Meetings - NRHS Wisconsin Chapter

Wisconsin Chapter meetings are held on the first Friday of every month (except June, July & August), at 7:30 p.m., in the lower level meeting room of the North Shore Congregational Church, 7330 North Santa Monica Boulevard in Fox Point, Wisconsin. Click here for a Bing map and directions.

Important note: In-person chapter gatherings have been canceled for the duration of the coronavirus outbreak. In their place, we will hold virtual meetings. See below for additional information.

Our meetings are always open to members and to anyone who has an interest in railroad history or today's railroad operations. No admission fee is charged. If you find yourself aligned with the goals of the chapter, please consider joining.

Upcoming meetings:

Friday, February 5, 2021, 7:30 PM - Soo Presentation

In place of our in-person meeting, please attend our virtual meeting online.

Mike Raia will present a two-part program about the Soo Line. The first part will be images that his father, Bill Raia, took in the 1970s and early 1980s. Bill Raia spent 45 years working for the Soo Line in the Chicagoland area in the Mechanical department. Bill had a fascination with railroad history and set out to document the Soo Line people and operations. Tonight’s presentation is a collection of some of his son Mike’s favorite images.

The second part will be about the Soo Line 1003. The Soo Line 1003 is a 2-8-2 “Mikado” that is operational and resides in Hartford, Wisconsin. This presentation will talk about the history of the locomotive and its current operations.

Mike Raia currently works in the Finance department for Anacostia Rail Holdings. Mike lives in Chicago with his wife Heidi and cat Bear. Mike and Heidi enjoy travelling throughout the US, Canada and Europe photographing and riding trains.

Soo Line 502A leads an extra east through the south end of Schiller Park yard in September of 1977. The train has just arrived from Fond du Lac and is doubling over its train into the yard. Bill Raia photo.

Soo Line 1003 makes a run by through Waupun, Wisconsin, in October of 2010 on a Historic Transport Preservation photo charter. Mike Raia photo.

Members and other interested individuals are encouraged to download the Zoom software to their computers (or tablets, or smartphones) to "attend." More information will be found in the February issue of the Chapter newsletter, Sparks & Cinders, and via the chapter's email announcements. Zoom connection info will be sent to all who request it. If you would like to be notified of the meeting details, please send a note to president (at-sign) nrhswis (dot) org. Thank you.

Tuesday, February 16, 2021, 7:30 PM - Online Slide Show

In order to foster community during the coronavirus pandemic, Wisconsin Chapter NRHS is holding alternate-month online slide shows on the Zoom platform. These are expected to continue even after we resume our regular in-person monthly membership meetings, whenever that might be.

Join us February 16 for the Chapter's online slide show! Less formal than a regular meeting, these online events feature the work of five railroad photographers, each presenting a 15-minute slide show on a variety of railroad subjects.

The presenters for tonight's event:

Steve Miazga - "Duplainville diamond replacement work blitz"
Dan Munson - "Blades along the route of the Southwest Chief"
Dean Sauvola - "Wisconsin Central's White Pine line"
Jerry Pyfer - "Wisconsin short lines - beyond the Cheddar Curtain"
Mike Yuhas - "More adventures in aerial railroad photography"

Download the Zoom software to participate. More information can be found in Sparks & Cinders and via the chapter's email announcements. If you would like to be notified of the meeting details, or if you would like to present a 15-minute slideshow at a future event, please send a note to president (at-sign) nrhswis (dot) org. Thank you.

Friday, March 5, 2021, 7:30 PM

In place of our in-person meeting, please attend our virtual meeting online.

The Rail Lines of Otto Mears: Imagine a 9 year old boy abandoned by his uncle on the docks of San Francisco. This man not only overcame abandonment and discrimination: he thrived, going on to build roads and railroads mainly in Colorado but he also built one in the Washington D.C. area. And then he spent some time as the president of Mack Trucks! This presentation focuses not on the man, but on his railroads, lines that are legendary; the Silverton Railroad, the Rio Grande Southern Railway, the Silverton Northern Railroad; the Chesapeake Beach Railway and the Silverton, Gladstone and Northerly Railway.

The second portion of tonight's program focuses on A Visit to the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic: Take a photographic ride on the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, the highest and longest narrow gauge excursion railroad in the United States. See trains battle their way up the 4% grade between Chama, New Mexico and Cumbres Pass, Colorado. See a railroad station dedicated to a U.S. President who was murdered in another railroad station!

