line backed away from hauling Mobile Homes fairly early. Chicago & North Western picked up the slack left by the Soo, but, they, too, lost this Business, but because the houses became Wider than the Flat Cars hauling them, not because the C&NW was in it's Death Throes in Central Wisconsin.

Right next to the Switch for the East End Yard Ladder on the Main Line, was "Mobile West", the Switch into Mobile Plywoods, a Mobile Home Manufacturing Supplier. Mobile Plywoods was a DAILY Switch into 1986. The Spur into Mobile West descended a very Steep Grade down to Mobile Plywoods Warehouses, which sit at the bottom of the Soo's Grade Embankment, roughly 15' feet lower than the Main Line Rail. This was so steep that ANY Locomotive being used to bring out three empties had all it could do to climb back out to the Main Line!!! It was Mobile West that put the End to the Main Generator of ex-DSS&A RS-1 105 in June of 1968. (At least I *Think* it was the 105) The Generator overheated as the Yard Crew was attempting to haul out FOUR Empties.

A GP-30 was considered to be a "Pox", since they were very slippery, as were the GP-35's.

Worst, at the Bottom of the spur, the Trackage took a HARD RIGHT to the South! Not only could you NOT pull Mobile West in anything that resembles Fast because of the climb back out to the Main Line, but you had to climb out at Restricted Speed because of the Sharp Curve at the Bottom!

Mobile Plywoods came on-line about 1966. They handled so many items for the Mobile Home Building Industry it's simply not condusive to list it all on here. After Mobile Plywoods (Renamed "Pluswood" after being sold in 1980) was sold once again in 1986, Traffic dropped off to Nothing, also due to the Mobile Home Industry shrinking. Today, as Pluswood, does little business with the Railroad; last year, 2000, they got in 5 total cars ALL YEAR.

Out past the East Power Switch, right next to the Grade Crossing with County Highway ' H ', was "Mobile East". This spur never seemed to get a lot in on it; perhaps, two cars per week into 1976, a car per month thereafter. By 1986, Mobile Plywoods was leasing a part of the East Warehouse to Kickapoo Valley Cheese Corp. for loading out Government Cheese. That was some of the last cars spotted on this spur. The Switch for Mobile East was removed in 1995, when the City of Marshfield FORCED the Wisconsin Central to abide by the ill-concieved plan to put Galvin Avenue ACROSS the Tracks, adding a Grade Crossing where there had been but ONE. County ' H ' was re-aligned farther south. As had been done for years, Galvin swung alongside the Soo to County ' H ', where H and Galvin Intersected. The City found this arrangement unacceptable, and, in the usual lack of coherent planning, Pushed Galvin Avenue across the Main Line to line it up with County ' A ' and create a true north-south Street instead of having to snake around over the Tracks. Unfortunately, the Intersection is VERY Close of the Grade Crossing, and WC trains hold up traffic in THREE Directions when occupying this Crossing. The City could have put the Roads UNDERNEATH the Railroad Here, since the Streets and the Tracks were quite separated by Grade, but chose the Cheaper---and IGNORANT--idea of crossing the tracks at grade instead.

It was the end of Mobile East, although the Track for this Spur still runs alongside the back (north) portion of the building, it is severed forever from the Main Line, never to be joined again.

Now, Welcome to Marshfield Milling Company, better known on the Soo Line as "the Farm".

Beginning in 1970, the Marshfield Milling Company constructed a larger facility just outside the Eastern City Limits along County Highway ' H ' that eventually replaced the old Banner Mills Mill located along the M&T Spur near downtown. There were many reasons for this, mostly, the Milling Company was restricted at the old location, and the Milling Company's Business continued to expand each year. The new location gave them more room, and got rid of numerous movements of Trucks backing around to get into the docks over City Streets.

The "Farm" as it was called, is located along the Sweeping Curve that takes Trains out of Marshfield and produces an almost perfect tangent going towards Auburndale Eastwards. The first spur you encounter moving East is the Elevator Spur, installed, if I recall correctly, in 1975, that runs in underneath the last new construction at this plant, one of a pair of Hoppers. This is the only spur used today, and by Northside Elevator from Loyal, Wis.!! As Marshfield Milling Company, carload corn and Soy Meal came in on this track in Covered Hopper Cars.

Finally, we round the Curve and come to the "Farm" Spurs. These were laid in along what had been the Eastern Wall of the New Milling Company in 1970. Shortly after leaving the Main Line, the spur broke into two spurs running up to the Building. I don't recall there being a "Farm 1 & Farm 2" designation for these tracks. I only recall the switch lists listing the cars at "The Farm".

Eight cars would fit in next to the Dock, four on each track. About 1972, the Milling Company added another Building eastward of the old; by 1980, this entire end had been closed in, trackage and all, as still more and more work continued to be transferred out to the Farm from the old Elevator Downtown on the M&T.

About 1977, Marshfield Milling Company renamed itself to "Prince Corporation", in honor of the Owner/Founder of the Milling Company, Prince Koenig.

Soo Line seemed hard pressed to provide service to the Farm reliably, because it was hard for the Yard Engine to tear itself away from their work already in place before the Farm was built. Consequently, the Milling Company/Prince Corp. expected to get switched at about the same time everyday as they had when they operated the Elevator. It didn't work that way; Sometimes, at 10:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m. the Yard Crew was still busy trying to get # 26 out of the Yard back up the Main Line! This reluctance to service a good customer hurt the Soo's business with the Milling Company/Prince Corp. severely. By 1981, Prince wasn't much of a Customer any longer, and by 1984 they were doing no business with the Soo Line at all. Prince Corporation and the Soo investigated the possibility of receiving carload Soy Meal once again in 1985, but Prince turned down the Offer by the Soo to haul the commodity in.

Were it not for Northside Elevator getting in 5 cars of Soy Meal per week, there wouldn't be a Spur connected to today's CN-WC Main Line at all. The Spur into the Dock on the eastern side still is in to inside the Building, but WC removed the Track Switches.

That concludes the Industries along the Soo Line Main Line in Marshfield. Part 7 will be from the House Tracks and down the Nekoosa Line, eventually ending at Spur N-283 near Highway 10.

Beginning behind the Depot, House 1 left the M&T at the Cinder/Gravel crossing entering the Depot Parking lot from East First Street along the South Side of the Depot grounds, ran alongside of the M&T to Maple and alongside of the north side of the Freight House. East of the Maple Avenue Crossing, House 2 & House 3 split apart and ran alongside each other to their convergance into the Nekoosa Line. There was a wide gap between House 1 and House 2; in the Copy of the Soo Line Blueprint I have of the Marshfield Freight House, it shows a LONG, Covered Freight Platform that ran between House 1 & House 2 for the length of the Freight House building itself, although this was long-since taken up by the time I moved to Marshfield in 1967.

A few things about this Yard:

The Freight House: Constructed in 1916. This was the building where the Freight Office Personel were originally located; The Agent, 3 Billing Clerks, the Yard Clerks, 2 Payroll Clerks and several Warehousemen, until the Soo Line took the Freight House out of Commission in 1949-1950 due to the drastic drop in LCL business. I am not 100% sure on the date the Soo left the Freight House forever; it seems to me to be later, around 1955, about the time the Depot was remodeled inside. At this time, the Depot lost the overhanging Portico on the Rear (South) side, along with the revolving door there, and what had been the Men's Waiting Room was partitioned off into work space for the Clerks. What had been the Women's Waiting Room became the General Waiting Room; during the Clerk's working hours (7 a.m.-3 p.m.) the Payroll Clerk sold Passenger Train Tickets.

A portion of the Baggage Room became the Agent's office, and what had been the Warm Room suddenly became the Records Storage Room.

