The trackwork at Casco Junction with comments from a former general manager of the railroad.

Casco Junction is where the Ahnapee & Western joined the Green Bay & Western tracks, named for the nearby town of Casco.

The diagram below (click here for an enlarged copy) shows the tracks as they existed in 1950.  Below it is a map based on a hand-drawn map of the interchange, corrected by Jim Roubal, ex-general manager of the Ahnapee & Western.

The scale house was used to weigh outbound cars for interchange. For examples, loaded scrap cars from the shipyards in Sturgeon Bay or cars of doors from Algoma Hardwoods would have to have their weights checked to see if they exceeded their load limits. If they did, the cars went back to the shippers and had some of the lading removed. If not, the GB&W Kewaunee Job would pick them up and take them west (or east).

Here are a few things to to take note of:

• The scale track is a lot shorter than the two yard tracks which were both 28 cars long.
• The old depot came down in the teens and was replaced by a freight house which came down in the 1940s. 
• The sand quarry (Casco Gravel Company) was not functional after World War II. 
• The extension past the water tower to the west, the scale (which is still visible today), and the wye were built in 1947 when the AHW bought the line from the GB&W. 
• The only road is marked by cross bucks on the drawing.

By the 1960's things had changed at Casco Junction.  Prior to 1969 the AHW still extended to Sturgeon Bay and there was a lot more traffic. A lot more. After 1969 the line only went to Algoma and the primary customer was the plywood/door plant there. The wye was likely gone or unused by this time because the diesels were around.  The night GB&W job to Kewaunee would deliver cars for the AHW on one of the long yard tracks (or both if there were too many) so they did not foul the switches on either end. If there were too many some would "spill" onto the old interchange track past the water tower. The AHW train would come down from Algoma and drop their train, then block the inbounds for the different online towns for switching on the way back.

Related material:

1944 timetable with Casco Junction Trains listed 

1976 excursion train at Casco Junction

1978 excursion train at Casco Junction

Aerial photo of Casco Junction from Google Maps.