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Page updated 7/16/10

St. Croix Railroad, Hudson Wisconsin

(715) 386-1871

Welcome to the St. Croix Railroad. We are a club that is made up of about 160 members from across the country (as well as Canada). We have a beautiful 9 acre property just South of Hudson Wisconsin where we run our trains and enjoy the fellowship of our members. We also have a back shop in Bloomington Minnesota where you can work on building or repairing your railroad equipment year-round.

We do have two unwritten rules. No talk of politics at the track. The other is no talk of religion at the track. This is to make it comfortable for everyone to enjoy the railroad. This does not mean that you cannot have a religious event such as a sunrise service during a meet or wear a political button, it just means that we try to have people not evangelize for any politician, party or religion. I guess they are now written!

Although the purpose of our club is to have fun running trains, it also involves plenty of hard work. Most of the railroad that you see today was built with muscle and sweat - we acquired the small backhoe shovel only recently. Some of our members come out every weekend and some come out during the week as well. Some of our members do not come as regularly to physically work but contribute in other ways. This club only has and is what we make it.

Our hobby is called “live steam” after the fact that many of the locomotives are powered by steam but we also have electricity, gasoline, propane, diesel, fuel oil and other fuels to run locomotives. A more descriptive name for our hobby would probably be “powered-scale-model-ride-behindable-railroading”, on second thought, perhaps we should stick with “live steam”.

Our members manufacture most of the locomotives and rolling stock at home by themselves. Some are made from kits, some from raw castings and some are purchased ready-to-run. It has taken anywhere from a few weeks to upwards of 10 years to make a locomotive. The locomotives are often made as scale models of prototype (real) locomotives. You may notice numbers on locomotives beneath the cab windows usually, these are the ID numbers that the prototype locomotive bore. Some of the numbers are just whimsy as well.

The grounds are about 9 acres of wooded land bounded on one edge by a golf course, homes and roads on the others. The woods are made up of hardwood & softwood trees, some birch and some pines as well. The station area is relatively open and on the edge of the hardwood and softwoods.

 Our logo is a Mason Bogie patterned after a locomotive built by Richard “Dick” Johnson. It commemorates his long time passion for the Live Steam hobby.

About Us Page 2

Lets Take Some Rides!

 The inch scale train leaves the station heading South and turns to go over a long steel bridge then a short bridge over the 1.5” line. Turning again it now climbs slowly running North until it reaches Malfunction Junction where it edges off to the right. Continuing its climb it heads for for Pine Grove where it bends to its right and bends right again approaching a tunnel. After the tunnel it bends right and continues to rise heading North again. You now arc to the right and cross under a bridge. Heading Southwest you now see off to your right where the track is going - Summit but you pass under another bridge and bend left at Windy Point and head South to another large arc but this time it is to your left.  Ahead of you is a bridge and then Summit where there is a Bench, Bell and a Water Station for the steamers. Now its time to go down as we leave Summit and cross another short bridge. Looking to our right we can see the bridge just before Summit as we pass over our track coming up. Now in Pine Grove we see a long arcing steel and wood trestle. As we bend to the right we exit the trestle and encounter a grade crossing and then curve back to the right descending all the time. Ahead is the track we came up on and we pass the tunnel on our right. We zig to the left and enter another steel and wood trestle and pass over the track coming up. To our left is the elevated track and ahead on the right is Malfunction Junction. We now bend to the left and cross Twin Bridges curving up behind the 1” carbarn and ahead a small wooden trestle caps off our trip as we pull into the station from the North.

As a 1½” scale train leaves the station it enters the hardwoods then passes over a bridge at Twin Bridges and enters a pine forest area called Pine Grove. Coming around the backside of the property, in the pines, you then come up to the long Wellington Tunnel. This is one of three tunnels on the property and is the longest. After you exit the tunnel you are in the clearing with hardwoods to your right you pass our picnic area on your left , roundhouse and the construction site of our new car barn for 1½”  scale train cars then the existing 1” car barn up on the hill. Under the Twin Bridges, you then bend off to the right and re-enter the woods and head for the pines again. At the end of Pine Grove you cross a long curved trestle then barrel along into the Johnson Tunnel  next to the Wellington Tunnel where you emerge in the clear and can now see the concessions area and to the right, the steaming bay and the long bridge on the 1” scale rail line. You then cross the road at a Grade Crossing where it enters the lower grounds and you pass along side of the old car barn. Now you slowly pull into the station and after a whistle signal, you detrain at the end of your ride.