I would like to hear from people who have stories about the Milwaukee Road. If you have a story about Milwaukee Road please share it here in this thread. Post any story you want to post. Talk about the trains, the locos, the people, the problems, the competition they faced, their downfall, and any other Milwaukee Road “thing” you can think of to post. Thank you in advance for your story. [^]
I am still interested in Milwaukee Road stories from anyone having a story to tell. Please share your M R stories with us.
Doesn’t anyone have a Milwaukee Road story you can share with us? [?]
Sure do.
Until the 1980 retrenchment, the MILW had a branch line from Iron Ridge, WI, to Fond du Lac, WI. About 3 miles south of town, the MILW shared track with the CNW to get into FDL, WI. During the early '70’s, my cousin and I would ride our bikes down to the “yard” area, which was only 4 tracks wide. The MILW would come up from Iron Ridge every Tuesday and Thursday to switch the local co-op(2 locations in FDL). Motive power was usually 2 SW1200’s, towing 4-8 freight cars and the rib-side caboose. They would break for beans about 9P.M., and leave the engines idling on a siding.
At the same time, the Soo and CNW locals would be working industries in the area, so sometimes three trains would be tying up traffic all within a 4-block area.[}:)]
One night, as the MILW was preparing to leave, we chased them on the bikes. Unfortunately, my pant leg got caught in the chain as I was standing up to pedal, and I went over the handlebars.[xx(] The engines stopped, and the brakeman got off to check on me. Other than a few scratches, I was fine. After a short lecture on safety around the railroad, he re-boarded and the train left.
There was an engine house on the west side of town, that was used for storage, and torn down about '83. For years, a wedge plow was parked in front of it. Never saw it in action.
I also have newspaper clippings of a few derailments that happened on this lightly-railed branch, but nothing serious.
The trackage in FDL was acquired by Soo, then WC, and now by CN, and averages one trip a week.
Although I didn’t have the pleasure of working on the Milwaukee, one in the family did; and I can tell one for this post.
My grandfather worked for the Milwaukee from the mid 1950’s until the 1985 buyout. During that time, he worked in the railroad police department, eventually earning the rank of lieutenant, a role in which he trained in new members.
Here’s a story;
Once, back in the 1960’s, my grandfather took the entire family for a rail trip to the west, all the way to Deer Lodge. Because he was a employee, I would presume there was a discount.
Well, the trip was going well as any train trip goes. As the train went farther and farther west, there were less and less aboard, and things were pretty empty across Dakota.
Also famous on train trips, the train ran out of real food. Being an employee, Paul found out before the rest of the riders, and quickly had his 5 kids (including my mother) go down to the diner and eat up all the donuts and rolls they still had.
At this time, it is neccessary to introduce the other character in this story, a rather “rotund” man, who also found out that there was no food. Being less swift that 5 hungry kids, he made it to the diner too late and got nothing.
There would not be another station stop until the next morning, so everyone waited for the next depot to buy up food (Much like today’s Amtrak passengers.) The time finally came and the station was rolling into sight. On the platform was a local boy with a large box of candy bars and the like.
This time the man was not to be denied food. He flew, first off the train, made a beeline for the boy, gave him a twenty, and bought the whole box!
(Side note- While in Deer Lodge, the train arrived late, but the theatre operator arranged to show Hatari! for the passengers. It was the last movie my grandfather watched in a theater for almost 30 years. )
The Milwaukee Road was merged with the Soo Line the year I was born, so I don’t have any athentic Milwaukee Road stories. However, I did come the closest I woud to seeing the MILW in operation in the sumer of 1997.
I was almost 11 years old at the time and my family took a trip to Minot, ND. I had been there twice before when I was very young. On this trip I did quite a bit of railfanning. It was the first time in my life I had ever seen BN engines in operation (the merger had happened by then, but the motive power was all still BN green). There was also a special Amtrak train with exhibits that stopped in town, so it was pretty good trip for trains.
But probably the most incredible train I saw on the trip, although I didn’t know it’s signifigance at the time, was a Soo Line Bandit. One day we headed out to the tracks to watch trains and in the distance I saw this orange engine. It was far away and at first I thought that it was a BNSF engine. I told my dad to get the camera ready (at that age I wasn’t using the camera yet and so my dad took all the train pictures on the trip, which did turn out quite good). It soon became clear that it wasn’t a BNSF engine. It was, in fact Soo GP40 2011(ex-MILW 199), very dirty and rusty, but still waering it’s original MILW orange at the head of a CP frieght! My dad got two very good photos of it. I did know that it was a unique engine that I should have a picture of, but it wasn’t until later in life that I became aware of what really was.
