Common Council resolutions and reports began to be organized by a numbering system in December 1932. Before that time the resolutions were kept folded up in chronological order, roughly by subject or Council committee (such as Parks, Judiciary, Fire, Police, etc.). This set of pre-1932 resolutions represents those labeled as Railroads, and date from 1858-1932.

The collection has been divided up into two series: railroads and streetcar resolutions. Railroad lines date from 1858-1932 and are further categorized by railroad name found on the resolution, therein chronologically. Undated resolutions preceded those with date information. Resolutions that deal with no particular railroad line, or more than one railroad line, were assigned to the general resolution category that preceed the named lines. Many of these are committee reports, or correspondence to the committee, invoices and the like. While mainly expense invoices, remnants of the controversial MIssissippi River railroad bridge issue of 1872-1873 can be found here. The hotly contested union depot resolutions are filed in one folder at the conclusion of the general resolutions.

The railroads best represented in this series are Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, 1899-1932; Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul (often referred to as the Milwaukee Road), 1874-1931; Green Bay lines (i.e. Green Bay & Minnesota; Green Bay & Western), 1873-1932; La Crosse & Southeastern, 1883-1920; and the Milwaukee & St. Paul, 1868-1873.

Streetcar resolutions are organized chronologically. Undated resolutions are filed at the front of the first folder. The line names associated with these resolutions include the La Crosse Street Railway Company, La Crosse City Railway Company, City Railway Company, La Crosse & Onalaska Short Line/La Crosse & Onalaska Street Company, Wisconsin Railway Light & Power and the Mississippi Valley Public Service Company.

Resolutions dating from 1921-1932 are more prevelent in the Committee on Public Utilities as street cars were abandoned for bus transportation and did not need to lay track on city streets to operate. Make sure to also examine those related files, as well as those in the Committee on Streets and Alleys for 1895-1928 for the most complete story.