Passenger service in Adams was part of the railroad here since its beginning in 1912. Many people would ride the “scoot” to go shopping in Milwaukee. The scoot left from Adams at eight in the morning and arrived back at eight in the evening, and it consisted of one car, plus the engine and the caboose. It was a way for the railroad to transport its crews to and from the locations where they needed to be so that they could be in position for their assignments.
The passenger train that most people remember was the Chicago & Northwestern “400”. With its first run in early 1935, this high-speed train could make good on its promise to go the 400 miles between Chicago and St. Paul in only 400 minutes. Day after day, the eastbound and the westbound 400 trains would have a brief scheduled meeting at Adams, with the westbound train waiting in the large yards for the eastbound to come into town before continuing west
The high-speed “Hiawatha” of the rival Milwaukee Road line didn’t stop in Wisconsin Dells, so the resorts there would send buses to Adams to pick up Dells-bound passengers. Soon all of the C&NW passenger trains were called 400s, but although a rails-to-trail recreational corridor called the 400 State Trail was created from Reedsburg to Elroy, the 400 train that went through and stopped at Adams was the original (and to some, the only) 400 train. After time and a decline in the use of rail as a means of personal transportation, passenger service, along with the “400”, was discontinued in Adams in 1963. It was a sad time for those who remember the 400 era with great fondness.