Almost immediately after the Soo Line vacated the Freight House, it was leased to Hub City Jobbing Co. for both Storage and Receiving. Hub City altered the Freight House a bit. They removed the parapit wall along the South Side and added an overhanging roof; poured two angled concrete docks for easier spotting of longer trailers; added two doors, one right in the front of the building (where they used to load straight truck for local deliveries), a second where the Freight Office had been. This was where I was told carloads of Hanging Meat were unloaded at one time. The Scales inside by each truck/dray door on the south side were removed; by the time the Freight House was altered to suit Hub City, although it wasn't substantial remodeling, the place wasn't the same anymore, either. Soo retained a small portion near the east (or Rear) of the Freight House for storage of Salt and some Section Parts, such as Angle Bars, and Bolts, etc.

After one-too-many derailments on the Switch to House 1 behind the Depot, the Soo removed this Switch, and took up the rails to Maple Avenue about 1975, stubbing House 1 next to the Freight House, although the rails remained IN Maple Avenue until just this summer! I recall seeing a Covered Hopper that split the Wheel Stops at the end of this spur once as the Night Yard Engine tried to shove in 21 cars on House 1, but ended up pushing the last car partly out onto Maple Avenue! The Asphalt covering the tracks carried the scars of this mishap until this past summer as well.

As originally Constructed, the Freight House had a large Office in the Front portion of the Building. This was Partitioned off, down the exact center, and the southerly half was used as a Warm Room. In the Basement under the Office Section, this area was used as "Cool" Storage, not necessarily "Cold" Storage. In a simpler time, such a Cool place was used to store Sides of Meats.

That the Soo Line felt Justified to construct a 250-ft long Freight House in Marshfield should give you the clue that the Soo Line had Substantial LCL Business here in Marshfield at one time. I have been fortunate to have befriended several folks many years older than myself that remembered the Soo Freight House in it's Hey Days, a SUPER Busy place, with Wagons & Drays WAITING to get an Open Door to get in, claim their Load, get loaded and get out!

I wish I had a Photo of the Marshfield Freight House in it's Halcyon Days. Off the rear concrete Platform at the back (east) end of the Freight House, the Soo once had a long wooden Platform that extended x-number of feet farther along, topped off at the end by an old Box Car taken off it's Trucks. Years before, there had been another Track that came off of House 1 and ran up to the back of the Freight House (The Original House 1), and, in later years, you could still see the ties in the Gravel/Cinder Drive behind the Freight House, but by the time I moved to Marshfield, the Freight Platform, Box car and Track along that east side had all been removed.

In 1984, I worked off that Concrete Dock HAND-loading 2-and 5-pound Boxes of Cheese for Loyal Cold Storage/Kickapoo Valley Cheese Corp. on Mechanical Refrigerator cars. We loaded SIX (6) cars of Government-owned Cheese per day, and often worked ourselves out of a job because we loaded so fast! Alas, this operation came to an end because it got harder and harder to get the Trucking Firm to bring the Cheese to Marshfield from Loyal. They preferred to truck it to Warehouse Specialists in Wisconsin Rapids!

The Freight House itself was torn down in 1995. Actually, I should say, it mostly Fell Down BY ITSELF shortly after the Backhoe touched it the first time! Folks, that Freight House was in such poor shape that when the Backhoe touched the roof to begin demolision on the first swing, a portion of the South Wall simply FELL OVER on top of a Dump Truck Parked next to the building for hauling away the rubble and destroyed that Dump Truck!!! All well and good; Soo Line hadn't done anything with the Freight House after the 1950's, and it was Vandalized completely throughout. Local Teens had started a couple small fires inside the building, and many floor boards had rotted out leaving gaping holes a man could fall through.

On the South side of the Freight house was the Team Track. It began East of Vine Avenue and ran in to the foot of Maple Avenue, some 4 blocks. Along the Team Track the Soo Line counted these Customers, going from East to West: H. Ebbe Company, Paerner Creamery, H. Ebbe Company's Two Warehouses, Marshfield News Herald, and the Mobil Oil Bulk Plant. In my Day, Ebbe's was closed up and not used at all---it's STILL that way! Ebbe's was a large Feed Mill operation at one time, and Ebbe's once owned/Operated what became Bauer's Farm Service located next to the C&NW 7 blocks south. Ebbe's had two Warehouses located farther East on the Team Track, one old wooden affair and a newer Steel Building constructed about 1956, also neither one of which was used anymore for Rail Shipments by the time I arrived in Marshfield. This Western Portion of the Team Track was where the Soo Line stored the Gang MOW Cars when a Gang was working out of Marshfield, i.e., Rail Gang, Tie Gang, B&B Crew, etc. They would use electricity from the Freight House for the power for the Cars by running an EXTENSION CORD from the Freight House to which ever car was closest to the outside recepticle on the Freight House itself and jumper Electrical Connections across to each car.

When Art Train visited Marshfield in 1975, the Western Portion of the Team Track was where it was spotted for the week Art Train exhibited here.

Going back far enough into the 1940's, Ebbe was a Good Railroad Customer, getting in Box Car loads of the usual sundry Feed Items associated with a Feed Mill. In addition, Ebbe's also Carried Building Materials. Lumber, Mortar, Cement, etc. The old Wooden Warehouse East of the Ebbe Feed Mill still has lettering BARELY Visible that reads: BRICK LIME CEMENT on it so long as this building remains, which won't be long as it's days are very numbered. They were a Daily Switch for the Switch Engine until Ebbe went out of Business about 1960.

Paerner (pronounced PER-ner) Dairy was never much of a Soo Line Customer. They simply weren't big enough. Yet, they did get in cans of Cream from the Soo, and their plant was located close enough to the Soo Line that in slides taken of Soo Line Engines idling away their time on any one House Track Paerner shows up in the Background. The majority of Paerner Dairy was torn down about 1970 or so. Only a VERY Small portion of the Office remains yet. The rest of the Property was turned into a Firewood Storage Yard by a neighbor across the Street!

Marshfield News Herald, the Local Paper, USED to be a steady, good Rail customer into 1990, getting in two carloads of News Print per week until they switched over to using recycled News Print (which befits the recycled nature of the News Herald's Content) which all comes in via semi. These cars were unloaded by HAND and trucked over the three or so blocks to the Offices/Printing operation.

The Team Track became a great place for the Switch Engine to store cars on that weren't needed right away, such as carloads of Coal for the Power Plant, empty Box Cars being Held for Weyerhaeuser or other uses, etc.

I simply cannot document the numerous track changes that took place in the House Track Yard. There were MANY; at one time, the Port Edwards, Centrailia & Northern terminated in this Yard, and had a Depot/Freight Office located here. My Soo Line Track Maps show so many additions, changes, corrections I just cannot say with absolute Certainty just what was what at what time period. The only things that seemed to remain the same were where House 1, 2, 3 and the Team Track were.

On my Copy of the Blueprint of the Freight House, it shows a track running back in across East First Street to service what became Smith Cartage's Warehouse. This track, too, was long gone from the scene before I arrived in Marshfield.

Located along the Main Line adjacent to the Concrete Depot Platform (which ran to the Nekoosa Line Junction Switch, 400 feet east of Maple Avenue) was the ex-Station Track, lastly called "the Coach Track". At one time, this track ran all the way up to the Depot, but was terminated sometime before WWII where the TOFC Ramp was later installed. The Coach Track bulked large in Soo's scheme of things; at one time, my Employer, Figi's Gifts, Inc., used to get a Baggage Car or an RPO spotted here for loading out Christmas Packages, worked through the Marshfield Post Office. I'm not completely certain as to when the Soo installed the Ramp and the end of this track. It seems to have been in the Mid-1950's. Some sundry loads were shipped/received across this ramp early on. Later, Mobile Homes from Rollohome and from Pittsville Homes were loaded off this Ramp into the 1960's, and there was some other one-time business that went over it as well. But, by the time I moved to Marshfield, the largest hands-down business over the TOFC Ramp in Marshfield Was Figi's (pronounced Fig-EEZ). Extremely seasonal at the beginning, by the time the Soo Line & Figi's had their "falling Out" over Rail Service in 1984, Figi's business with the Soo would traditionally start in October each year with the Shipment by Trailers of Figi's Catalogs. In November, the Cascade of Trailers loaded with Christmas Gifts would begin, as much as 8 trailers per day outbound for Chicago. By the time TOFC service was concluded in 1984, Figi's had expanded their Business to Include "Nutcracker" (pre-Thanksgiving), Lifestyles (given up in 1990), Cook's Collection (Given Up in 1988), Valentines, Easter and Mom's, Dad's & Grad's, an almost year-round Catalog Business, which showed by the Trailers going out via the Soo. The Coach Track would have 4 89' Flat Cars sitting loaded ready for the Switch Engine to pull them out, and over behind the Freight House they would be lining up MORE Loaded Trailers waiting to be loaded, up to 12 loaded trailers at a time!

