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Fox Valley Corridor - North Fond du Lac to Oshkosh

Workshop Scenarios for This Route


The Fox Valley Corridor is the unofficial name of the railroad route between Milwaukee, WI and Green Bay, WI via the Fox Cities. This TSC route covers approximately 20 miles of the relatively parallel north/south mainlines for the Soo Line (SOO) and Chicago & North Western (CNW) railroads between their rail yards in North Fond du Lac to just north of Oshkosh. It also includes CNW's branch through Oshkosh from Tower CF to its interchange with the Soo Line near the UW Oshkosh campus. The route's era is based sometime between 1970 and 1990.

My goal with this route is to provide myself and my fellow railfans a feel for what the railroad picture was like for me growing up in Oshkosh during the 1980s. The route contains no custom assets and is not 100% accurate, but the feel of this route makes me feel like I am reliving some of my childhood memories. In addition to reliving the past, it also provides some nice rural scenery south of Oshkosh, and provides two instances of street running, including a main line running through people's front yards!

I hope you enjoy the route. Please provide feedback as to what you like and/or dislike about the route. It's my first full route so there are bound to be rookie mistakes. It is currently missing distant scenery for most of the route, but the near scenery is there. If it's enough, please give it a 'LIKE'. Once the route hits 30 LIKES I will consider the route final and will provide scenarios to the Steam Workshop.

Route Map [earth.google.com]

The route uses the following TSC DLC:

• CSX Hanover Subdivision: Hanover - Hagerstown Route Add-On
  
• Clinchfield Railroad: Elkhorn City - St. Paul Route Add-On
  
• The Racetrack: Aurora - Chicago Route Add-On
  
• Stevens Pass Route Add-On
  
• Springfield Line: Springfield – New Haven Route Add-On
  
• Sacramento Northern: Suisun Bay – San Francisco Route Add-On
  
• US Loco & Asset Pack
  
• TS Rewards - Flat Car (Battle For Sherman Hill Collection?)

Oshkosh, WI was built upon its lumber industry in the 19th century. Being at the mouth of the Fox River, lumber shipments could easily travel by boat to various destinations. The rail industry grabbed much of this traffic in the second half of the 19th century. CNW was the first railroad to reach the city, building from Fond du Lac to Oshkosh along what is today's Canadian National (CN) main line. CNW expanded north to Menasha and beyond in the 1860s. The Milwaukee Road (MILW) was the second railroad to enter Oshkosh when it acquired the Oshkosh & Mississippi Railroad in 1872. MILW's route came into Oshkosh from the southwest, crossed the Fox River, and serviced various industries along the north and south banks of the Fox River. The original Wisconsin Central Railroad built its main line from Milwaukee to Menasha in 1873.

The original Wisconsin Central Railroad was leased to the Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (aka the 'old' Soo Line) in 1909. These two railroads were eventually fully consolidated in 1961 to form the 'new' Soo Line Railroad. Shortly after acquiring the Milwaukee Road in 1985, Soo Line attempted to create a new division called Lake States that would operate the Soo Line tracks in northern Wisconsin, including the tracks in Oshkosh. After only a few months the Soo Line put the Lake States plant up for sale. In 1987, the new Wisconsin Central Ltd. (WCL) was formed and purchased the Lake States track and buildings from the Soo Line. WCL continued to use the original Soo Line main lines through most of the area, especially in its early days. In the 1990s, some main line realignments occurred after WCL acquired several former CNW lines with their purchase of the Fox River Valley Railroad (FRVR) and Green Bay and Western (GBW) in 1993. Within 5 years of the merger, WCL moved its mainline from the ex-SOO to the ex-CNW/FRVR main between North Fond du Lac and Tower CF, just north of Oshkosh. WCL was acquired by CN in 2001.

CNW operated their main line through Oshkosh into the 1980s. However, industry in the Oshkosh area was dwindling quickly as the lumber industry declined. By the mid-1980s, CNW had all but abandoned its main line between North Fond du Lac and Neenah. In 1988 CNW sold most of its north-central Wisconsin trackage to Itel, which created the new FRVR. Itel also owned GBW, but the two railroads operated independently. FRVR struggled financially due to big debt and little revenue. After only 5 years, FRVR was sold along with GBW to WCL in August 1993. Within a decade most of the FRVR and GBW trackage was placed out of service or abandoned.

The Milwaukee Road lost much of its trackage to Soo Line in the 1985 merger. However, Milwaukee sold off its Northern Division to the state of Wisconsin in 1980, several years before the merger. Much of this trackage still exists today under the banner of the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad (WSOR). Although still owned by the state, WSOR has operated and largely upgraded much of the track it acquired in 1980. WSOR's line still terminates at Oshkosh, but it severed the rails just west of Highway 41 in 1992.


The current route covers the corridor between North Fond du Lac and Oshkosh, but I hope to extend the route north of Oshkosh to Green Bay via Neenah, Appleton, and the rest of the Fox Cities. I would also love to see the route extended to the south through Fond du Lac, across Byron Hill, and into Milwaukee. Extending the route west of Neenah to Stevens Point may make sense as well as it would add another major rail yard and complete SOO/WCL/CN's Neenah Subdivision, which starts at Shops Yard in North Fond du Lac.