Your presenter is Edward M. Koehler Jr., a former National Director and Chapter President in the National Railway Historical Society. Ed has been a member of both NRHS and the National Model Railroad Association for over fifty years. Since retiring in 2009 he's had the ability to travel, take photographs, and put together notes on a number of railway subjects. Some of this free time has enabled him to complete the writing of the book Shortline Railroads of Long Island; to contribute to other publications of the Long Island Sunrise Trail Chapter, NRHS; and to develop unique presentations such as the one he'll share tonight.

Former Rio Grande Southern motor (Goose) 5 displayed in front of the re-created Dolores, Colorado, station. This is a narrow gauge motor car with a 4-B-4 wheel arrangement built in the Ridgeway Shops of the Rio Grande Southern using a 1928 Pierce Arrow sedan body and a Pierce Arrow engine. After World War II the bodywas replaced with a Wayne school bus body and a General Motors engine. The rear van body was also rebuilt as a passenger section during 1950 for the tourist operation period of the Rio Grande Southern. Photo by Edward M. Koehler Jr.

Rio Grande Southern 4-6-0 20 on display at the Colorado Railroad Museum in 1995. It was subsequently shipped to the Strasburg Railroad in Pennsylvania where it was restored to operating condition. It is now one of the several locomotives operated at the Colorado Railroad Museum on their monthly 'Steam Up' days. Photo by Edward M. Koehler Jr.

Rio Grande Southern Trout Lake trestle (top deck) on July 15, 2013. When the rails and ties were removed in this area by the scrapping crews, both this bridge and a nearby water tank were left as memorials to the Rio Grande Southern. This location is near to Lizard Head and is not often visited as it is on an unpaved road off of the highway. Photo by Edward M. Koehler Jr.

Members and other interested individuals are encouraged to download the Zoom software to their computers (or tablets, or smartphones) to "attend." More information will be found in the March issue of the Chapter newsletter, Sparks & Cinders, and via the chapter's email announcements. Zoom connection info will be sent to all who request it. If you would like to be notified of the meeting details, please send a note to president (at-sign) nrhswis (dot) org. Thank you.

Friday, April 2, 2021, 7:30 PM

In place of our in-person meeting, please attend our virtual meeting online.

Bob Gallegos presents Taking trips for the second time. Bob has has made numerous journeys across North America taking photographs of railroads. What's a guy to do during a pandemic, when travel is ill-advised? Simple - scan slides of 1980s, 1990s and 2000s railfan trips and turn 'em into a program for the Wisconsin NRHS. Bob has used this hiatus to scan over 25,000 slides. He promises not to show you more than a couple hundred of the best ones tonight. A great variety that will keep you wanting for more.

CN and BCOL locomotives at Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, 1989. Photo by Bob Gallegos

An eastbound BNSF train on the former Santa Fe at Edelstein, Illinois, 2005. Photo by Bob Gallegos

MLWs on a Canadian Pacific train, Lac Megantic, Quebec, 1989. Photo by Bob Gallegos

Algoma Central F-units on an LS&I excursion, Palmer, Michigan, 2000. Photo by Bob Gallegos

Members and other interested individuals are encouraged to download the Zoom software to their computers (or tablets, or smartphones) to "attend." More information will be found via the chapter's email announcements. Zoom connection info will be sent to all who request it. If you would like to be notified of the meeting details, please send a note to president (at-sign) nrhswis (dot) org. Thank you.

Tuesday, April 20, 2021, 7:30 PM - Online Slide Show

Join us April 20 for the Chapter's online slide show! Less formal than a regular meeting, these online events feature the work of five railroad photographers, each presenting a 15-minute slide show on a variety of railroad subjects.

The presenters for tonight's event will be posted here when all have been confirmed. Want to present? Send a note to president (at-sign) nrhswis (dot) org.

Friday, May 7, 2021, 7:30 PM

In place of our in-person meeting, please attend our virtual meeting online.

C&S Then and Now looks at the history and future of railroad communications and signaling, as told by retired signal engineer (and Wisconsin Chapter member) Brian Sykes. Railroad technology is a complex subject; Brian's presentation demystifies telegraph, telephone, train orders, VHF radio systems, CTC, dispatcher wires, ACI and AEI, EOTs, DPUs, PTC and dozens of other rail tech buzzwords. You'll learn a lot, but you won't be overwhelmed.

Members and other interested individuals are encouraged to download the Zoom software to their computers (or tablets, or smartphones) to "attend." More information will be found via the chapter's email announcements. Zoom connection info will be sent to all who request it. If you would like to be notified of the meeting details, please send a note to president (at-sign) nrhswis (dot) org. Thank you.