The Last Wigwags: Union Pacific Sheboygan Local Freight Train Chase 11/30/2020

The last set of Chicago and North Western-installed "wigwag"-style grade crossing signals left in service in Wisconsin (and likely anywhere) were located on Saemann Avenue in the city of Sheboygan, on a branch line of the Union Pacific Railroad that was once part of C&NW's Chicago-Milwaukee-Green Bay "Shoreline" route.

In the late fall of 2020, rumors abounded that these signals were going to be removed soon, so I (and quite a few other area railfans) made the trek to document them in their final days of service.

Sheboygan is served by a local job, YSB-52, based out of the yard there to work the industries around town. Traffic is shuttled to and from Butler Yard (Milwaukee) by a separate train that usually runs at night.

I got to town and found the train as it was working the Georgia-Pacific plant off Wildwood Avenue. They had the old C&NW bay window caboose 11186, using it to lead the train shoving northward from the yard. They shoved across Saemann Avenue, giving us our first look at the wigwags in action, and set out their tank car for Plenco (Plastics Engineering Company) on North Avenue.

Following this, they continued shoving to UP's northernmost customer, Richco Structures in the village of Haven, to set out their two loaded lumber centerbeams. The track is out of service north of County FF, and ends approximately three miles to the north, at the Sheboygan/Manitowoc County line. That point represents the change of ownership from when C&NW sold part of the line to the Fox River Valley Railroad in 1988, which passed to Wisconsin Central Ltd., then CN which abandoned their trackage south of Newton in 2012 (looking at Google Street View, it would appear that Manitowoc to Newton has since likewise gone out of service, with multiple grade crossings paved over or removed).

Making their way back south from Haven, the train consisted of just the locomotive, four boxcars pulled from Georgia-Pacific, and the caboose. We see them pass through the wigwags again, and then cross the bridge over the Sheboygan River as the last light fades.