When we first moved to Marshfield in 1967, about 90% of Figi's TOFC Business was going to the Chicago & North Western. By early 1972, the Soo Line had somehow wrested this Traffic Away from the C&NW, and the TWO Ramps the C&NW had (Two 54' Flatcars buried in the ground on one end, trucks, coupler and all) sat unused until the C&NW Abandoned out of Marshfield in 1982.

Soo Line, though, stumbled with the Business later on, mostly during the period attention was focused on acquiring the Milwaukee Road. Then, the Soo Line INSISTED after the Milwaukee Acquisition that Figi's load their TOFC at Wisconsin Rapids, and Figi's bowed out of Rail Service out of Marshfield. The Loaded Trailers STILL go out by Rail to the West Coast, but leave Marshfield being Pulled by a Tractor to Chicago now to the Chicago BMC (Bulk Mail Center) where the load is re-worked, then reloaded on a Trailer and sent off to the likes of Corwith, Wood Street or Cicero before being put on a Flatcar for Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, or Portland.

The Nekoosa Line became a Yard Ladder for the House Tracks after it left the Main Line. The First Spur off the Nekoosa Line was the Coach Track, followed by the spur that serviced Asphalt Products and doubled as the Engine Servicing Spur. Then came House 3, then House 2, then House 1, which began to split over Vine Avenue. The Team Track was positioned after the Vine Avenue Crossing, and the Nekoosa Line was in between the Quonset Huts of the former Felker Bros. Oil Company headed a steady east-southeast towards the City Limits.

At Vine Avenue, the Switch Engine used the House Tracks as their "Own" Yard, switching out the cars going to Marshfield Industries served by the Switch Engine in the order they would require them for easier handling later on. It is a favorite memory of mine of having driven down Vine Ave. and seeing the Crossing Signals Flashing then seeing a Lone Box Car rolling all by itself across the Vine Avenue Crossing-----the Switch Engine was busily swatting cars about in the Uptown Yard.

It's Funny an Auto was never hit in this manner!

The Nekoosa Line crossed the C&NW's Eland Line after passing through Asphalt Products, Asphalt Products had a Quonset Hut and Two 25,000 Gallon Storage Tanks located between the Soo's Main Line and the Nekoosa Line, and Two Quonset Huts located on the South Side of the Nekoosa Line. The separated Properties were connected with a Gravel Crossing over the Nekoosa Line. The area from Vine Avenue to the Quonsets located on the South side contained the Concrete Ring of the Port Edwards, Centrialia & Northern Railroad's Turntable. It's still there as of this writing, but will be excavated out of the Soil due to Road Construction. C&NW's Marshfield-Eland Line snuck between Asphalt Products and Shapiro's Scrap Yard on a well-appointed embankment. About a block south from the C&NW's Crossing of the Soo's Nekoosa Line on the C&NW was the North Switch for the North Leg of the C&NW's Wye. Once the Nekoosa Line crossed the C&NW, it began curving gently to the South-Southeast, with Shapiro's on one side and the Marshfield Co-op on the other.

The Nekoosa Line crossed South Peach Avenue, then on the east side of Peach was/is the Switch to the Beltline, which curved away to the Northeast towards the Yard Lead. The Nekoosa Line continued to curve away until it was pointed a direct Southeast. 6 carlength east of the Peach Crossing was the Spur into the Marshfield Co-op. This was a fairly long spur, which ran back along the Nekoosa Line westwards almost to the C&NW r-o-w. it, too, crossed Peach Avenue. On the East Side of Peach was Marshfield Co-op's Feed Mill/Elevator, an insulbrick-covered affair. Once in a while, like once per week, you would see a car spotted in by the Feed Mill, a carload of Feed. Other than that, I never saw the Co-op Spur used beyond the Peach Avenue crossing to the West past the old Warehouse. Behind that Warehouse there was a substantial Concrete Dock/Ramp, where the Co-op used to unload new Farm Machinery. (West of Peach Ave, the Co-op had their Gas Station, Farm Implement Repair Garage, and sold New & Used Farm Machinery) Indeed, in all my years of living in Marshfield, the Co-op Spur west of Peach was always inundated with chest-high weeds.

East of the Feed Mill itself there had been a Bulk Oil facility operated by the Co-op. I recall but ONE Tank Car sitting here unloading about 1969. After that I do not recall a car here ever again.

Just what kind of Customer the Marshfield Co-op was prior to 1969 I can only guess, but I would venture to say that, judging by sheer size, they were possibly a Daily Switch for the Switch Engine. This was a large, full-service Co-op, dealing in Gasoline, Feeds, Farm Machinery and Fuel Oil. After 1966, the Soo was delivering to the Co-op mostly Fertilizers at their Fertilizer Plant next to Shapiro's Spur along side the Nekoosa Line.

As the Nekoosa Line began to straighten out to head directly Southeast towards Distant Wisconsin Rapids, then came the Spur into Wisconsin Prepackaged Cheese Corp. This left the Nekoosa Line and ran behind their Building. On the Northern side of the Nekoosa Line r-o-w was the Roddis/Weyerhaeuser Property, lined by a Barbed-wire topped Chain Link Fence, which followed the Nekoosa Line all the way down to the Office Building located at the Corner formed by the " L " shaped intersection of East 2nd Street and North Palmetto Avenue. Behind that fence was a veritable MOUNTAIN of Saw Logs (NOT Pulpwood---there is a BIG difference!), most all hauled in by Truck. (This Log Yard was in the "Vee" Formed by the Beltline and the Nekoosa Line).

At the Switch into Wisconsin Prepackaged Cheese Corp., there was once a Crossing with the Chicago & North Western, a Spur that came off of the Palmetto Street Connection Track and had, at one time, served a Stock Yard where what became the aforementioned Log Yard later occupied. I have been told by numerous people that this seemingly insignificant Spur was to have been the ORIGINAL routing of the C&NW predesessor in Marshfield, The Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western, to reach Marshfield from Wausau versus the snake-like r-o-w the C&NW actually ended up with. From the C&NW Spur to the Stock Yard a switchback serviced the Southern Side of Wisconsin Prepackaged Cheese Corp. The C&NW Tracks were taken up sometime around 1960 (?), leaving the Soo the sole server of the Cheese Company. Just how much Business the Soo & the C&NW got out of this Company remains very debatable. In my day, the only thing I ever saw sitting on this spur was an oddly-designed Track Tamper that looked for all the world like an over-grown Football Helmut with all the accouterments of a Track Tamper in place of the face guard. This machine was, apparently, PERMANENTLY assigned to the Nekoosa Line. It must have seen service, as you could tell it had been moved, but I never saw it being used, anywhere, including within Marshfield itself, such as when there was a Grade Crossing rebuilt or when Ballast would be dropped in portions within Marshfield Yard Limits. It seemed to never leave Marshfield until Lake States coiled itself in.

Approaching the East 2nd Street/Palmetto Avenue Crossing, the Nekoosa Line passed very closely to the Brick, Two-story Roddis Veneer & Lumber Company/Weyerhaeuser Corp. Office Building. The Nekoosa Line and the Palmetto Street Connection Track both crossed through the Intersection of the two Streets. The Palmetto Street Connection track joined the Nekoosa Line east of the Palmetto/2nd Street Intersection/Crossing.

