Through trackage rights over Metra, WSOR accesses Chicago to connect with the two eastern Class I railroads, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway.

The Northern Division is essentially the original WSOR trackage from 1980, with a few new lines that have been added around the Milwaukee area since the 1990s.

WSOR's Horicon paint shops perform contract work on both rolling stock and locomotives.

The short stub was abandoned in 2012, when the Charter Street Heating Plant in Madison discontinued using coal as their fuel source.

[2] WSOR thus gained access to Chicago (through trackage rights over Metra from Fox Lake), Janesville, Madison, and Prairie du Chien.

[3] The most recent acquisition was north of Milwaukee in 2005,[1] when the state purchased the ex-Milwaukee Road line between Saukville and Kiel, which Wisconsin Central Ltd. was going to abandon.