I can e-mail the pictures to you if you like.
Sask, please e-mail them, would love to see them.
Last week I saw a Soo GP at the Latta,Indiana yard .It was ex Milwaukee orange and black.I wonder how many are left ? Joe G.
Hello
I can tell you a lot of stories about the Milwauke Road. I was a civil engineer in the engineering department from 1967 to 1977. After law school I went back to the company in 1983 in the real estate department in Chicago. The Milwauee had already been in bankruptcy for a while when I returned.
After the bankruptcy began, we abanoned all uneconomic lines and sold all of the land we could. We had no money to pay real estate taxes and stopped paying them. In 1983, after generating cash from land sales, the bankruptcy court authorized us to start paying delinquent real estate taxes if the taxing authorities would accept 90 per cent of the amount due without penalty. Most of the them accepted the offer. We stopped operating everything from Terry, Montana to the west coast and sold some large segments as an operating railroad and removed the track and sold the land for the rest. Many of the lines in South Dakota and North Dakota were sold and are still operated by the Burlington Northern including the main line as far west as Terry, Montana where the Milwaukee main line crossed the former Northern Pacific main line. At the end of the bankruptcy we were operating only about 1/3 of the former system including the main lines from Minneapolis to Chicago, Minneapolis to Kansas City and Chicago to Kansas City. Interestingly we acquired one segment of the abandoned Rock Island line in Iowa between Muscatine and Washington which was better than that part of our Kansas City line.
Over several months in 1983 and 1984 we wrote the legal description to be included in the deeds for the entire system. We first had planned to sell the remainder of the system to the North Western and then to the Grand Trunk Western. Later Soo Line made a better offer and we sold to the Soo Line. Early in 1985 we got court approval late one afternoon to complete the sale to the Soo Line. It was then decided to complete the sale that same day. After we left court about 40 or 50 of us from both
Correction. The UP took over the North Western in 1995, not 1985.
larry
I live in an area that is missing its heart and soul.The Rock and the Milwaukee.Two lines that ran right through downtown basicly.One of my favorite Quad City stories is out of a classic rail magazine that told of a switchman in Rock Island tossing the wrong switch and sending a hot Rock passenger train down behind Farmal and Veile(this is oooooooooollllllllllld story)and towards a Milwaukee train also full of passengers on a cold foggy morning.The yard guys get on the phone trying to raise the DS and all the while this poor switchman is worried about his blunder ready to cry and quit on the spot.They never get the DS but lo and behold on the track the RI train was supposed to take up comes our Milwaukee train!Disaster at two ends ultimately lead to safety in that story as a switchman up the line thought the Milwaukee train was a RI train and lined it along the RI tracks.
I have seen bandits here(miss them and yes even the SOO)and pics of derailments(two lines in bad need of repairs so that it got so bad it was news when they stayed on track!)I have seen pics of Milwaukee steam in downtown Davenport and seen it live(thanks 261)on home rails.I have been looking up old photos of the Rock tonight and now sitting here thinking about it and the Milwaukee I just kinda sigh and lift my glass to the ghosts of friends long departed.Now I know what older fans felt at the loss of steam, towers and their favorite roads.
I went to work on the Milwaukee in November of 1972. I came there from the CNW via a short stint as an Amtrak ticket clerk at CUS during the summer of '72. There was no better place on eart inrailroading to work. The people were friendly. Easy to work with. We had a variety of assignments and divisions to work that was fascinating. We had real railroad uniforms to wear. Suburban trains with decent passengers. Amtrak jobs from Milwaukee to Chicago and the Twin Cities where we would go to Murry’s for a steak dinner. We had a nutty chief dispatcher that liked to deadhead a crew to Bensenville, give 'em 16 hours at a crappy motel, and then deadhead them home. When the throws of bankruptcy rendered my seniority almost worthless, I made my last trip, not aware it was the end, on my favorite afternoon Fox Lake suburban conductor’s assignment. I followed many of my friends into the buy-out.
Later I was able to fulfill my dream of being an engineer on the South Shore Line, but nothing in my railroading past can compare to working for the Milwaukee in the golden era of the '70s.
