Green Bay, Wisconsin Rapids, Plover, and Stevens Point WI Railroads, 90s

More from my early 90s railroad videos, this time I am all over central and eastern Wisconsin. In the early 90s my railfanning friend and I were on a quest to find Alcos, and there was no better place to see them close to us than the Green Bay and Western, so we packed up my S10 and headed off to Green Bay.
Green Bay was a really neat place to see trains in the 90s, there were three railroads operating out of three yard that were just blocks from each other. The Green Bay and Western was a target but seeing all the Wisconsin Central unpainted (or un-repainted) power was worth some video tape. The WC had a yard in town which had a diamond crossing on the yard lead with the Fox River Valley railroad (ex-CNW).
Speaking of the Fox River Valley railroad, they were operating all the old CNW tracks with a bunch of old CNW geeps, notably were a fleet of GP-30s. The FRV was only two years old when we saw it and non of the locomotives were filmed were painted in FRV colors. Two surprises were a pair of high hood geeps working the yard, one in DT&I paint and the other in Central Vermont, no patch work to either.
The big game in town was the GB&W and we tried to not get distracted and focus on filming them as much as possible. The first stop was Norwood yard in downtown Green Bay. If there ever was a "Vest Pocket" yard it was Norwood. The yard was packed into a neighbor hood, with road crossings on the yard leads for what seemed like every block, what a pain it must have been for both the railroad and the residents trying to drive across the tracks. Norwood had a turntable, a wye, and a tall old grain elevator (in the center of the wye).
The wye at Norwood had one track that headed due north to a small yard called McDonald yard. I believe that McDonald yard was used to supply cars for the Kewaunee line, which supplies cars for the lake Michigan car ferries.
I made several trips to Green Bay between 1990 and 1993, filming mostly around Green Bay. Some train chases took us to some of the surrounding areas to watch some fine Alco smoking, I mean switching at some industrial areas.
Along with Green Bay I also made some shorter trips to the middle of Wisconsin where the GBW had another yard. About midway along the GBW mainline to Minnesota was a couple small yards, one in Wisconsin Rapids and one in nearby Plover. Wisconsin Rapids was a nice "day trip" for me so I went there a few times, some in the winter and some in the summer. Wisconsin Rapids was right next to Stevens Point, which was a big yard on the Wisconsin Central. Strangely enough i never really went to the WC yard to film.
There was also some other non-GBW Alco action near Wisconsin rapids in the town of Nekoosa. A paper mill had some nice S6 locomotive with an attractive blue and yellow paint scheme.
Again, this is a lot of video tape, lots of full run-byes, and lots of switching. Normally I would edit a lot of this out but I decided to leave it all in. Sorry if it gets long but a lot of this stuff is all gone. Actually all three railroads are gone and a lot of the tracks in these videos are gone.

[@kennethphillips318]

It’s amazing to see actual switching operations. A lot of other productions focus on road trains and a little switching. The GBW was a shortline that had a lot of switching and a few road operations. Someone else posted the Boat train and other switching as from the mid 80’s. I really appreciate your guys efforts in bringing the GBW to a much better realistic light. The few books are amazing and being able to visualize the pictures in physical video format really makes my day.

[@crownironman]

Thanks, glad you liked it.

[@lawrencejneuser8801]

I used to live three blocks from there.

[@osrr6422]

Was NOT expecting the former DT&I GP9 there at the begining.

[@BadgerlandRailVideos]

Thanks for sharing this treasure trove of footage. I just went to Wisconsin Rapids for the first time at the end of last month, caught the CN local pulling from the Biron mill and the other one that heads up the ex-MILW Valley Line to Wausau (where now they interchange with the FOXY and head back).

[@canadiannational_3069]

Awesome! I subscribed to you because you have awesome videos.

[@officialpanasonic6244]

Hey thanks for uploading this, shame to see what has become of Green Bays rail infrastructure, the yard by Ashland Ave is long gone :(

[@garysprandel1817]

Remember catching a Wisconsin Central freight coming south through Desplaines Illinois shortly after the FRV got Borged by WC with a funeral cut of FRV,GBW and some of WC's oddball power. Included was those former CNW 30s.

[@revolp69]

Where do i begin....30 yrs later and plover is almost the exact same....now point is sooooo different! The line on wood st is LONG GONE but that white house is still there 😄 the part where the engine is right next to the building is gone they expanded the mill yrs ago it'd be a few hundred feet inside now

[@beckerstruckinginc617]

That RS20 has quite a bark!

[@jmannelson8206]

Thank you for posting. I had family in rapids and nekoosa and spent many hours as a youth watching trains in both locations. Nice to see some video of the way it was back then.

[@karlreinke]

Man. The sound of that turbo on The Nekoosa Paper switcher at 1:46:00. I miss that engine and the SWs that replaced it. They have two BORING Shuttle Wagon car movers there today.

[@crownironman]

Yes, that those switchers sure had a sound all their own

[@25mfd]

@ 54:23... "finding alcos was pretty easy, just look for the smoke"... yea don't rob a bank using that as your getaway vehicle

[@chriswarner126]

Is this a no horn zone?

[@Jjj-uu1sc]

I doubt it existed in the 1980s.