The Palmetto Street Connection Track was the joint between the C&NW and the Soo Line. It allowed the C&NW Access to the Interchange Tracks beside the Nekoosa Line on the south side of the r-o-w between the C&NW & the Soo Line, "Lower 1 & Lower 2". (Don't ask me where the names came from!) Lower 1 & Lower 2 came off right after the Palmetto Street Connecting Track and ran alongside the Nekoosa Line to East Fourth Street. The C&NW Line to Wisconsin Rapids-Fond du Lac swung alongside the Soo's Nekoosa Line at Palmetto Avenue, and Followed the Soo's Nekoosa Line all the way out to "New" Eastmar, which I will touch on later. Technically, the Palmetto Street Connecting Track was the THIRD C&NW Connection to the Soo Line, and, I suppose, *could* have been used (and Possibly was) as another way to get the Marshfield-bound C&NW Train from Fond du Lac in off the Soo and on to the C&NW. I have *Heard* stories of this, but I cannot verify if the C&NW had ever used the Palmetto Street Connecting Track to bring Trains in off the Soo. Good Lord, WHO would've had the intestinal fortitude to try it?? Like MANY Yard & Industry Tracks the Soo & the C&NW had in Marshfield, the Palmetto Street Connecting Track was mostly wallowing in MUD, and resting atop mostly rotted ties. In fact, the C&NW Trackage from East 4th Street to Peach Avenue was mostly laying in dirt over the ties!

Following the Connecting Track back to the C&NW, this track to the Soo came off of the "East SIding", a short (possibly 40-car siding) that left the C&NW at East Third Street and ran parallel to the C&NW Main all the way to East 4th Street (Keep in mind that the C&NW went in an Arc to accomplish crossing two streets that are a Block apart but crossed them 5 blocks apart although they were only one block apart physically. The C&NW crossed East 4th Street TWICE with the same set of tracks, but 8 blocks apart). Immediately after diverging from the C&NW Main, with a Ditch/Creek separating the C&NW East Siding from Lower 1 & Lower 2, crossed the North Leg of the C&NW's Wye, which connected about 5 carlengths east of the Connecting Track/Siding Switch. NONE of this trackage was in the Greatest of Shape! C&NW had stubbed the East Siding at Palmetto Avenue, and used the remaining short stub for Car Storage---cars going into/assigned for loading at Weyerhaeuser. One got to see pratically EVERY Freight Car the Union Pacific (Yes, the UNION PACIFIC) had in it's freight car roster. I'll touch on that practice later on, as well.

On the North Side of the Nekoosa Line r-o-w was the Geat Ediface of the Roddis Veneer & Lumber Company-Weyerhaeuser Corp., behind a sturdy Barbed Wire-tipped Fence which ran along the r-o-w all the way from Palmetto Avenue to East 4th Street.

You won't believe just how much Traffic the Soo & the C&NW handed off to one another via Lower 1 & Lower 2, but, I'm merely guessing now, but I *Suspect* some 120 cars PER DAY exchanged between the two roads over these Interchange Tracks! I kid you not. Soo Line made AT LEAST 4 deliveries to the C&NW just during the Day Hours the Switch Engine was working in the 1967-1971 time period; C&NW made a corresponding amount of deliveries to the Soo Line, usually within an hour after the Soo had shoved cars to the C&NW. You hadn't "Lived" in Marshfield without getting STUCK for a long C&NW Interchange move to Lower 1 & Lower 2, say, at the C&NW's Crossing of East 4th Street near Del's Bar (Later Brown's Bar) as the C&NW pushed in a long cut of cars to the Soo which carried the Locomotive over East 4th Street! Alas, because the C&NW (and the Nekoosa Line to some extent) entered Marshfield at cross-purposes to the lay of the City, any place the C&NW had a Track Switch was atop a City Street Crossing! Same thing on the Soo's Nekoosa Line; whether Switching Lower 1 & Lower 2 at East 4th Street in front of Weyerhaeuser or over East 2nd/Palmetto Avenue, the Engine would be blocking a Street Crossing.

Carloads of Coal coming from the C&NW to the Soo for the Municipal Power Plant on the M&T, Logs for Weyerhaeuser, Pulpwood being interchanged between the Soo & C&NW for Wisconsin Rapids.....I simply can't list everything that moved between the Soo & the C&NW over Lower 1 & Lower 2.

After the C&NW removed their East Siding, there was some Ditching Work done on that Ditch/Creek between the two railroad r-o-w's to widen it, and years later it was darn-near impossible to see IF there had been a r-o-w to carry the East Siding along Lower 1 & Lower 2 on. This Ditch/Creek apparently had the propensity to FLOOD in heavy rains, inundating the C&NW & Lower 1 & Lower 2. By the time I arrived in Marshfield, the Space between the C&NW & the Soo had grown up substantially with Trees & Weeds, almost hiding cars stashed on Lower 1 & Lower 2.

It was via Lower 1 & Lower 2 that the C&NW tried to use their "Alternative Routing" status in Marshfield to their Best Advantage: By getting the "Haul" on inbound or outbound business from Industry located on the Soo Line! Indeed, Soo had many "Captive" Customers in Marshfield that, although they may complain about the Soo Line, they stayed a Soo Customer because the Soo *DID* Do a Good Job getting the cars to the Customers, and that is no lie.

Yet, the C&NW had it's backers as well, and there were a few "Converts" that used the C&NW or eventually switched over to using the C&NW almost exclusively even though the Soo Line was the Railroad outside the door with the Spur that Serviced the Plant. Berg Equipment Company was one of the Latter, and only because "Old Man" Berg felt some kind of Odd predisposition to cater to the C&NW for having hired his Son as a Section Laborer when said son was working his way through College.

Hub City Foods became a "C&NW Convert", after years of exclusivity to the Soo Line, after Hub City moved in to their New warehouse in the Industrial Park. Apparently, after years of total domination by the Soo Line, Hub City LIKED the C&NW serving them. Alas, the C&NW was mostly indifferent to such traffic, and, about 1975, Hub City proposed building a Freezer (Which they did, bit not until 1990) to be served by a separate spur. C&NW was indifferent; the Soo wanted NOTHING to do with this business at all.

Most interesting was the C&NW's attempts to put a Dent into the Soo's near strangle-hold on Roddis/Weyerhaeuser's Outbound Business from Marshfield, something they had only a very small amount of success trying to do. It resulted in a "War" of sorts between the Soo & the C&NW, beginning with car supply. Best of all, it was conducted IN FRONT of the said Weyerhaeuser Facility!!!

I wrote a Post on cnwgroups and here on Soo Line History about the "War" the Soo Line & C&NW Fought over the use of Railbox box cars for C&NW Loads out of Weyerhaeuser, so I won't re-cross ground already covered. Let me just make the observation that, apparently, the Outbound Business from Weyerhaeuser meant more to the C&NW Marshfield Agent, Jim White, than it did to the C&NW as a whole. There was some sort of Switching agreement surrounding the Outbound Traffic from Weyerhaeuser which I cannot recount for you in specific detail. It involved the C&NW Soliciting Traffic from Weyerhaeuser, in which the C&NW was committed to supply their OWN cars of Equal Quality to that of the Soo Line for loading. The Soo Line was compelled to Spot these cars at Weyerhaeuser in a "Timely Manner" for loading and to return the Loaded Cars back to the C&NW via Lower 1 & Lower 2 also in a "Timely Manner".

Soo Line *DID* do just that. Cars used for loading given to the Soo Line from the C&NW were given Good Treatment in the Movement Department by the Soo. They treated empty C&NW cars coming in for loading much the same as their own, so give the Soo a "Gold Star" for that.

      *HOWEVER*

Soo Line was given the Power to REJECT cars that did not meet certain criteria set by Weyerhaeuser for Freight Car Condition, and, Weyerhaeuser had the right to Reject cars it itself did not feel were in Condition to Load. In other words, the C&NW could supply a car, the Soo may pass it, then Spot the car for Loading, only to have Weyerhaeuser Reject the car! This happened more oftentimes than not, and left Jim White, the C&NW's Marshfield Agent, liberally FUMING about just how "Neat" a car had to be!!

