Highway "SS" Crossing

Cty Hwy "SS" Crossing, Milepost 96.54

County Highway "SS" is the major road between Cameron and Rice Lake. The Soo Line crossed this road at milepost 96.54.
This Crossing up to the late 70's was two tracks as the 2773 ft siding east of the CNW crossover reached approx 100 ft past the Highway "SS" crossing.
Even though the siding was removed, the crossing still stated "2 Tracks" up until the mid 80's when HWY "SS" was rebuilt. The old timber crossing was replaced with a rubber mat style to ease the crossing to vehicle traffic. Today, the crossing still has the same rubber mat as installed in the 80's although it is becomming a little torn up from snow plows.
This was also the only crossing that had signal protection in Cameron. The other interesting thing is that this crossing was not equipped with a bell, just lights.
There was a concrete island dividing the north and south lanes of Hwy "SS" up until the rebuilding when it was removed which left the center signals vunerable to vehicle collision. The center signals have been struck several times and replaced.
Today this crossing sees trains no longer. This is the edge of where the Wisconsin Northern travels. When the WN took over the line, they would occasionally park their trains east of the crossing, but no longer. When the WN ties up for the day now, they park the train on the former CNW main south of the HWY 8 overpass.

Below Left: This view of the Hwy "SS" crossing shows the line facing east. When this picture was taken, the spot for which I was standing was the former location of the Cameron siding. The siding continued through the crossing for about another 100'. Looking past the crossing, you can see the tree line where it closes in on the right of the tracks, that was where the siding ended.

Below Right: This is a view of the signals that once provided protection to trains as the crossed Hwy "SS". The four signals have been a fixture in Cameron for many decades. If you notice the center two signals are the "Bug Eye" type and the two outer signals are the older type. The reason for this is that the center signals have been hit may times since the removal of the concrete island in the mid 80's. In the distance to the right, the former Skelgas, now Ferrellgas was once a cutomer to the Soo Line. The gas company had its own spur which large LPG tankers were placed. The spur was removed in the early 80's and now the gas company gets its supply from an underground pipeline.