Hey guys, for what it’s worth, here in southern Michigan, we have a couple of old original Milwaukee Road coaches in service on the “Little River RR”. I think these were from the “post-war” Hiawatha, In the 1980’s, only one side of the cars was repainted. The other side was still in the 1950’s “UP Yellow”.
Last time I saw them, they were both repainted into the “Orange-Red-Black” Original scheme.
The other car that usually is in the consist is an old “Gulf, Mobile & Ohio” combination baggage/coach.
Todd C.
One good reason to say the Hiawatha is “home” in Milwaukee is that few railroads built as much of their own freight and passenger cars as did the Milwaukee Road, and at one time the shops here in Milwaukee were the city’s largest single employer. I seem to recall up to 10,000 workers.
Curiously I cannot recall a photo of the Hiawatha in Chicago. There are many photos taken at the downtown Milwaukee Depot, and classic photos by Russ Porter, Jim Scribbins, A.C. Kalmbach, Linn Westcott, and others all focus on Milwaukee.
Dave Nelson
I have seen a few photos published of the HI in Chicago, but all were outside Union Station. The dark caverns of the trainsheds really weren’t all that “photo-friendly”.
Todd C.
How long is this going to be on display? How much of it do you get to see and how close?
I toured the Cedar rapids sky top obsv. car.
when it was sitting in duluth mn.
Did they pretty it up or something?
I thought is looked extreamly shabby.
And I think it’s about as plain-jane as you can get.
I will say though, it has a lot of potential if it was restored.
maybe it has been by now.
Sooblue