Then, too, one must remember this: When the Soo Line began getting the Outbound Door business from Weyerhaeuser, the Soo ASSIGNED cars that were in Exceptional Condition. Like, BRAND NEW INSIDE even if the exterior didn't match the interior. From "Plain Jane" 40' Box Cars in the Beginning, continuing up through 50' Double Door cars to the last cars the Soo assigned to Weyerhaeuser in 1971, 6 of the Original 50' Smooth Side Plug Door cars built by General American for the Soo in 1963, of the earlier 177550-series cars.

No bragging on my part, but the Soo had these cars looking PRETTY DAMN NICE Inside, and KEPT them that way. The C&NW? Well......if you have fanned the C&NW for any length of time and/or have knowledge of how their Freight Car Fleet was allowed to slowly disintegrate over time duriing the 1955-1975 time period, you will know that the C&NW *ONLY* repaired that which was felt Necessary, or could be done *Fast* or *Cheaply*. Some of the cars they gave to the Soo Line for loading at Weyerhaeuser had interiors that looked as though World War 6 had been fought inside the car-----I *wish* I were kidding.

In *Many* cases, cars rejected by the Soo from the C&NW for loading at Weyerhaeuser were Justified, as were the cars rejected by Weyerhaeuser, so no one was "Picking On" the C&NW per se; their policy of Deferred Maintainence simply caught up with the C&NW, period.

But the C&NW had a Trick or two up their Sleeve: "Borrowing" Union Pacific equipment for loading at Weyerhaeuser....and the Soo Line and Weyerhaeuser were pretty hard pressed to reject some of the cars the UP allowed the C&NW to use in Marshfield.

However, in the case of UP Equipment, in 99% of the examples I am personally aware of, once you got past the Armour Yellow & Shiney Sliver paint on the Outside.....MOST of UP's equipment tended to look AS BAD INSIDE as some of the war-weary C&NW Cars. That is a fact of life.

Later came the Flap over the use of Railbox, and the C&NW and Soo ended up in front of the ICC about this. It ended up in the end, however, that the C&NW was REQUIRED by Agreement to supply CARS FROM THEIR OWN FLEET for loading at Weyerhaeuser, and that the C&NW's membership in Railbox Corp. meant NOTHING. Railbox box cars were not C&NW Equipment PROPER, and in late 1974 the C&NW took 6 60' DD Auto Parts box cars out of the Auot Parts Pool and assigned them to Marshfield for loading at Weyerhaeuser. The C&NW even went so far as to re-stencil the cars: "WHEN EMPTY RETURN TO AGENT C&NW RY. MARSHFIELD WIS." The Walthers Model released a couple years back is a DEAD RINGER for the Cars the C&NW Assigned to Marshfield, and dead-on for the painting/lettering scheme for two of the 6 cars that were here. I wish I had recorded the numbers of those cars, however, bit I did not.

Next time I will start out at Weyerhaeuser and describe the History of the Company in Marshfield, and I'll continue along until we get to Spur N-283, the Mid State Oil Co. spur at Highway 10, Milepost 3 on the Nekoosa Line at the end of the Soo's Switching Limits in Marshfield.

Keith Meacham

Sometime before or after WWII, Roddis expanded into ready-to-hang Doors. This became their chief product, although Roddis still remained in the Lumbering and Veneer business. In 1960-1962, Weyerhaeuser Inc. purchased Roddis. Almost immediately, Weyerhaeuser began expanding the old Roddis Facility into the building that stands today. Added on was the Silvaplex Plant and the Particle Board Plant about 1964-65. Weyerhaeuser wanted to build still bigger, and desired to put the Veneer operations separate from the Door Plant. The proposal was to build south of the C&NW across from the current Facility, right along East 4th Street, but, in the usual lack of Wisdom, the City Fathers of Marshfield claimed they could not provide enough Electrical power to service Weyerhaeuser's new Facility from the Municipal Power Plant, and this expansion was dropped forever.

Consequently, Weyerhaeuser got out of the Commercial Veneer market by 1971, and quit making Veneer entirely for Door Skins (facing) by 1986.

Silvaplex was also known by Weyerhaeuser Employees as "Molded Products", and a Huge Press inside the Building was capable, with the Engineered Dies, to Press Out nearly anything you might have wanted, from Plastic Stocks for M-16 & AR-15 rifles (This was a BIG item during the Viet Nam era) to Coffee Tables (or, as my Best Friend often says, "Anything from Rags, Rubbers and Piss-pot Covers!)! Silvaplex was a growth business for Weyerhaeuser-----for a Time. In talks with Friends that are Employed at Weyerhaeuser, Silvaplex was never really looked upon with High Favor after 1976 and so was not exploited. By 1992, Silvaplex/Molded Products was Closed and the Employees given their Pink Slips.

Weyerhaeuser exited the Commercial Particle Board Business at the same time and furloughed the Employees in that department as well. Particle Board was serviced, if you recall from Earlier Posts, from the "P-Board" track that ran in from the Yard Lead on the "Back Side", or North, side of Weyerhaeuser.

The "Big Business" from Weyerhaeuser was Doors on the Nekoosa Line side of the Plant. It still is, though none of it moves by Rail anymore.

To continue along the Nekoosa Line side of Weyerhaeuser, the First Spur to pierce the Chain Link Fence that followed along the r-o-w, came off of the Wye "Lead". On the south side of the Weyerhaeuser facility, the east leg of the old wye ran alongside the Nekoosa Line almost to the grade crossing at East 4th Street, about 6 carlengths west of that Crossing. The Wye Lead was quite long...the Wye itself did not begin curving through the Roddis/Weyerhaeuser Property until it was very close to Second Street/Palmetto Avenue! During Lake States, there were ex-Milwaukee Road cars stuffed in on the Wye Lead, and I believe they had some 10 cars stored on it, from end to end. However, these cars were all of varying lengths---one was an 89' Auto Rack!

The first Spur into Weyerhaeuser off of the Wye Lead was the "Lumber Track", where carloads of Lumber were unloaded for use as Door Rails. Roddis had originally Cut his own Lumber for this purpose, but closed the Sawmill Portion about 1966 and began buying ready-cut lumber instead----from Weyerhaeuser Timber Corp. (gee, go figure)!! Many of the Sheds and quite a lot of the Sawmill equipment lay unused outdoors into the 1980's. This spur possibly held three cars, and was a daily switch until Weyerhaeuser began switching over to other materials for Door Rails in 1983. Whomever it was on this list that announced plans to model the Third Sub including Marshfield, feel quite free to build as many Jaeger Wrapped Lumber Load Kits, with "Weyerhaeuser" on the wrappers, as you can stand assembling, and place them piled on the ground near this spur------that was, for MANY years, all you saw sitting there!! It wasn't until the late 1970's that Weyerhaeuser began purchasing Lumber from Competing Concerns for their use as Door Rails. There were also piles of unwrapped lumber sitting here as well.

Where the Wye Lead connected to the Nekoosa Main, the spur to the Door Plant left the lead just before it connected with the Nekoosa Line and eventually this spur led indoors. This track was called "The Hump". Just before diving indoors Hump spilt into to side-by-side tracks separated by a wide Concrete Dock between tracks. Before enclosing the Hump in the 1960's, these tracks were open air. Inside, there was room between the tracks on that Concrete Dock for Fork Trucks to move freely about. The Hump held 8 cars, four on each track. Both tracks were normally FULL.

Weyerhaeuser loaded out 8 cars of finished doors PER DAY. In fact, if all the spurs servicing Weyerhaeuser were receiving Empties or Loads, Wyerhaeuser could do THIRTY CARS by themselves PER DAY!!! It seldomly happened that way, but there was enough to do for Weyerhaeuser it kept the Soo Line busy!

