How long did the Milwaukee Road keep using steam on branchline service in the 1950s? I was looking at a roster of Milwaukee diesels and noticed they never had any gp-7s and not too many other early road-switchers but had quite a few GP-9s by the late 50s…
Hi Jake,
According to American Steam Finale, 1954-1970, by Lloyd Stagner, in 1954 the Milwaukee Road received 156 diesel units [including 44 GP9s], and these almost completed the Milwaukee’s dieselization. As on many roads, when GP9s showed up steam was either gone or well on its way out.
Lloyd writes: "After June [1954], steam power was in service on the Dubuque & Illinois, Milwaukee, Madison, and LaCrosse & River divisions. Those 4-6-2s and 4-6-4s in Chicago suburban service were replaced in September. During October-December 1954, two 4-6-2s, sixteen 4-8-4s, thirty 2-8-2s, three 2-6-2s, sixteen 4-6-0s, four 2-8-0s, six 0-6-0s, and shop engine X979 had mileage.
“On January 1, 1955, the only active steam was 4-8-4 No. 239 in St. Paul-LaCrosse local freight service, 2-8-2 No. 412 switching at Minneapolis, 2-6-2 No. 911 at Green Bay, and 4-6-0 No. 1009 at Janesville, plus 4-6-0 No. 1012 in stationary service at Beloit. An increase in traffic in 1955 put 36 additional steam engines in service, mostly during the fall grain harvest. All were in storage by December 1955 and retired in 1956. A 4-6-0, No. 1004, was held for weed-burning service in 1956 and made the last CMStP&P steam run, relieving the motor car on the Austin-LaCrosse run on March 16, 1957.”
So really, Milwaukee steam in regular revenue service was finished by December '55, with the last run in '57 being something of a fluke.
So long,
Andy
As I recall the Milwaukee had purchased Alco and Baldwin road switchers during the 1940’s and early 1950’s, including Alco RSD’s and Baldwin AS-616’s and/or DRS 6-6-1500’s.
As Andy noted re the Milwaukee, pinning down an exact “dieselization” date is difficult for any RR. Many roads kept a core of steam engines in “stored serviceable” condition for many years after they were all-diesel, and on occassion one of them would be used. The Missabe for example last ran a steam mainline ore train in June 1960, and I believe ran the last steam overall later that year. However they put many engines in storage (and kept on the roster) including a 2-10-2 that did some fantrip service in 1962, on the last “official” DMIR steam trip. But then some steam, including some of the Yellowstones, were kept in “stored serviceable” condition for years after that, I think the last one was officially removed from the roster in 1971 !!
rr-fallenflags.org/milw/milw.html, scroll about 2/3rds the way down to get to the steam list. It’s all pictures.
http://trainweb.org/milwaukee/roster.txt is a complete MILW deisel list, as stated from 1939-1993 although I’m not sure how they came up with '93. That was the source I always went to, but at the same point I’ve only more recently gotten into steam trains modeling. I love the prototypes, but for some reason I never put much thought into them in modeling. I have now though of course.
As a side note I know MILW #261 is still around. It is the train used in the Chicago Union Terminal scenes in the new Johnny Depp movie Public Enemies. I think it also does special exscursion runs but I haven’t heard too much about that.