The railway was intended simply for summer pleasure travel to the lake and was planned to be shut down in winter.

The railway line connected the terminus at the North-western Railroad depot in Waukesha with the beach of the lake.

[3] The improvements included the Palm Gardens ballroom, a hotel, 3 roller coasters, a fun house and many other amusement rides.

In 1897, a baseball diamond was added, where a Milwaukee team, managed by the legendary Connie Mack, played an exhibition game.

An abundance of gravel ballast was obtained along the route, and the contractors have put in a very solid roadbed over which trains ran as smoothly as if on the best steam trunk lines.

Outside of the city limits of Waukesha there were no curves of more than 6 degrees, and when not too heavily loaded or when running down grade the cars made 40 miles an hour around them.

The Walker company has been devoting special attention to motors of this class for interurban service, and the results in this case were very satisfactory.

[6] The power plant contained a 250-horse-power Allis Corliss steam engine and a 150-kilowatt Walker generator and switchboard apparatus.

[6] By the late 1930s, financial problems and increased auto ownership led to the final abandonment of operations to the park on July 21, 1941.