Alas, Soo lost the Outbound Door business about 1983---but through no fault of their own, I'm quite happy to report. I was fortunate to befriend Don Borgen, who worked in the Sales Office at Weyerhaeuser here in Marshfield. Weyerhaeuser was *Very* happy with the Soo's service. But, Weyerhaeuser wasn't happy with they way their loads were handled once the loaded cars left the Soo's possession! Weyerhaeuser's Market for Finished Doors was predominantly on the West Coast of the U.S. Hence, these cars had to travel Wetswards to Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego, to name the four spots where the Door Market was. IF a carload had only taken 14 to 18 days to travel from Marshfield to one of the aforementioned Markets, Today's Wisconsin Central may still have the Door Business, but two of the Biggest railroads in the Nation, Burlington Northern and Union Pacific, couldn't have cared LESS about a Carload of Doors from Wisconsin. In fact, there are more horror stories about what happened to Weyerhaeuser's cars once off the Soo than I care to recount here for you! In most cases, it took up to ONE MONTH or MORE to get a car from Chicago to the West Coast. Weyerhaeuser simply couldn't live with that, so in 1983 they simply quit shipping finished doors by Rail. Today, the Hump no longer exists. It is a Truck Dock now.

If you are familiar with Marshfield, there was a Reason why the Fire Department located itself at exactly mid-way between Central Avenue and Weyerhaeuser: I'm old enough to remember the MFD making two or three trips to Weyerhaeuser PER DAY to extinguish the Multitude of fires this place had! This all started during the Roddis tenure; with the necessity of working in Wood and the Sawdust By-product, coupled with a Suction/Ventliating system that was never able to quite to the job asked of it, resulted in MFD making quite a few trips to Weyerhaeuser well into 1973. Consequent changes in technology have all-but rendered the Daily Trip by the Fire department sotr of obsolete in this day and age.

Still, Marshfield wouldn't be Marshfield to 1973 without a Soo Line Alco RS-1 Switching the Hump or Mudhole and the very familiar sight of the usual three MFD Fire Trucks screaming in through the Gate at Weyerhaeuser to attend to a fire!

Lower 1 & Lower 2 connected back to the Nekoosa Line at the foot of East 4th Street, and just to the East, across 4th Street, the Spur into Slivaplex and "The Mudhole" left the Nekoosa Line to head in alongside and between Weyerhaeuser's buildings. "Silvaplex/Mudhole" crossed east 4th Street and curved sharply in to the Northeast. Inside the Plant Gate, this Spur crossed the Road inside the Plant Grounds. At the foot of the crossing was the Silvaplex Spur, which took the track straight alongside the Molded Products/Slivaplex building. The Silvaplex Spur was only about three cars long. At the very end of this Spur Weyerhaeuser loaded out carload Sanderdust----NOT Sawdust---*VERY* Fine Sander particles. At first, Sanderdust was loaded out in regular Soo Line 40' Box Cars. Later, around 1980, this commodity was loaded into Covered Hopper Cars. Ahead of the Dust Loading were two dock doors for Silvaplex. Generally, Silvaplex got in Mechanical Refrigerator cars carrying Resins...which had to be kept at a constant temperature. It looked funny, though, to see a Santa Fe, Western Fruit Expess, PFE, Fruit Growers Express, Milwaukee Road or Soo Line Mechanical sitting alongside a Wood Working Facility! Silvaplex loaded out about two cars per day, as well, always in Insulated Box Cars---usually the product was back-loaded in the Reefer that had come in loaded with Resins.

Mudhole broke off next to the Slivaplex Plant and ran up alongside Silvaplex. Midway back, Mudhole split into two tracks going back into the Unloading Area. About 4 cars fit in there, two on each track. Here, on the Mudhole Tracks, Weyerhaeuser got in Tank Cars of Resins and Formaldihyde, and Covered Hopper Cars of Lime and Vermiculite. Weyerhaeuser always got in more Vermiculite than they needed at one time, and so has always had cars waiting to get in to unload. In so doing, Weyerhaeuser burned up whatever Credits they had built up on the Demurage Books because the Vermiculite cars sat so damn long. Today, only Vermiculite is hauled in, now. The Formaldihyde cars came to an end when Weyerhaeuser succumbed to Clean Air Standards about 1984. The Lime cars disappeared about the same time, as well.

These tracks into Weyerhaeuser were a Daily Switch for the Switch Engine, and, it was said ruefully around the Marshfield Depot, if you can't find the Switch Engine anywhere else, just look at Weyerhaeuser, 'cause that's where they'll be.

When Switching Weyerhaeuser, the Switch Engine used Lower 1 & Lower 2 as a kind of Classification Yard, as they switched out cars going back to the C&NW and switched out cars in the order they wanted them for spotting, because you almost always had a car or two that had to be respotted. The Switch Crew used Lower 1 & Lower 2 to put their "Jaunt" going out to work the Industrial Park together here, as well.

It is a fond memory of mine of having watched the Switch Engine heading out to do the Work at the Industrial Park; 4 Box Cars being shoved in front of the Locomotive---the Hub City Cars---the Locomotive, Alco RS-1 # 350, and 12 cars being dragged behind, cars for Wicks Frame Shop, Johns-Mannville, Graham Manufacturing and Phillips Industries. You could put almost any 4-axled Locomotive in that "Sandwich", from SW-9's or 1200's on up to the GP-40's.

We leave Weyerhaeuser and Lower 1 & Lower 2 and head South Sotheast now, climbing a very noticable grade to Eastmar, the Junction of the C&NW and the Soo. Eastmar was the Beginning of Trackage Rights for the C&NW on the Soo to Nekoosa Line MP 10, where it switched to the Soo having Trackage Rights on the C&NW. Eastmar was a a simple crossover between the Soo & the C&NW, that cut through the earthen wall between the Soo & the C&NW. At Eastmar, the Soo Line r-o-w was much higher than the C&NW was, so Eastmar ran downgrade to the C&NW. Here, the Nekoosa Line showed itself for what it was, a hastily-built Branch Line, with a "leapity-dip" profile.

In fact, from the Nekoosa Line Junction Switch on the Main Line, the Nekoosa Line was down grade just about all the way to just short of East 4th Street. If you stood at Wisconsin Prepackaged Cheese Co.'s Switch and looked southeast down the Nekoosa Line, you could tell very noticably that the Grade Bottomed out just before Lower 1 & Lower 2 joined the Nekoosa Main just before the Street. From there to Eastmar the Nekoosa Line climbed quite Noticably, crested and then began another long fall to Hume Avenue, not quite to New Eastmar. After Hume Avenue the Nekoosa Line again climbed very noticably up to County Highway ' A ', then the line began falling downgrade to about MP 3, where it once again climbed up over another hill. That was the way the Nekoosa Line was, a Roller Coaster profile all the way to Westrap---Wisconsin Rapids, if you prefer.

A long # 26 fought like Hell getting OUT of Marshfield just as a returning # 27 worked to get back IN. This was why the F-Unit made such an indelible impression on me.

About a Carlength after the switch at Eastmar (the bastardization of "EAST MARshfield"), came the spur into David Lumber/Automated Products. David Lumber relocated along the Nekoosa Line sometime in 1966 from their old location near today's V&H Automotive on the far south side of Marshfield. Where David Lumber's old Building & Lumber shed were, it is now an employee parking lot for V&H. David is the longest-lived of any Lumber Yard in Marshfield. Others have come and gone, but David is still with us!

Since David Lumber is located in such a place I can't tell you just how much traffic they gave to the Soo Line. I don't recall them receiving a lot......maybe a car per month, if even that. The big Customer is located right next door along the same spur, Automated Products, a Rafter Manufacturing Plant. Automated does three cars PER DAY with the WC today, but going back 20 or more years I don't recall them being a big Customer of the Soo or the C&NW.

