Index to Wisconsin Central / Soo Railroad articles
WisconsinCentral Railroad (the Soo Line ) click to read more about the Wisconsin Central.
Wisconsin Central, Soo Line Come to Sussex-Lisbon, printed Sept 26, 2007. Far right: April 18, 2000 article “Soo Line Depot in 1950”.
(Click on each image to open it in another window)
Top row – 1st photo above is circa 1902. This was the first built railroad depot in Sussex…built 1887 on the Wisconsin Central RR in Templeton, Wis. (East Sussex, south of Main St.). 2nd photo shows a pre-1932 photo (probably about 1902) picture of a north bound train going by the depot. The Art Mamerow farm is on the extreme left (on Silver Spring Drive) where in 2007 one finds Quad/Graphics. 3rd: Sussex Soo Line depot c1950. 4th: c1950 Soo Line station agent John Zimmerman on right, and Dave Johns to the left.
Middle row -Soo Line train going thru Sussex, Jan 1947, after great 24inch snow storm., with Retrospect article about storm. Far right – a 62 yr old steam engine traveled from Illinois to Fond du Lac on its first passenger excursion since it underwent 3 years of restoration. It passed through Sussex at Good Hope Rd. Photo by Fred H. Keller, Aug 1988.
Bottom row – left: Of Sussex Depot…Fond Memories. Middle: article continued. Right: 1923 train map, printed 1995. Far right photo – Main St. leading into Sussex at the Soo Line tracks was blocked for most of the afternoon and early part of the evening on Thursday, Dec. 30 (year unknown for this Fred Keller photo), after a railroad car jumped the track. The Soo Line had the John Hennes Trucking Co. come in with a high lift and with special jacks the car was lifted out of the way.
Top row – left: Agent Art Lutz and family dated May 21, 1912. Notice the Templeton elevator in background to the north.
Middle Left: Roy L. Martin, author of the Wisconsin Central (R&LHS Bulletin No. 54, January 1941), photographed the Sussex (formerly Templeton) depot in the late 1930’s. Aside from minor changes (i.e. new roof, shortened chimney, new train order board, yellow and maroon paint scheme, etc.) the building is the same as it was 30 years earlier.
Middle Right: The window and door placement on the Sussex depot remained unchanged throughout its entire life, as illustrated by this 1950’s photograph from the collection of Roy Meissner.
Right: The Sussex depot, like Amherst and Dorchester, received the standard Soo Line siding in the late 1950’s. William Drechsler photographed this scene in November 1963.
Four photos above are of 1976 depot demolition. 4th photo is James Kinnee moving a section of demolished depot in 1976.
Above left – A July 14-28 period feature…probably by Eleanore Motz…probably published in the Menomonee Falls News…history of Templeton-Sussex. Next 3 photos show Fred H. KellerRetrospect article based on Motz 1932 article.
Bottom two left are a Dec 26, 2000 Retrospect article by Fred H. Keller “Wisconsin Central has a long history”. 3rd – Photo of John Dornfeld, a Milwaukee Road Historical Society Collector, a Photo used in the Waukesha Freeman Lake Country Edition Feb 3, 2007. Far right – Wisconsin Central/Soo Line depot circa 1910.
Above – Correspondence between Wisconsin Central, Village of Sussex, and historian Fred H. Keller.
Above – Left and center photos: “For 40 cents an hour, you get to bury horses”, a story of Richard Austin “Austie” Treloar working on the Soo Line railroad. 3rd photo from left: “All aboard the Templeton Train Depot” by Fred H. Keller, July 24, 2001, Retrospect, Sussex Sun. 4th photo – “Deer kill by the wagonload” by Fred H. Keller, article about James Booth family. 5th image contains copy of James Booth photo circa 1920; also the 1923 train wreck at Mammoth Spring Canning Co., and train wreck at Duplainville – no date.
Architectural depot drawings from “the SOO” January 1989, Vol. 11, No. 1.
Visit of President George Bush to Sussex via the Wisconsin Central railroad October 31, 1992.
Above left, Wisconsin Central railroad crossing repair nearly done, May 23, 1995 looking north. 2nd photo, April 1995 of same crossing, looking northeast.
Above – 3rd photo: Dec 1995 or January 1996, the Wisconsin Central Limited pledged $5,000 to the Pauline Haass Public Library. Left to right are Len Anhalt representing the library, Dale Disher from Wisconsin Central, and conductor Barry Becker. Photo by Fred H. Keller. Far right – “A Toast to Success” shows Thomas R. Foster, an assistant vp of Wisconsin Central Limited, June Keller treasurer of the Friends of the Pauline Haass Library, and Len Anhalt of the town of Lisbon. January 23, 1996.
Above left – Annual Sussex Cup, the 7th in the commemorative series, issued for 1998 to celebrate the three area railroads.
2nd photo – a June 27, 2000 glimpse of the railroad crossing holding up a fire truck. Also Wilmer Zimmerman obituary; he was a section repair leader for the Soo Line railroad.
3rd – “Bit of Americana goes Along with “Wig Wags”, replacing old wig wag signals, photo from Waukesha Freeman, July 19, 1979. Old Magnusson home seen in picture.
4th from left – Retrospect, January 6, 1998, article about the area railroads “Trains of Sussex”.
Right – “Whistle of Early Locomotive Was Welcome; Called Gabriel’s Trumpet”, by Marion Hext, in Waukesha Freeman, 1959, early Sussex railroad history.
Above – front and back of a 1915 train ticket from Soo Line, Waukesha to Templeton. Actual size 2 1/4″ by 1 1/4 “. Donated by Betty Wildt Umhoefer, October 25, 2008
Robert Zimmerman interview notes with Fred H. Keller, July 2007.
Redford/Hodgson men at Templeton depot waiting to pick up Emma “Emily” Redford Hodgson. A good close-up of the station front. 2nd photo is Emma sitting in buggy with same two men. Thanks to Ed Schilling