Mitch
When my grandfather worked for the Milwaukee Road (section foreman) he took my grandmother and a fellow co-worker and his date to a dance in another town by way of a speeder. As they were coming home in the dark of night, my grandfather told his buddy to let him know when a train was coming up behind them. When they were almost home his buddy (who was a little slow) said " heeeere coooomes ooooonne."
Grandpa thought they had enough time to pull the speeder off the track, but when he turned around to check the oncoming train they only had enough time to jump off the speeder. He kept his job.
Another time he was told not to stand between the dock and the tracks. Being a young bold man who knew there was at least 4 feet between the dock and tracks he stood there while a fast freight roared through. Something loose on one of the cars caught him and knocked him down. He rolled with the blow and got to his feet as quickly as possible so no one would know what happened. His family was very happy he wasn’t killed.
These are the only stories (two) that I know of while my granpa worked for the railroad.
To keep that memory alive I have a Milwaukee Road FP45.
Archie
I worked for the Milw in the mid-60s as a fireman on the Terminal Division in the Milwaukee yards. At the time a “full-crew” law was in effect so when you moved an engine in or out of the shops it was officially a train and needed 5 people to operate. I’d go on duty at 11pm, we’d move a few engines into the shops, and then find a warm cab to sleep in until sun-up, when we would move the iron back out to be placed in service. My last duty on that shift was to swap engines on the Northbound morning Hiawatha from Chi to Minneapolis.
Wasnt much to being a fireman other than calling out signals from the crew on the ground, and making sure there was ice in the water cooler. But I learned to spell the engineer at the throttle, sometimes for up to half a shift . Having tons of throbbing loco under your control was quite a rush. I was particularly surprised at how responsive they were to the touch.
I can contribute to say … I worked for the Milwaukee Raod from 1963-1985 …
I was a Mechanical Carmen Welder … work in the freight shop… black smith shop…
it was a great Railroad … Anyone else work in the Milwaukee Area Shops …??
I worked for the Milwaukee from 74 to 80 first as a communications crew lineman on lines west from Mobridge SD to Tacoma. I ended my time as the District Lineman in Avery. In my 6 years I worked almost everywhere. I started in St Maries ID. replacing poles to Avery. My first winter there was an ice storm in Seattle and they moved our work train to Black River, Wa and we put communications wire back up for 10 days straight. The work train was moved to Maple Valley and we spent the rest of the winter rebuilding the pole line and cutting brush.
The crew would spend winters in the Cedar Falls or Maple Valley area every year then with spring we would load up and move our train to Othello. the weather was good there in the spring and we would stay until it got hot. One of the years we were there we retired the line to Moses Lake. During a latter stay in the area we camped at Beverly and our job was to replace all the cross arms on the bridge at Beverly. With the Milwaukee’s emphsis on safety we were luck that we wern’t blown off the bridge to our deaths.
By early summer each year we would be in St Maries working on replacing poles along the St Joe River. This is some exceptionally beautiful country. By late summer we would pack up and head to either Missoula or Butte. The crew always loved their time in Montana because the railroad would put us up in motels for some reason. The camp cars were the pits.
When I had worked for the Milwaukee for 3 years I had the opportunity to relieve a district lineman in Lemmon SD. His territory was from Baker Mt to Mobridge SD. This too was a fun time meeting new people and seeing new country.
In 1977 the Milwaukee combined the electric crews and the communications crews and I had my first taste of working with power lines. When the railroad laid me off and after a short stay with the BN, I ended up being an electric utility lineman in Idaho. My first experience with being on a fixed location crew was in Superior Mt with our territory being from Missoula to St
You might want to check out the book
Woman Operator on the Milwaukee Railroad - a first person account by a female op during WWII.
I will look and see if I can find it. do you know the ISBN?
No ISBN the author is Mary Byington and the publishing house is Timber Lake Topic in Timber Lake SD copyright 1998. What makes her story particularly interesting is that Mary is a Japanese American - Her father had been in prison for 6 months at the internment camp in Missoula but had been cleared and allowed to return home.
She applied for the job as a telegrapher and about half way through the training she was dismissed because of her race. She went back home, kept noticing the ads for operators and finally wrote a letter to the president of the Milwaukee pointing out her interest, their need, and the fact that she and her family had been cleared by the FBI. The railroad president responded by ordering the local railroad telegrapher school to re-hire her for training. The book is about 80 pages long and it is a good read. The book shows up from time to time over on bookfinder.com.
Yes, locomotive electricians helper, SOO Milwaukee. Do I know you?
Randy Stahl