The Flickr Greenbaywestern Image Generatr

Originally built for the Santa Fe, this trio of RSD15s hauled countless tonnage for their original owners, and eventually several regional railroads in the upper midwest - the Lake Superior & Ishpeming, Fox River Valley Railroad and the Green Bay & Western. These units were on property when Wisconsin Central acquired the GBW and a couple were relettered but few saw serious running time before being scrapped.

Paul Hunnell took this photo in Green Bay on June 21, 1992.

1929 Alco 2-8-0 sitting outside the enginehouse at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum.

This is the only surviving steam locomotive of the Green Bay Route, merged into Wisconsin Central in 1993. In the 1940s, No. 350 was hauling the local freight between Winona and Wisconsin Rapids.

In 1950, it was sold to Consolidated Water Power and Paper Company in Wisconsin Rapids. In 1957, it was donated to the city of Wisconsin Rapids for display in the municipal zoo. Pennies donated by school children paid for its painting and display costs. By 1981, the locomotive was no longer wanted; Wisconsin Rapids donated No. 350 to Mid-Continent where it remains on static display. It has been repainted and renumbered to No. 49, it original number when it was delivered to the Kewaunee Green Bay & Western back in 1929.

1955 dome lounge car, Trempealeau Rver, was part of the consist of the MILW 261 steam excursion, Chocolate City Express.

Orginally, as UP #9001, it was assigned to the City of Los Angeles; sold in 1972 to the Auto Train Corporation as #901, sold at the 1981 auction to Merrill Ervin (Kankakee, IL) as the Cross Lake, later resold to the Green Bay & Western where it was repainted and given the name Tempealeau River, later to the Fox Valley Western-Wisconsin Central, then to the Algoma Central, reconfigured as a dome coach and renamed Algoma Country.

The Trempealeau River (pronounced TREM-puh-lo, from the French trempe à l'eau, dip in water) is an 81.5-mile-long (131.2 km) tributary of the Mississippi River, just downstream from Winona MN, in the Driftless Area of western Wisconsin in the United States

Green Bay & Western boxcar #7577 sits in the interchange track on the TP&W side on November 2nd, 1985. This was set out by a Santa Fe freight train earlier in the week and would be picked up by Milwaukee northbound train #201 the following day. View is looking S/S/W with US 52/24 in the foreground.

I've never been much of a student of true roster shots and this one is probably a bit too "nosey" by those standards. However, if a shot is to be nosey what better model for it than an alligator.

At the top of my list for must sees was this RSD-15. Better late than never, this one was always a step ahead of me. It was part of LS&I's eclectic fleet that would catch my attention during visits to Marquette, MI as a kid. By the time I made it back with a camera and a visitor's pass, the ALCos had been off the property for 2 years. They had gone south to the Fox River Valley Railroad and saw limited use. After college I moved to Wisconsin for work. By then the FRV and GB&W were gone and the alligators long parked. Still looking, I went up to Green Bay only to find a pile of scrap with LS&I red on the pieces where the locomotives met their fate.

The old LS&I 2402 (renumbered by FRV to avoid a numbering conflict with an SD24) had escaped the torch and found safety here at IRM. It's a little amusing that on a roster as modest as that of the FRV they still ended up with number conflicts. The unit ended up with GBW reporting marks but didn't see service on that ALCo bastion.

2407 had been used for visitors who had paid to try their hand at running a locomotive that morning, so I got to enjoy the sights and sounds of this beast. It took the afternoon off and was here on display once the afternoon sun swung around for a proper picture, 35 years in the making. August 10, 2024.

Green Bay & Western train 2 crosses a bridge parallel to a dam on the Black River that forms Lake Arbutus at Hatfield, Wisconsin, on December 5, 1992. The train is pulled by a quartet of GB&W Alco C424 locomotives—Nos. 312, 311, 320 and 314.

It's the Illinois Railway Museum's annual Diesel Days event, and on this Saturday the mainline trains were running primarily with hood units.

Here, GBW 2407 rests on the west side of the museum campus in excellent sunlight.

In August of 1983, the Soo subleased 75 former Green Bay & Western boxcars from ITEL (178882-178956). The lease period was three years from the date reporting marks were changed. This meant that the lease ended for most cars during the end of 1986, after which the McCloud Railway assumed the sublease.

These cars were constructed by American Car & Foundry (ACF) in mid-1979 and had a capacity of 5137 cuft. Roger Habek caught an example of one in La Grange, Il on July 15, 1984.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range power would often be leased to midwestern roads. This includes the Soo Line, Chicago & Northwestern, Burlington Northern and...the Green Bay & Western? Apparently so, as this image conveys.

No notes were included on the mount so I'm not sure if SD9 #156 was on lease to the GB&W or another road having ended up in Northern Wisconsin. Photo taken in Green Bay on September 12, 1987 by Larry Nast.

This was my first and only time visiting the storied location of the GB&W's Norwood Yard on Green Bay's west side. It was an appropriately cloudy day and the silence was eerie. I'm sad that I couldn't have seen this place in its glory years with Alco's going to and fro, building trains and taking spins on the turntable. Nothing remains here except two tracks. Not even the classic herald painted on the silos remains.

Green Bay & Western train 2 crosses the Wisconsin River at Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, on the afternoon of October 3, 1992. The Badger State is known for its paper production, and a large paper plant looms behind the eastbound train.

Weather was abysmal, but the at least the subject is rare and worthy. Green Bay & Western Alco RS3 (RS3u) No. 308 leads three Fox River Valley Railroad Geeps on a northbound freight departing North Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, on April 29, 1989. At this point, both railroads were owned Itel Corporation, but locomotives didn’t frequent each others home road in practice, making this event pretty unusual. Moreover, GB&W’s RS3s spent almost all of their time in yards and on locals, not leading road freights.

Green Bay & Western Alco RS3 (RS3u) No. 308 leads a northbound Fox River Valley Railroad freight departing North Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, on a gray April 29, 1989. In the background and also crossing Lakeshore Drive grade crossing is a Wisconsin Central switch job drilling cars in their yard.

Westbound Green Bay & Western 312 is in the siding at Oneida, Wis. at dusk on Aug. 9, 1989 waiting for the eastbound to pass. Located seven miles west of Green Bay, this section of former GB&W track is now abandoned.

Green Bay & Western RS3 306 in Green Bay on Aug. 10, 1989. The 306 was rebuilt to RS-20 specs in 1976 and was eventually sold to another shortline and later scrapped.

Green Bay & Western C424s 322, 320, RS-27s 318, 316, and RS-11 309 near Seymour, Wisconsin, late in the day on June 13, 1991.

Green Bay & Western RS3M switching in Norwood Yard in Green Bay on Sept. 6, 1988. Built in 1951, rebuilt to RS-20 specs in 1973. Currently owned by the Gopher State Railway Museum.

Green Bay & Western C424 319 next to the Plover, Wisconsin yard office on June 17, 1991. The engine was built in 1963 and sold to the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville Railroad in 2001.

Green Bay & Western C424 313 on the Plover River trestle in Whiting, WI on Aug. 3, 1989. Built in 1965, the engine was sold to Minnesota Commercial in 1993.

As Green Bay & Western Alco RS11u No. 309 makes its next move, a switchman carefully checks his paperwork to make sure nothing is overlooked at GB&W’s Norwood Yard in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on August 31, 1985.