| A CN local pauses at Milepost CM 186 under the Winneconne Ave. overpass at the north end of the former SOO yard at Neenah, WI on 22 Jun. '19. This view would have been prevented by the dominating silhouette of the original Neenah Foundry facility, later known as Plant 1, which stood here for over ¾’s of a century. Established in 1872 as Aylward Plow Works (a.k.a. Aylward & Sons) at 120 N. Lake St., they erected a new foundry at 500 W. Winneconne Ave. in 1918 “in a rural area of southwestern Neenah.” The name of Neenah Foundry was adopted in ‘22. Expanded numerous times over the years, it became Plant 1 in ‘60 when Plant 2 was constructed in the then rural area at the intersection of Byrd Ave. and the aptly named Aylward St. (followed by Plant 3 in ‘67). Plant 1 was closed in ‘94, the corporate overlords didn’t want to spend any money to update the plant. It stood abandoned for a while and was eventually demolished. |