Today's Train of Thought takes us to the heart of Dixie and highlights some visitors who are out of place.
With the 2001 acquisition of the Wisconsin Central by Canadian National, remnants of the Wisconsin Central fleet began showing up further afield almost immediately. Part of this had to do with CN repaying horsepower hours owed to CSX and Norfolk Southern- while newer CN units were assigned to the former WC, for awhile, your best bet of finding a unit still painted in Wisconsin Central colors was actually further afield in Pennsylvania or Florida.
One such train that regularly drew WC power far from home was CSX unit molten sulfur trains between Chicago and Florida. Sulfur- which can be used in making steel, acid or fertilizer- is typically melted so it can be shipped with relative ease.
Here, railpictures.net contributor William H Davis Jr caught Wisconsin Central SD40-2 #6005 leading unit molten sulfur train K841-24 through New Castle, AL with another WC SD40-2 as well as a Santa Fe painted BNSF C40-8W and CSX EMD trailing on a sunny April 2004 day. The lead unit started out life as Algoma Central #187 in the late 1970s, which the WC obtained from their 1995 takeover of Canadian regional Algoma Central.
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