Just returned from trip on I90 thru Mt. Old CMSP&P grade very obvious from highway, even took a side trip up to St Paul Pass Tunnel-concrete lined all the way and in very good shape. Favorite Milw. story. In 1974 was in Harlowton, line had just been de-electrified. Milw branch to Gt. Falls exited mainline here. All day a train of grain empties was being assembled in yard at Harlo bound for Gt. Falls. About 10:00 P.M train left town., it’s all uphill out of Musselshell Valley. We jumped in a Jeep Wagoneer with a six pack and headed for Oka siding about 12 or 15 miles north and waited on a warm September night. Finally could hear the whine of EMD 567’s as 3 GP9’s struggled up that hill with 90 empty hoppers. Can still hear the scream of those diesels in run 8 as the train ground past us at 15 mph. Alas the r.r. is gone, visited Oka last summer and could hardly see the right of way. Still have the memories though.
As I’m sure you know, more of the Milwaukee’s Northern Montana Line survived in Montana than did the main line west of Miles City, and it’s no wonder considering this area produced more of the Milwaukee’s revenue than did the main line within the state. You may be interested in knowing that last week, BNSF operated a unit grain train to Vancouver, Washington that was loaded entirely on former Milwaukee trackage from elevators in Geraldine, Denton, and Moore…so parts of this line are still hanging on, even if the track at Oka is long gone.
Milwaukee Road’s Montana Division produced $40 million in gross revenue in 1977. Subdivisions 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14, Harlowton to Agawam, produced $12 million in revenue in the same year, slightly down from the historic high of that line of $13 million in 1976. The remainder of the Montana Division revenue, $28 million, was produced primarily from mainline locations.
As you can see, $12 million is not “more of the Milwaukee"s revenue” than $28 million, but about 42%, 30% of the total state revenue for the Company west of Miles City.
The Northern Montana line of the Milwaukee had about a third of the total railway mileage of the Milwaukee Road in Montana, and produced about a third of the Division revenue, not counting, of course, the $110 million in overhead transcontinental traffic carried on the mainline through Montana.
Best regards, Michael Sol
More Milwaukee Road info:
“The” Milwaukee Road thread
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=22066
and some other threads from other trains.com forums
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6948
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5823
Its Deja Vu all over again!
Gabe
It’s probably only a matter of time before the remaining ex-Milwaukee tracks are gone since they roughly parallel BNSF’s Great Falls - Laurel line. BNSF does have a shuttle train loading facility at Mocassin, any others? Eventually, shuttle train economics will trump lesser carset elevators if BNSF is the only way out.