OMAHA – Union Pacific will spend $6.1 million to upgrade its former Chicago & North Western Shoreline Subdivision between Milwaukee and near Sheboygan, Wis. The project began June 10 and is scheduled for completion by the beginning of September.
The railroad will replace 26 miles of rail, renew the surfaces at 62 road crossings, and replace seven switches.
The project is one of nearly 1,500 that Union Pacific will complete across its 32,000-mile system this year. Union Pacific is spending $3.9 billion on capital projects in 2014, up about $300 million compared with the 2013 capital budget.
UP makes 2-3 coal runs a week to the Sheboygan power plant, and maybe a weekly, and much smaller, run of mixed loads. The Mequon Road crossing was closed on Monday 7/21.
Forget about the Plymouth Line as a UP alternative. It's the WisDoT owned stretch from Saukville to Plymouth that would need a MAJOR rebuild to handle that much coal/heavy traffic. The line from Plymouth to Kohler is taking years longer to rebuild than the original mid-1800s construction. At this point of the summer I'm not expecting much more to be done than the brush, rail, tie, and ballast removal that was done back in April/May.
I see the trains parked at Fondy all the time, but I wasn't sure if Sheboygan was the only destination for those. A few years ago, I caught an empty returning on the Adams sub, so I've wondered where else the parked trains were ultimately headed.
I've always wanted to better understand the details of the coal operations in Wisconsin, so any info would be appreciated.
(Side note – a couple of weeks ago, I was riding my bike on the Skokie Valley trail in Northern Illinois, and I caught a coal train taking the connector between the Milwaukee and Kenosha subs – the trail passes right underneath. I assumed it was heading for Oak Creek until I noticed the ComEd-Waukegan reporting marks).
The coal trains to Sheboygan are quite Often. UP parks the loaded/emptied trains on the "fondy siding" in Milwaukee. As far as other traffic…I'm not sure? A few industries and the WOSR transfer Grandville turn.
How frequently do the coal trains run to Sheboygan? How much other traffic does the Lakeshore sub see?
I check every time I'm up that way, and it's been ages since I've seen any activity.
@Rich: Agree that the line between Plymouth and Sheboygan hasn't been reactivated yet. In late May, I scoped out the construction when passing through the area and they had only done dirt work thus far. How much traffic do you think this line would actually generate? Kohler and Bemis are the only likely customers that comes to mind.
Pretty sure the only thing UP really cares about are the coal trains going to Sheboygan.
@Brett: AFAIK, reactivation between Plymouth and Sheboygan hasn't actually happened yet — at least there's no grade crossing at Hwy 57.
@Susan: CN also recently severed the northern portion of the Shoreline Sub south of Manitowoc as well.
Although a huge effort, U.P. could acquire trackage North of Sheboygan from Canadian National and rail banked WDNR trails to an exclusive intermodal business from Chicago to Green Bay.
They could serve all the class 1's and major trucking firms, although stacked containers may have clearance issues but road railers could solve that.
Anyone this was driven by the State of Wisconsin & WSOR's reactivation of the line between Plymouth and Sheboygan? My understanding is that customers in Sheboygan were unhappy with their service with UP.