When the Milwaukee Road started buying SD-7/9s in the 1950s, where or what type of service were they assigned to on the railroad? Also did the Road use switcher lash-ups on any branchlines besides southern Minnesota?
The SD7/9 and RSC2/RSD5 units were all ‘lightweight’ units used on light rail lines. SW1 switchers were also in the 90-100 ton class and met the 50,000 lb axle load limit of many of these lines. The lines across Southern Minnesota had several bridges that had restrictions, and there was a bad WB grade(Fountain Hill) as well. The Milwaukee Road added MU capability to 5 of their SW1’s so they could be used on the line between La Crosse, WI and Austin, MN. Many photos of the ‘Donkeys’ running on the ‘Smokey Valley’ line have been published. Ih the early 70’s, I would see a 4 unit set of ‘Donkeys’ on this line. The later SDL39’s would have been good for this line, but the ‘end’ came too soon and parts of the line are now a bike trail. One can still ride their bike up ‘Fountain Hill’! Service on the line in 1973 was 3 round trips from Austin to La Crosse. They usually left Austin on M-W-F and returned on T-Th-Sat. The branch to Preston had its own SW1. A year later they were down to 2 trips a week, and the road train worked the branch as well.
Jim
I was looking at a diesel roster and noticed the Milwaukee didn’t purchase the first EMD GP-7s but bought the SD-7s so were they and the RSCs used to replace branchline steam power?
Also did the SDs stay on one freight division or were they used throughout the system?
The Alco RSC2 engines were the first of the lightweight road switchers to arrive on the Milwaukee and were originaly assigned to the Wisconsin Valley Division. They later roamed system wide to handle light rail/bridge lines. By 1952(when the SD7’s arrived), 4 of them had D/B’s and I have heard that they were assigned to a logging branch out of Tacoma. In the 70’s, they roamed the Northern Divison(Wisc) and a lot of the light rail lines in Minnesota/Iowa/South Dakota. They did show up on the mainline at times, but usually it was a trip enroute to a repair or inspection.
Jim
SD7/9’s roamed the Northern Montana Division, Harlow north to Lewistown/Great Falls/Roy/Denton/Hilger/Winifred/Grass Range,etc
Lol! I just read you’re qoute. I wanted to thank Jim for chimin in. He’s helped me out with a few MILW questions in the past. I think a lot of people don’t realize that early 6-axle roadswitchers weren’t used like they are today. I’ve also had Jim inform me in the past that the 6-axles may look bigger and heavier than 4-axles, and even I tend to forget they had lighter axle loading. An light rail branchline could easily be modeled with SD motive power running down the line. Something for ME to think about. Now only rail was more reliable in N scale. I am pondering using tiny code 40 rail, but I don’t think I would drop down to C30 for a more realistic look. I’m not even sure about the C40!