On January 1, 2012, Watco was proud to have the Wisconsin &  Southern Railroad Co. (WSOR) join the Watco family of short line railroads. The WSOR is a  Class II regional railroad company operating in the southern half of the State of Wisconsin and a small portion of northeastern Illinois. WSOR operates over 700 miles of branch and mainline track traversing a total of 21 counties in Wisconsin and Illinois. WSOR is Wisconsin’s second largest railroad.

Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, WSOR directly connects within the state with the western Class I railroads BNSF, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, and Union Pacific. With access to Chicago via the Belt Railway of Chicago, WSOR connects with the eastern Class I railroads CSX and Norfolk Southern. WSOR also has access to harbor facilities on the Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien and maintains several transloading sites within its system.

WSOR has branch offices in Janesville, Madison, and Horicon, Wisconsin. WSOR operates on mostly former Milwaukee Road tracks that were earmarked for abandonment in the late 1970s and early 1980s. These tracks are now owned and managed cooperatively by the State of Wisconsin and 18 counties with which WSOR has a 50-year operating agreement. WSOR also leases and operates 66 miles of tracks owned by the Union Pacific.

WSOR transports a variety of commodities for its customer base including lumber, coal, liquid and dry fertilizers, corn, beans, plastic, aggregates, ethanol, and liquid petroleum. Since its inception in 1980, WSOR has quadrupled the freight business of the previous carriers, handling more than 50,000 carloads annually.

You can find more information on the WSOR by viewing the website using the link below.

http://www.wsorrailroad.com/