Western Railroad Discussion > WSOR current operations around Madison?

I'm going to be visiting Madison, WI soon and was wondering if there are any good current summaries of Wisconsin Southern operations around there. I'd be interested to know what times/days various road jobs are on duty there going in various directions should I want to do some chasing. I did a quick internet search but didn't see anything too current. Thanks for any info!

David

Main Website
http://www.wsorrailroad.com/


Here is the promised list of new numeric train symbols for the WSOR:

Train Symbol Location From/To Old Symbol
T001 Chicago/Janesville CJ
T002 Janesville/Chicago JC
T003 Janesville/Horicon JH
T004 Horicon/Janesville HJ
T005 Janesville/Madison JMA
T006 Madison/Janesville MAJ
T007 Madison/Prairie Du Chien MPDC
T008 Prairie Du Chien/Madison PDCM
T009 Milwaukee/Horicon MH
T010 Horicon/Milwaukee HM

L243 Milwaukee/Plymouth MPM
L351 Janesville/Elkhorn JEL/J6
L353 Janesville/Milton Jct. JMIL
L355 Janesville/Monroe JMR/J5
L463 Madison/Reedsburg M4
L464 Madison/Watertown M3
L595 Horicon/Markesan/Oshkosh HOK

Y201 Milwaukee/Muskego Yard ML
Y301 Janesville Yard J1
Y302 Janesville Yard J2
Y401 Madison Yard M1
Y402 Madison Yard M2
Y501 Horicon Yard H1
Y502 Horicon Yard HLPM

T = Road 1 = Chicago
L = Local 2 = Milwaukee
Y = Yard 3 = Janesville
4 = Madison
5 = Horicon

1890 E Johnson St, Madison, WI 53704
http://binged.it/TVkdUR

This is the address of the yards in Madison Wisconsin. FYI: They are really cracking down on "railfans" entering the yards!!!!!

Wisconsin & Southern
160.575 -- [AAR channel 31] -- channel 1 (road)
161.145 -- [AAR channel 69] -- channel 2 (MOW, yard)

Though bxa1 provided some useful info, nobody's really answered your "operations" question yet. I was over there in August and assuming things are more or less the same still here's the run down. You basically have 3 'road trains' to/from Madison - The Prairie Du Chien (PCD) train, the Janesville train and the Rock Springs (Reedsburg) train. The PDC train is basically nocturnal this time of year anywhere near Madison. During the longer days of summer it departs Madison early enough in the evening to sometimes have a couple hours of daylight. The Janesville train departs Madison early morning - again, better in the summer and probably doesn't hit daylight until halfway to Janesville or further this time of year. I don't remember the "to Madison" versions of either of those being worth much either. The Rock Springs train goes on duty at 0700 in Rock Springs and can go up to Reedsburg if needed or otherwise works down to Madison with most of their work in Baraboo. That puts them crossing Lake Wisconsin around mid-morning to mid-day time frame and getting down to Madison about an hour or so after that. They can turn and go back up to Rock Springs same day. I'm not positive which trains run on what days at this point, but operations are lighter on the weekends. During the week at least, there's usually a Madison switcher active also. The Rock Springs train makes for a nice chase, but your best bet is to start in Rock Springs when they do (around 0700) and then spend the morning following their eventual progress down to Madison. With a lot of their trains running at night or the wrong direction for the sun and light traffic on the lines the WSOR is a challenge, but can be fun when you get a good train you can chase.

Good luck,
Michael

Thanks for the info everyone!