Wisconsin Central’s first day On October 11, 1987, the first Wisconsin Central freight train to climb Byron Hill out of Shops Yard at North Fond du Lac, approaches the top of the grade at Byron, Wisconsin. Reportedly, crews at the locomotive shop in town spent the morning removing Soo Line lettering from the locomotives and applying WC initials to the cabs of these three units to symbolically show the flag of the new railroad as soon as possible.