Railroading-wise, the Valley changed little, it's everything around it. The Valley has heavier rail on it now versus Milwaukee Road days, and deeper ballast. Our Tax Dollar$ fixed this up, but Wisconsin Central did quite a bit of work in the time they operated/owned the Valley.

The Foremost Plant is out of sight to the left; that's their crossing in the distance.

The buildings in the distance are the Weyerhaeuser/Lignotech Paper Mill in Rothschild. When I go to the Hobby Shop in Rothschild, I pass this area going and coming. I don't quite get to the Paper Mill. Hobby Connection is about 3 blocks south.

One could easily imagine Milwaukee Road A-B-B-A F Units leading this train, a quartet of GP20's, or a set of RS3/RSD5/RSC2 Alco's plodding along at the helm of this train.

At one time, the Mill at Rothschild was owned by Marathon Papers, along with several satillite plants, including at least one mill in Canada. (The Graphic Packaging plant in Wausau was a Marathon Papers "Converting Plant", where they make cardboard bales in to boxes, etc.) For whatever reason, the in-plant switching line was hung with the impressive title of "Marathon Southern". It had only trackage within the paper mill property. The engine was bought new from Electro-Motive in 1960-something.

This is her first Weyerhaeuser scheme. She later got something more corporate-friendly. Today, she wears a Green Bay Packers-inspired (or UNinspired) scheme, complete with the helmut letter ' G ' on her cab.

After American Can left and the Sulfite Mill was sold again, somewhere in the process the in-plant Railroad became the child of Weyerhaeuser once again. I believe the "Marathon Southern" remains a ward of Weyerhaeuser today.