| Railroad Name: | Wisconsin and Southern Railroad |
| Parent Company: | Watco |
| Marks: | WSOR |
| Locale: | Southern Wisconsin, Northeastern Illinois |
| Start Year: | 1980 |
| End Year: | present |
| Predecessor Line: | Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Chicago and North Western Transportation Company Wisconsin and Calumet Railroad |
| Length: | 837miles |
| Hq City: | Madison, Wisconsin |
| Website: | www.watco.com |
The Wisconsin and Southern Railroad is a Class II regional railroad in Southern Wisconsin and Northeastern Illinois currently operated by Watco. It operates former Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road) and Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW) trackage, mostly acquired by the state of Wisconsin in the 1980s.
Within Wisconsin, WSOR connects with four western Class I railroads: BNSF Railway, Canadian National Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway, and Union Pacific Railroad. Through trackage rights over Metra, WSOR accesses Chicago to connect with the two eastern Class I railroads, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway. WSOR also has access to harbor facilities in Prairie du Chien, and transload facilities are located in Milwaukee, Janesville, Madison, and Oshkosh.
For train operation purposes, the WSOR system is divided into two divisions, the Northern Division and the Southern Division. The Northern Division is essentially the original WSOR trackage from 1980, with a few new lines that have been added around the Milwaukee area since the 1990s. It includes the line northwest from Milwaukee to Horicon, where it splits into branches to Cambria and Oshkosh, as well as a line from Milwaukee north to Kiel. The Southern Division includes the lines acquired from the Wisconsin and Calumet Railroad in 1992, centered on Madison and Janesville, as well as several lines acquired in the 1990s in the Madison area. The two divisions are not physically connected with WSOR-owned trackage, but trackage rights over a short section of Canadian National's Waukesha Subdivision from Waukesha to Slinger provide a link between the two divisions.
WSOR is headquartered in Madison, which is also a central hub terminal. The train dispatching office is located in Horicon. Locomotive maintenance is centered in Janesville, with secondary work also being performed at Horicon. WSOR's Horicon paint shops perform contract work on both rolling stock and locomotives.
WSOR began operations in 1980 when the state acquired several Milwaukee Road branch lines and signed a 50-year agreement with the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, organized by the FSC Corporation, which also owned the Upper Merion and Plymouth Railroad. In August 1992, WSOR gained control of the Wisconsin and Calumet Railroad, which had been created in 1985 to replace the Chicago, Madison and Northern Railroad's operations on state-owned lines formerly part of the Milwaukee Road and Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. The latter was abandoned in 1997 except for a short stub in Madison. The short stub was abandoned in 2012, when the Charter Street Heating Plant in Madison discontinued using coal as their fuel source.[1] WSOR thus gained access to Chicago (through trackage rights over Metra from Fox Lake), Janesville, Madison, and Prairie du Chien. Further expansion came with a lease from the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) of Madison-area ex-C&NW trackage in 1996,[2] and of an ex-Milwaukee Road line between Madison and Watertown from the Soo Line Railroad in 1998 (sold outright in 2003).[3] The most recent acquisition was north of Milwaukee in 2005,[2] when the state purchased the ex-Milwaukee Road line between Saukville and Kiel, which Wisconsin Central Ltd. was going to abandon.[4] Soon thereafter, WSOR leased in part and bought in part an ex-C&NW line to Sheboygan from UP.[5]
WSOR was named the 2009 Regional Railroad of the Year by Railway Age magazine.[6]
On April 11, 2011, WSOR's president and chief executive officer (CEO), William Gardner, was charged with two felonies after he was accused of funneling more than $60,000 in illegal campaign contributions through WSOR employees during the 2010 Wisconsin gubernatorial election.[7] Gardner agreed to plead guilty to two felony counts. Under a deal, prosecutors agreed not to seek jail time but instead would seek two years of probation. In a statement, Gardner acknowledged his mistakes and said he took full responsibility. The vast majority of the contributions were to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.[7]
On November 29, 2011, it was announced that WSOR would be acquired by Watco, with the deal to close on January 1, 2012.[8] [9]
In December 2012, the state of Wisconsin issued $17.1 million in financial aid to WSOR to rehabilitate of rail line between Plymouth and Kohler, which connects with existing WSOR tracks at Plymouth.[10] Service has begun as of 2015.[11]
WSOR operated a terminal railroad in Madison called the Madison Terminal Railway from 2010 to 2015 to service an industry in Madison WI. This spur was less than a half mile long.[12]