| A CN through freight passes the Winneconne Ave. overpass and the remnants of the former Winneconne Ave. grade crossing as it heads south through the former SOO yard at Neenah, WI on 29 Mar. '20. Train had three locomotives, CN 3813 and CN 2984 pulling as well as CN 3049 mid-train. The front door of the original Neenah Foundry facility, later known as Plant 1, which stood here for over ¾’s of a century, was near the lower right of the scene. Established in 1872 as Aylward Plow Works (a.k.a. Aylward & Sons) at 120 N. Lake St., they erected a new foundry at 500 W. Winneconne Ave. in 1918 “in a rural area of southwestern Neenah.” The name of Neenah Foundry was adopted in 1922. Expanded numerous times over the years, it became Plant 1 in 1960 when Plant 2 was constructed in the then rural area at the intersection of Byrd Ave. and the aptly named Aylward St. (followed by Plant 3 in 1967). Plant 1 was closed in 1994, the corporate overlords didn’t want to spend any money to update the plant. It stood abandoned for a while and was eventually demolished. The iconic crossing tower which, until 1991, would have been visible above the cab of the second locomotive now resides at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum: https://www.midcontinent.org/about-us/tour-of-grounds/the-crossing-tower/. |