The story
January 10, 1986: The Soo Line, nine days after purchasing the Milwaukee Road, creates the Lake States Transportation Division to operate its mainline between Forest Park, Illinois and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
April 3, 1987: The Soo Line Railroad announces the sale of its Lake States Transportation Division to private investors, forming the new Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation
October 11, 1987: The first WC train runs, from Stevens Point to North Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
May 1991: WC shares begin trading under the ticker symbol WCTC, raising $36.2 million
1992: Railway Age names Wisconsin Central the Regional Railroad of the Year
1993: WC acquires the Fox River Valley Railroad and Green Bay & Western railroads
1993: A Wisconsin Central-led consortium acquires New Zealand Rail through a new subsidiary, Wisconsin Central International, and renames it Tranz Rail in 1995
1995: WC acquires the Algoma Central Railway through a new subsidiary, Wisconsin Central Canada Holdings
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1995: A WC-led consortium acquires Rail Express Systems in the United Kingdom from the British Railways Board
1996: WC partners with Canadian National (CN) and CSX, inaugurating a new intermodal shipping corridor between the west and east coasts of North America
1996: The Loadhaul, Mainline Freight and Transrail Freight freight operators in the UK are purchased from the British Railways Board and merged as English Welsh & Scottish (EWS)
March 4, 1996: A Wisconsin Central freight train derails in Weyauwega, Wisconsin; the derailment results in a 16-day evacuation
August 19, 1996: Metra, a commuter railroad agency based in Chicago, inaugurates its North Central Service route on the WC's Waukesha Subdivision.
1997: EWS acquires Railfreight Distribution in the UK from the British Railways Board and merges it into EWS
1997: Another WC subsidiary, the Sault Ste. Marie Bridge Company, acquires 207 miles (333 km) of track from Union Pacific Railroad forming a WC connection between Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Ishpeming, Michigan
1997: Australian Transport Network (ATN), in which Wisconsin Central owned a one-third stake, purchased Tasrail in Tasmania, six months later ATN acquired the Emu Bay Railway in Tasmania
1999: Railway Age names Wisconsin Central president Edward Burkhardt its Railroader of the Year
January 30, 2001: Wisconsin Central and Canadian National announce plans for CN to purchase the former for $800 million and the assumption of $400 million of WC's debt, it is completed on October 9, 2001
June 28, 2007: Deutsche Bahn announced it had agreed with CN/WC to purchase EWS, subject to receiving regulatory approval, in exchange for £309 million. At the time of the acquisition, EWS had a market share of around 70% in the United Kingdom rail freight sector and had around 5,000 employees. After the transaction was approved by the European Commissioner for Competition, the transaction was completed on 13 November 2007.
December 21, 2011: Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific Railway and Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway, also owned by CN, are merged into Wisconsin Central
January 1, 2013: Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway is merged into Wisconsin Central Ltd indirectly as parent company CN made the acquisition
From Wikipedia’s article on Wisconsin Central Ltd., shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3