Beginning in 1898 the wave of operating efficiency in the railroad industry reached full height. No locomotive was permitted to travel on the main line without its full specific tonnage coupled behind. But there were too many hills and hollows to permit economical operation of tonnage freight trains.
Particularly on that section between Waukesha and Stevens Point where competition was strong, the freight tonnage policy found greatest difficulty and this section of the main line received first consideration in grade correction.
The profile of this section of road shows ascending grades occurring almost continuously from Neenah, where the line rises out of Lake Winnebago level, to Stockton, 57 miles northwestward. Prior to 1900, north-bound freight crews found jinx written all over Clayton, Dale, Waupaca, Amherst, Custer, and Stockton hills, and often resorted to "doubling" the hills as the best way over.
Initial grade improvement operations began in 1899 at the village of Dale (13 miles west of Neenah) where the steam shovels cut twenty feet off the crest of Dale hill. The excavation supplied material for an elevation thirty feet high over the depression just east of Dale station.
Next in order came the Waupaca elevation which raised the main line seventeen feet above the old grade at the present street level. This fill measures about a half mile in length, on the center of which rests the present depot, built in 1905.
Following immediately, the grade correction crews lowered the grade at Amherst Junctions, a thirty foot reduction at the top of the hill moved the Central main well below the old Green Bays & Western crossing at Amherst Junction station. A mile west of the Junction, the shovels cut a deep groove through the crown of Lake Emily hill, lowering the grade about twenty-five feet at that point. The Lake Emily cut uncovered an extensive bed of coarse gravel and ballast material. Lake Emily gravel pit was opened later and for many years was the source or the roads' ballast requirements in the Stevens Point area.
In 1901 the steam shovels and work trains moved up to Custer and Stockton (5 miles east of Stevens Point) where a raise of roadbed was leveled off by numerous cuts and fills to an average grade reduction of twenty feet.
The east approach to the Gills Landing drawbridge over Wolf River had long been a hazardous piece of track in the original grade between Gills and Fremont, about two and one half miles.
Immediately west of Fremont depot the old grade dipped abruptly some twenty-five feet into the bogs of the river bottom, barely above water level for a distance of about a mile, then ascended gradually to mount the long trestle leading to the bridge. A permanent slow order of 10 M..P.H. governed all trains over the bridge, trestles, and low track east of the bridge, and prevented east bound freights from gathering momentum sufficient to carry them over the Fremont rise "all in one piece".
In 1901-1902, road leveling operations took a long deep cut through the face of the Fremont bluff, likewise, a similar cut through the crest of the ridge at Readfield, four miles east of Fremont. The sand and gravel taken from these excavations was utilized in the construction of the new grade on high embankments across the bottoms east of the river, and provided an earth fill for the east trestle.
The most extensive grading operation in Whitcomb’s program occurred at Cedar Lake during 1899-1901.
The scope of this correction involved roughly about five miles of right-of-way between Slinger and Allenton, and began in a swampy depression a short distance north of Slinger. A mile further north the old grade rose sharply about fifty feet to the crown of the ridge, then dipped gradually into a wide swamp area full of sink holes, ending within a mile of Allenton.
In the Cedar Lake operations, the old main was moved temporarily about a hundred feet to the east of the right-of-way where the steam shovels threw dirt for nearly two years. Of unusual interest in the work was the installation of a large underground drainage duct laid parallel to the track and six feet below the new grade, running the full length of the cut, over a mile long. The cut through Cedar Lake ridge uncovered great quicksand beds at track level, and the many springs at the bottom of the cut rendered the track unsafe without a permanent drainage system.
Thousands of carloads of filling material went out of the cut to build up embankments at both ends of the excavation. Division Engineer Laughlin and Roadmaster Charley Parmann executed a splendid piece or railroad construction in this area, and the solid level roadbed between Slinger and Allenton remains a fine tribute to their well seasoned experience and ability.
Years ago, before the turn of the century, the Central built a small depot on the east side of the main about 1.5 miles north of Schleisingerville, and named the station Cedar Lake. Local passenger trains stopped there on flag to accommodate summer residents of Cedar Lake resort, located a half mile east. The old depot stood at a point near the east end of the overhead highway bridge which later spanned the big cut.
After the new grade was opened for regular traffic, a long open air platform, sheltered by an umbrella canopy was built on the main at the bottom of the cut. East of the platform a steep wooden stairway at the side of the cut provided access to the former high level. As late as 1903, trains No.'s 5, 6, 7, and 8 seldom got by Cedar Lake without stopping for passengers. The present day aspect never reveals a sign of the old flag stop.
The construction of the new grade at Cedar Lake accomplished great results for Whitcomb's tonnage trains and made a fine level race track through the old location. After 1901, north bound freight trains were able to take a brisk running swing out of Slinger to get over Lomira Hill, a tough one twenty miles to the north, now the only serious tonnage obstacle between Slinger and Clayton Hill (4.5 miles west of Neenah).