During the year the stockholders were successful in making financial arrangements to expel the Phillips and Colby regime. On December 17, 1877, the Phillips & Colby Construction Company ceased to function in any capacity. Suddenly it died; and the end came painlessly to all friends of the W. C. The Phillips & Colby Construction Company was extinct, although its ghost lingered along the W.C. rails for many years to haunt succeeding managers in their honest efforts to lift the road into prosperous levels.
E. B. Phillips continued as General Manager through 1878, when he was dropped, and Frederick Norton Finney, a man of extraordinary ability and profound knowledge in building and operating railroads took over as General Manager. While E. B. Phillips remained on the Board of Directors until 1882 his active influence in the management of the Central ceased in 1879, at which tine he accepted the position as Receiver for the Grayville and Mattoon Railroad, a 70 mile weakling in southern Illinois.
During 1878 Gardner Colby resigned as President, and Charles L. Colby, his son, was elected to fill the position.
Despite large increases in freight and passenger revenues, the road continued to struggle under the staggering financial load imposed by Philllps' management.
On January 4, 1879, John A. Stewart and Edwin H. Abbot were appointed Trustees to take possession of the road as a protection to stockholders' interests.
With the advent of Trustees Stewart and Abbot and General Manager Finney, the year 1879 signalized the beginning of a period of rehabilitation and advancement in the life of the Wisconsin Central. The new management instituted sweeping chances in policy and attitude toward patrons, shippers, and the traveling public, and placed in effect the current standard code of transportation rules governing the operation of trains and movement by telegraphic train order, management of equipment and the conduct of employees.
Plans for betterment of service, expansion of facilities, acquisition of new locomotives and cars, building new rail lines and extending the old lines, were subjects for immediate consideration and action.
Capt. W. W. Rich, Chief Engineer and Superintendent of Construction and operation at the north end, resigned in 1879 to accept the position as Chief Engineer of the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad.
Capt. Rich, pioneer trailblazer for the Central since 1870, surveyed all right-of-ways and established levels and grade lines on the north end prior to 1879. He became the No. 1 employee of the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway (Soo Line) in 1883.