Significant is the fact that since the C&NW's Trackage Rights over the Soo began at Eastmar, now everything along the Nekoosa Line to East 29th Street came under a Recipricol Switching Agreement! This included David Lumber and Automated Products, since they were both located East of Eastmar itself. I'm to understand the C&NW filed a motion with the ICC to effect this arrangement, which the Soo Line, of course, fought. The City of Marshfield backed the C&NW's plaint, using the notion that having two Railroads would spur Growth in their Industrial Park---which it did, kind of. I'll be getting to that shortly. Of course, the ICC backed the C&NW, and from 1969 until the C&NW Abandioned out of Marshfield the Switching from Eastmar to the Industrial Park was divided equally between the Soo & the C&NW.

After cresting the grade at Eastmar, the Nekoosa Line dropped below the C&NW next door---the C&NW's New Yard, was located along the Soo on this stretch, and was installed about the same time the Soo Line built their own New Yard over behind Weyerhaeuser. Because of the earthen wall (Really an Embankment, but the steepness of the sides of said embankment tended to make it resemble a Wall of sorts) between the two Railroads and a healthy amount of trees and high weeds, Soo & C&NW couldn't see one too much of one another! The C&NW installed a 4-track Yard at this Location, although, I suppose, one could say it was a 5-track affair. Old Maps show the C&NW installed a short Lead to the east to effect allowing an Engine the ability to get off it's train and back through the Yard. This lead was later extended to rejoin the Soo Line at MP 2, creating what I named "New Eastmar", and the Third Connection between the two roads.

Interestingly, the East End of the C&NW's New Yard was where the C&NW Yard Crew VASTLY preferred to do their Switching work on a Train. On the West End, the C&NW had a LLLLLLOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG Lead Track which came back onto their Main Line at East 4th Street. Problem was, if working on the West End it required the C&NW Engine to pull allllllll the way down the Lead, over East 4th Street, and then switch out the cars for storage, classification, whatever they were doing at the time, on the Main. This, like the Soo Switching Mudhole, blocked the Street----and East 4th Street is a Busy main thoroughfare. Hence, the C&NW Crews preferred the *Much secluded* East End of their Yard.......and they could switch cars onto the Main without too much difficulty!

C&NW's New Yard was, at best, Rudimentary----and that's putting it nicely on my part, no kidding. No Yard Lights, and, until 1969, no Yard Office, either! Still, I like to recall the C&NW, if for no other reason, because they had some Locomotives you'd never expect to see on the likes of the Soo Line. The rarities made the C&NW in Marshfield worth watching!

I can't tell you the Capacity of the C&NW's Yard, but I have always guessed it to be about the same as the Soo's New Yard. The track Lengths appeared to be about the same, my best guess being that the C&NW's New Yard held somewhere between 35 to 40 cars per track. I may be a bit short on that figure.

And now, Back to our Regularily Scheduled SOO LINE Program. Sorry for the detour off onto the C&NW, but they were right beside the Soo along the Nekoosa Line....it's kinda hard to ignore them.

About 8 car lengths after crossing Hume Avenue was the Hub City Spur which ran inside Hub City Food's New Warehouse, opened in 1972 or so. This spur curved away to direct North. At the mid point, another Spur left the Hub City Spur and curved away to the Northwest. Other Industry was *supposed-Planned* to locate along this spur, except, but for a few Switching Movements while switching Hub City, this spur has never had an Industry located on it. Hub City's Spur continued on towards the Building. It left the Lead and ran in to Hub City's Warehouse. As of this writing, the track still goes into Hub City (Now Fleming Corp.) and the Roll Up Door is still there, but both are inoperable. The Spur is cemented over inside, and there are NO plans to ever have Rail Service here again---at least, not in our lifetimes, anyway.

Hub City, in their old Facility downtown, was a Captive Soo Line Customer. Once they moved into their New Building in the Industrial Park, Hub City fell under the Recipricol Switching Agreements and was able to be serviced directly by the C&NW. In one of those Queer Twists of fate, Hub City began using the C&NW more & more. They gave the C&NW the Haul on Carloads of Bagged Sugar, since the C&NW served East St. Louis, where the Distributor Hub City purchased Sugar from was Located.

In the beginning, Hub City had to be Switched twice per day be each Railroad. The Soo would go out early in the Morning, around 7:00 a.m. or so, before # 26 would leave, and give Hub City their first Switch. They would give Hub City their Second Switch in the Early Afternoon. On the C&NW's days to Switch Hub City and the Industrial Park, the C&NW would do the same, but slightly earlier in later years, about 5:00 a.m., and give them their Second Switch about 7:00 p.m.

Alas, Hub City began getting disechanted with Rail service due to the High amount of Damage they kept suffering with, which got worse each year, along with lengthened transit times. Hub City was an early---and WILLING---convert to "Just In Time" Warehousing, using their own fleet of Semi's. About a year after the C&NW Abandoned out of Marshfield, Hub City Concluded Rail Service entirely.

Hub City was a bit Miffed about their inability to get another rail spur installed to their proposed Freezer Addition, as the C&NW couldn't have cared less about that kind of Business at that point and the Soo wanted NOTHING to do with Frozen Food Carloads---I suppose the very idea of Damage Claims Department literally FRETTED over the Company having to shell out $$$$ for a Spolied Load, since Frozen carries a High Transit Insurance Rate on it.

Considering that with each passing year the Soo was forced to Buy Back Damaged Loads from Hub City, the Soo probably wasn't too unhappy to lose Hub City's Business. Hard, though, for me to have watched a Customer that received 30+ car loads per week dwindle down to Nothing.

Coming back out to the Nekoosa Line, the the Line ran behind the North Wood County Hospital---our "famed" Mental Insitution, "Norwood". Somewhere behind the Old Facility---a New "Funny Farm" was built on the North Side of Marshfield in 1974---in the days of Steam there had been a Flag Stop station out here, but, having tramped on foot out here, I cannot find a trace of it. Oh, Yes, both the Soo & the C&NW stopped here to discharge Passengers, probably before WWII. I doubt it was Patients, but Personell working there. This Station was Called "Frisbee"---no, I am NOT kidding, it has no relation to the plastic Disc you throw through the air! This was, whether you want to believe it or not, the NAME of the Head Physician at Norwood County Hospital, Dr. Frisbee. I kid you not.

Then we come to MP 2, and the Third C&NW Connection to the Soo on the Nekoosa Line, what I have always called "New Eastmar". Here the C&NW would leave/re-enter their trackage. This was how I observed their train to Wisconsin Rapids and beyond arrive and depart---I seldomly saw the "old" Eastmar used. The C&NW Switch Job would use Eastmar to get out on the Soo to go out to Switch Hub City and the Industrial Park, sometimes if the C&NW Yard was packed they would scurry through the Palmetto Street Connecting track to get out on the Soo to go out to do their work.

Since the C&NW had to do the same as the Soo putting their Train to Wisconsin Rapids and beyond together---double, triple and quadruple the train together, it made more sense to give them a direct way out onto the Soo instead of having to ape the Soo's back-up move getting the trains out of town.

Not far from "New Eastmar" was the First Lead into the Industrial Park....I doubt the C&NW Connection and the First Lead were three car lengths apart.

The First Lead serviced Three Customers, Dytec, Inc., Wick's Frame Shop, and H&S Manufacturing. I touched on Dytec in an earlier Post (Part 3, I believe). Dytec got in carload Bulk Cement, but I cannot tell you just how much before they succumbed. Not far into the First Lead the "Dytec" spur broke away and ran parallel to the Lead. The Dytec Spur served the Pouring Building of the Dytec Operation. This building still stands. The Lead ran to the Ditch along the foot of Hume Avenue. Back about five carlengths from the End of Track a Short Spur peeled off to service Wick Building Systems Frame Shop. The Frame Shop was a good C&NW Customer---Soo only got in there because of the Recipricol Switching Agreements. Frame shop got in 3 Covered Gondolas of Steel I-beams per day. Here, the I-beams were Cut to the size needed, Welded into the form of a Mobile Home Frame, Painted, and had Axles & Wheels installed. The Frame Shop was closed right around 1979, and sat empty until 1998, when Wick's began building Mobile Home Frames once again.

But, Today they truck in all the Steel Shapes they need, pre-cut.

