The Local Freight Train

As railfans we consider ourselves lucky to live about a quarter mile from the tracks of the former Chicago & Northwestern line to Madison. In the last few years a small local freight train has been running from West Allis to the New Berlin Industrial Park and on to Waukesha over these tracks. These tracks ran parallel to the old TMERL interuban line to Waukesha which is now a newly paved bike path.

When it first started it came through about once a week and had one old engine and maybe two or three boxcars at most. Now it often comes through at least three times a week, sometimes twice a day, and has usually two engines and up to a dozen freight cars or an occasional tanker.

We've been getting a lot of snow this year in southeastern Wisconsin; certainly more than we've ever seen down here in twenty years of residence in New Berlin. On February 11, 2008 there was fresh snow covering the tracks as the train hadn't been through for several days.

Chuck went up the crossing on Sunnyslope Road after work and filmed the local freight train as it came through the freshly fallen and snowplow packed snow at twilight. The snow seemed deep to a person standing there but the train had no problem pushing the snow.

Here's a short clip of the local freight going slowly through the intersection heading west toward the New Berlin Industrial Park.



Yeah, it's nothing too exciting but it was fun to watch. And during the long winter here in the suburbs of Milwaukee there isn't a lot of railroad action going on so the clip also reflects the desire to get out there and see some trains.