Central Wisconsin

Company History: The CWRC was launched in 1980 to take over operation of the former Milwaukee Road line from Milton Junction to Waukesha, Wisconsin. Aside from a single GE 70 tonner, the entire roster consisted of Fairbanks Morse switchers mostly from Milwaukee Road. Just two years after startup, the neighboring Chicago Madison & Northern (another Milwaukee Road spinoff) fell into bankruptcy and their lines were taken over by the Central Wisconsin Railroad. This combination in conjunction with a pair of paper railroad subsidiaries served the Wisconsin cities of Walworth, Elkhorn, Janesville, Mineral Point, Freeport, Madison, Prairie du Chien and Waukesha. Just as the expanded operation was getting up to speed, the founder and president John Zerbal passed away. The CWRC didn’t recover from the loss and in 1985 the CWRC routes were taken over by the Wisconsin & Calumet.