Altoona
One yard, inside the place, and that is the whole of it
One rail-yard row is attached to this city. It runs under Union Pacific and its coordinate lies 0.82 miles from the centroid, inside the place — which, unlike a good many rows in this file, means the coordinate genuinely landed within the mapped boundary rather than being filed to the nearest town.
What moves through it could not be established from anything we read, so we are not going to characterise it. And the coordinate is the mean of a track polyline’s vertices rather than a surveyed facility point, which is how every rail-yard row in that file is derived. That is the whole of what is measured here, and padding it would not make it larger.
Wisconsin weight law
The weight statute names trades, and this one is not among them
What runs to it and away from it runs under one set of state limits, and those limits are written trade by trade. Wis. Stat. § 348.15(3)(a) caps the gross weight imposed by any one wheel, or by the wheels supporting one end of an axle, at 11,000 lb. Subsection (3)(b) caps any one axle at 20,000 lb, or 23,000 lb for an implement of husbandry or an agricultural commercial motor vehicle, and lets two consecutive sets of tandem axles impose 34,000 lb each where the first and last axles are 36 feet or more apart.
Then it starts naming names. Subsection (3)(bg) allows a milk carrier 21,000 lb on a single axle and 37,000 lb on two axles eight feet or less apart. Subsection (3)(br) allows the same for forest products and scrap metal, at 21,500 lb on a single axle. Both are capped at 80,000 lb gross.
Rock, sand, gravel and crushed stone appear nowhere in any of it. A pulpwood truck is allowed 21,500 lb on an axle in this state and a stone truck 20,000 — so this trade is the baseline the other two are relieved against.
Wis. Stat. § 348.15(3). Information, not legal advice.
Wisconsin paperwork
We need a title — unless it never had one
None of that reaches the paperwork, which is the short part. That is the rule, and everything after it is a fix rather than a category. A lost title has a counter replacement. Where none exists there is a bonded route. Neither one stops a sale.
The salvage definition here is narrower than most people assume. Wis. Stat. § 340.01(55g) reaches a vehicle less than 7 years old damaged so that the estimated or actual cost of repairing it, whichever is greater, exceeds 70 percent of its fair market value, and it excludes a hail-damaged vehicle unless it is repaired with a replacement part. Most of what we buy is well past seven years old, and for those trucks the definition does not reach them at all, whatever a repair would have cost.
Wis. Stat. § 340.01(55g). Information, not legal advice, and only as current as the day it was read.
What we buy here
None of that changes what we are interested in. Day cabs and road tractors off the Union Pacific yard 0.82 miles out and the freight moving through the valley. Box trucks and straight trucks out of the distribution work. Dump trucks and flatbeds off the trades. Work trucks and pickups off crews. Whatever you drive, the offer does not change. We buy all of them.
We come to you and drive it away, we come to you and tow it, or we buy it remotely and arrange the tow with nobody visiting at all. All of those are ordinary in a place this size, and bringing it to us is an option too if that suits your week.
We buy complete trucks. If the engine, transmission, doors, rear ends, drive shafts, wheels or anything under the hood have been removed, we can’t buy it. Small things — a missing bumper — are fine.
Straight answers
The questions we get asked in Altoona
- Does it have to run?No. It does have to be complete — if the engine, transmission, doors, rear ends, drive shafts, wheels or anything under the hood have been removed, we can’t buy it. Rust is not a disqualifier.
- How am I paid?Cash or electronic payment. That is the whole list.
- My truck is fifteen years old and was in a wreck once.Then the salvage definition in this state never reached it, because that rule stops at seven years. What matters is what the title says today.
- Do you come out past the city?Yes, well past it — out beyond the Union Pacific yard 0.82 miles from the middle of town and a long way further. Distance has never stopped a sale.
- Do I have to bring it to you?No. We come to you and drive it away, we come to you and tow it, or we buy it remotely and arrange the tow with nobody visiting at all.
- What about the title?We need one unless the truck is old enough that it never had one. A lost title has a counter replacement; where none exists there is a bonded route.
Why people call
None of those is really the reason for the call. Retiring. A medical that went the wrong way. A contract that ended and never got replaced. A day cab standing on a lot within sight of the Union Pacific yard 0.82 miles from the middle of town, insured every month and not turning a wheel since the last run.
Most of those aren’t happy reasons, and we don’t treat them like they are. Somebody wants a straight answer and the truck gone by the end of the week. That’s what we’re here for.
Wisconsin weight and title rules read from the Wisconsin Statutes in August 2026 — verify with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation before acting on them. Weight limits at Wis. Stat. § 348.15(3) and the salvage definition at § 340.01(55g). Node facts from the city-pages node list. Wisconsin has no state-rules file in this repository and none was written for this batch.