Now, with H&S Manufacturing, I've had a lot of Conflicting Information as to whether H&S was actually serviced by the Railroads or not. Some folks say Yes, H&S got in Steel Plate and Steel Channel, others, in particular my ex-Employer from the Bowling Alley I was Employed at Downtown (He was an Accountant for H&S for some 10 years before he purchased the Bowling Alley), told me H&S NEVER did any business with either Railroad, while I have been in contact with those that have been/are/were at one time Employed at H&S that Tell me different. Well.......I recall seeing Covered Gons sitting on the end of the First Lead, that weren't Wick's Frame Shop cars. H&S may have only used the Railroads for a brief Period....I cannot say for sure. Rail service of some sort would have fit into H&S's plans, no doubt about that.....I just wish I could be 100% certain they did do business with the Soo or the C&NW.

About a half-block farther South was the Second Lead into the Industrial Park. Here the Soo & C&NW serviced 4 Customers. Johns-Mannville, Phillips Industries, Dytec/Graham Manufacturing and Alumax, Inc. Johns-Mannville was the Biggest Customer overall, getting in some 15 cars PER DAY of Insulation! And J-M was a SOO Customer---on the C&NW's days to Switch the Industrial Park, J-M would have the Soo spot their cars Uptown along House 1!!! The J-M Track would only fit 4 cars along the building, and, after Dytec went under, one of the Managers of the J-M Plant in Marshfield purchased the Dytec Finished Building and turned it into a Warehouse, where he made a little cash off of his Employer by Unloading J-M's incoming cars and storing the Product in his Building!! Whatever cars couldn't be Spotted at the two buildings were unloaded behind the Freight House. Johns-Mannville got into Leagal Problems in the late 1970's-Early 1980's, emerging as Mannville Corporation. Still a Good Rail Customer, though their volume dropped to around 6 cars per day. When Mannville Corp. exited the Insulation Business about 1983, that was the end of Rail Service to this Building. Mannville became Silvercote, which built a new Facility no where near the Railroad. Figures.The "old" Mannville Facility sat Empty until 1994, when Buffets Limited bought it. Buffets Limited does no business with the Railroad at all, though the Spur is still in, the Dock Doors are removed.

After the Warehouse that Occupied Dytec's Finishing Building moved on, Graham Manufacturing bought the Building and began a Door-finishing Operation here. I Believe Graham came on-line about 1977. They used the Railroads at first, loading out about two cars of Doors per day, into 1980. Graham was subjected to the same intra-trinsit delays Weyerhaeuser experienced with their Door Shipments and concluded Rail service by 1984.

Graham Manufacturing left Marshfield Forever about 1994, moving their Company to Mason City, Iowa. Wick (Marshfield Homes) bought this Facility and moved the Flooring Department and the Drapery Department here. Neither does any Business with the Railroad.

Alumax dealt in Aluminum Siding for Homes---Mobile Homes in Particular although they now specialize in Home Siding as well. Originally, Alumax was located right by the C&NW's Marshfield Depot in a long silver Warehouse Building. Alumax was a good C&NW Customer and remained so after they moved into the Industrial Park in 1973, getting in Box Car Loads of Coiled Aluminum. Again, had it not been for the Switching Agreements, Soo wouldn't have gotten in to serve Alumax.

Alumax used to get in 3 to 4 cars per day, which began to slide until the received Nothing by rail by 1980. They are still in business, but now as Amerimax, and they now deal in Steel Siding as well.

Lastly is Phillips Industries, a Mobile Home Hardware Supplier. Originally, Phillips was located in the Old Marshfield Brewery----along the Chicago & North Western Eland Line well north of the Soo Line. Phillips moved into the Industrial Park about 1974. They dealt in Mobile Home items, the most conspicous being Mobile Home Axles and Wheel Rims. So long as the Housing Market for Mobile Homes remained stable, Phillips remained in Business. Phillips supplied Mobile Home Plants in Spencer, Dorchester, etc. on down the line. One by one these companies began closing their doors, and Phillips Industries closed up forever about 1981. Their Building was sold to Figi's, Inc., which bases the Mailing Operations out of there today (Junk Mail--the stuff you get advertising some idiot trinket).

As of the writing of this piece, all the Buildings mentioned are still in use, with their Rail Spurs in place yet, but NONE do any business with today's Wisconsin Central. *sigh*

Atop the Crossing with East 29th Street was the Frisbee Spur---yes, named after the Doctor of Norwood County Hospital Fame well within sight of this spur. Supposedly, when the Mental Insitution's boilers were still coal fired, Carloads of Coal were unloaded on the Spur. In 1970, Marshfield Lumber Company Located *Near* the Frisbee Spur, and received numerous carloads of Lumber. (Some of the Banding still laysout here in a rusting pile). Marshfield Lumber had moved out to this location from their old Noll Hardware Warehouse next to the Main Line near the Depot downtown. Marshfield Lumber sold out to another concern about 1973-74....but for the life of me a Cannot recall the name of the Concern that operated it! Around 1980 this firm sold out to Kindt (of Spur 145 fame below Lomira, Wis.) and they, in turn, sold out to Wickes Lumber about 1988. Wickes still operates this Store, but does no business with the Railroad. Occasionally, if Marshfield Homes gets Their Lumber in on a Centerbeam Flat Car, the WC will spot the car out on Frisbee so "The Homes" can get access to both sides of the car, something they cannot do at their current spur.

C&NW had NO access to Frisbee. Frisbee remained strictly Soo Line served until the end of the C&NW. I have the Metal Sign the Soo erected not very far from the Frisbee Switch that demoted the demarkation line of Recipricol Switching: SWITCHING LIMITS

Cars or Rail were spotted on Frisbee for unloading, as the Nekoosa Line Section Crew stoockpiled track parts here----some of it still lays there along the Frisbee Spur yet. Occasional MOW Box Cars were left out on Frisbee for Storage or unloading. Essentially, since about 1977, not too much has been left on Frisbee although it still remains.

That brings us to Spur N-283, the Mid State Oil Company Spur, at the Foot of Highway 10. Mid State Oil came on line about 1965, and were strictly a Soo Line Customer as well. Mid State got in about three Tank Car loads of home heating oil per week, average. Interestingly, # 26 had to stop---on the middle of the grade leading up over highway 10---to Switch Mid State Oil Company. This was never switched by the Marshfield Switch Engine. That brough about some sulferous complaints from the Train Crew of having to halt their southeastward progress, only 3 miles out of Marshfield (technically not really out of Marshfield) to Switch Mid State Oil. Yet, they did enough business with the Railroad the Soo couldn't ignore them, either! Soo continued to service Mid State Oil until there was a derailment over highway 10 about 1973--caused by a Vehicular encounter with a C&NW Train occupying that Crossing. (Trainmen HATED having to flag the Highway 10 crossing--there were no gates here, and no Lights installed until 1975) In one of those odd twists of fate, after this derailment, which tore up the Switch, neither the Soo Line OR the C&NW bothered to replace what had been damaged in the mishap. The Switch was Straight Railed and forgotten. Ironically, about 1977, the Soo Line contacted Mid State Oil and asked them WHY they had abruptly stopped receiving Rail Shipments! The Manager replied that since June of 1973, the Soo had not bothered to repair the Switch to the spur on his Property, so he had been unable to do any business with the Railroad---even after NUMEROUS requests on his part to get the Spur Repaired! Needless to say, Mid State Oil found "Other Means" to get their Fuel Oil in, a.k.a., TRUCKS. End of THAT inquiry.

And that is the Finish. I hope I have shed light on the Various Industries the Soo Line serviced in Marshfield, and I hope you found this Interesting as well. Sorry it took so long to Post it all---our Train Club has a New Clubhouse, so I've been busy with that, plus it's the Christmas Season, so I've been working long hours at my Employment. 'Course, there is a bright side. As long as these posts have been, my slowness getting them out has provided everyone an opportunity to get them read before the next installment came along.

Keith Meacham