Charleston & Western Carolina F7 No. 901 does some freight duties during car clean up at the end of operations for short line Wisconsin Western in 1985. In late March, the unit retrieved cars off the former Milwaukee Road line from Madison west to Prairie du Chien. On April 6, 1985, the locomotive will make a trip to Mazomanie and a run up the branch to Prairie du Sac-Sauk City, before heading back to Madison. C&WC No. 901 is the former Rio Grande No. 5644 that also served American Crystal Sugar Co. and Chicago, Madison & Northern before adorning purple and silver paint as C&WC No. 901.
Looking somewhat unusual, No. 901 operates backwards while retrieving three cars off the Prairie du Sac/Sauk City branch. In this view, the train is slowly rolling along the Wisconsin River at Prairie du Sac in a scene that is pretty hard to see today, since the line is abandoned and decades of tree growth has mostly hidden the right-of-way.
Photos of North America's favorite First Generation locomotives. EMD, ALCO, Baldwin; essentially anything that represents the OG wide cab diesel locomotive
