Hwy 20

    Hwy 20 module seen from the public side
    Hwy 20 module seen from the public side
    Hwy 20 track plan, top view
    Track plan
    Hwy 20
    • Builder: Keith Kohlmann
    • Sturtevant, WI
    • Built 2012
    • Atlas Code 55 Track
    • 5 ft (1 Module)
    Hiawatha crossing the bridge over Highway 20 past the Chesterfield billboard on the Modutrak Highway 20 module

    Hwy 20 is a single five-foot module where the double-track main crosses a highway. The two mains go over the road on a pair of black girder spans set on concrete abutments, with an old-time double billboard facing the public on each side of the road. The track rides on a low fill. A small creek runs through a culvert under it, crop rows run parallel to the track on the back side, and fences line both sides of the right-of-way.

    The prototype is the Milwaukee Road’s Chicago–Milwaukee main at Wisconsin Highway 20 (Washington Avenue) in Sturtevant, Wisconsin, about a mile north of the old Sturtevant depot. In the 1940s this stretch was inside the 16 miles of Centralized Traffic Control between Sturtevant and Lake, run from the machine in the Sturtevant depot office (Railway Signaling, April 1943).

    On the layout, Hwy 20’s left (south) end joins the coaling-tower end of Sturtevant.

    C&NW caboose train above the creek culvert on the Modutrak Highway 20 module
    Milwaukee Road caboose on the Hwy 20 bridge
    Railroad bridge over the highway with billboards on the Hwy 20 module
    The Highway 20 bridge, with billboards on both sides of the road.
    Behind the scenes: Modutrak modules on sawhorses outdoors with a camera on a tripod

    Sources: Sturtevant station; The SubwayNut: Sturtevant, WI; Great American Stations: Sturtevant, WI; “Centralized Traffic Control on the Milwaukee,” Railway Signaling, April 1943. Module photos: Mike Skibbe. Track plan: Modutrak.