Amherst Junction

Took a one-day train watching trip to the Amherst, Wisconsin, area, about 13 miles east of where I live. These pictures are from a week ago, mid-June.

And along the way, I saw this Maintenance truck. They work on a Saturday.

Then at the Custer house track was this 'nifty' load of rocks. A local fellow (who parked his bicycle alongside the gon) said a truck with a log loader boom topped off a load last evening.
I wonder how heavy a car would scale?

On to Amherst Junction. For the un-aware, Amherst Junction is a mile or so northwest of Amherst, Wisconsin. The Soo Line crossed under the Green Bay and Western

Tomorrow River Trail is the ex-Green Bay and Western RR R-O-W from Amherst Junction west to Plover.
Bicycling, hiking, snowmobiling on crushed limestone surface. Horse riding alongside on mowed trail in 'ditch'.
Also, somewhere east of here they are working on more of it. Maybe get to Green Bay in a few years?
But I didn't look to see how they get around the mile of GBW track that still remains in Amherst Junction, that serves a farm co-operative.

Very handy trail parking lot is in Amherst Junction next to Main Street and adjacent to the old 'crossing' / underpass.

Looking west from the trail parking lot, with all the telephoto I got, plus some cropping / stretching, and 32 feet of pole cam in the air, is the current junction where the WC comes uphill to connect with the old GBW tracks
I think this is new track laid when the GBW was abandonned, because in the 'old days' there was no interchange at Amherst Junction.

And the new 4-lane US highway 10 bridge is under construction. It will bypass to west of Amherst and Amherst Junction.

My crude map, not to scale, no details

Looking east at the dark hole of the RR underpass. Main Street is on top. And the GBW was, too.
Track on left is that uphill track, swinging onto alignment of ex-GBW track.

Looking west at the 'crossing', and the start of the Tomorrow River Trail (ex GBW) . I drew a yellow line showing where the WC crosses underneath for about 150'. Fences separate the sidewalks from the top of the portals.

Backing up a little, and still looking west at the trail, is WC connecting track curving onto existing original GBW main. Even has a mile marker. That should be 69 miles west of Green Bay. Plus 62 hundredths of a mile?
And was that two-level depot just to the left of this picture / east of the crossing?

Potato warehouse?

Looking east up the ex-GBW main. Warehouse spur on the left and behind me.
In the distance is the bridge over US 10, also seen in next picture.

GBW bridge over US highway 10. Painted-out GBW name rectangle in middle. Pole camera picture.

Farm co-operative spur on east side of Amherst Junction.

That's the end of that series of pictures. Now let's go back to the crossing area.

Looking .... east .......... and ..... west from Main Street and overpass
I saw trains every half-hour until 1pm. They are very fast and surprisingly quiet. From the west I could hear the horn for a road crossing, but saw the headlights before I could hear the engines. Noisy truck traffic on US Highway 10 nearby can be misleading, too.
From the east, I could hear the train with only 10 seconds notice. Maybe the trees in the cut muffle the sound. Speeds were fast, over 60.
Trees are growing tall on the south / southwest side of the tracks. Best sunlight for pictures is in the morning. Mostly get 'headlight view' because trees crowd the sides of the tracks.

Looking at west portal.
Like a tight squeeze on a model railroad, the roof is very thin, just enough to get under the GBW and street.
I wonder if this is a restriction on the maximum width for over-size loads. It looks narrower than some bridges. But it can't be too bad, because the Soo Line from Milwaukee area to Ashland allowed wider loads to Michigan's Upper Peninsula mine country than the CNW direct route north of Green Bay.

Better 3/4 view of whole trains that include Wisconsin country-side scenes is easier from town roads accessible from the east side of US 10.

Leaving Amherst Junction, and traveling a mile east to Amherst, where there are three concrete bridges. One seen here.
Another spot with 10 seconds warning that a train is coming. I wanted a picture at this bridge, barely got the camera turned on, overexposed it terribly (I haven't shown it here), and then said to myself, at those speeds this is way too close to stand.

Ditch work between main line and a town road, two miles east of Amherst, about milepost 231. Pole camera picture. So I'm standing in a dip in the road just to get a track-level picture.....?

Found a little 4-inch bottle in all that old dirt pushed up alongside the grass.
I'll have to watch antique shows on tv to see how old it is.

Last train I saw before going home, the eastbound Waupaca or Weyauwega turn. They occupy the main from Stevens Point to Waupaca from about 1:30 til 3pm every day.
Mighty short today. An Illinois Central gp 40, one boxcar, and one gon of scrap iron.
A railfan from Madison was here also. He came up for the Waupaca Strawberry Fest model RR show, and was spending some time in the area. Also saw one other old railroad buff (no camera) earlier in the day.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I put one photo on www.railpictures site. Surprised that I could get enough quality at these train speeds. I pre-set the camera and then tripped too early or late (digital delay can get interesting...) and had to crop the picture for better framing, using only half the real image. At these train speeds, 35 mm at high shutter speeds is nice.
(viewed 100 times before I made this link:) Train coming to Amherst Junction
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ To avoid a little spam, I will display my mail address this way, and you'll have to copy and paste it into the e-mail. And Remove the X at the front. Xbbokrlwy@coredcs.com

Back to My Main Page, Bruce's RailRoad Pictures

Wrote June 20, 21, 25 2004