The Milwaukee Road
A brief history…
THIS BRIEF HISTORY of the Milwaukee Road was prepared to meet the
frequent requests sent to us by students, hobbyists and others who, for
one reason or another, want information about the history and growth of
our railroad. It is not intended to be complete, but rather to present
only the more meaningful developments of a period that now extends well
over a century.
As we were preparing this history, it occurred to us that there are
interesting parallels between the early days of railroading and things
which are happening today.
The 1860’s and 1870’s were a period when small railroads were being
consolidated into larger, more efficient systems—when new ideas and new
methods were coming at a rapid pace—when railroads were in an extended
period of growth, change and improvement. Many of these same things are
happening in the 1960’s, and will be happening in the 1970’s and other
years ahead. The Milwaukee Road is a leader in these developments, whether
in the past, present or coming years.
We hope that this history will be both interesting and useful to you.
Curtiss E. Crippen
President
A new wood-burning locomotive, hurtling down five miles of newly-built
track at 25 mph, pulling two open freight cars loaded with dignitaries and
railroad officials, all holding their hats and hanging on for dear
life—this marked the beginning of railroading in Wisconsin.
This same test run also marked the beginning of what was to become the
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, known more informally
as the Milwaukee Road. Today, this is one of our major railroads,
stretching more than 10,000 miles as it reaches from Chicago and Indiana
on the east to Omaha and Kansas City on the western end and to Seattle and
Tacoma in the northwest.
Today, the money represented in just one double-deck commuter coach (or
two or three of the large new specialized freight cars) would equal the
total capital involved in the original founding company when it built
those first few miles of track.
In reporting the history of this railroad, let’s begin by sketching
development of Wisconsin and much of the midwest.
In the early 1800’s, fur trading was about the only business done in
the region that now is Wisconsin, until lead mining began to grow in the
southwestern part of the area, not far from Galena, Ill. This culminated
in a lead “rush” beginning in 1825, which in turn brought in a number of
settlers.
Before 1800, there were probably only about 200 non-Indian residents of
the Wisconsin region, but lead mining was to bring population growth to
some 3,200 in 1830 and then 11,000 by 1836. It was in 1836 that the
“Territory of Wiskonsan” was organized, including what now is Wisconsin,
Iowa, Minnesota and part of the Dakotas.
Population continued to grow, jumping to nearly 31,000 in 1840, to
44,000 in 1842, to more than 155,000 in 1846, and then it more than
doubled in the decade of the 1850’s.
During this growth, lead mining reached its peak in about 1847 and then
began to decline. As lead declined, agriculture took its place,
particularly wheat farming.
In that era, Wisconsin’s wheat crop came to be the second largest in
the nation, rising from a total of four million bushels in 1849 to
multiply in volume seven times over the next seven years, then remaining
fairly constant at 28 million bushels annually through 1860.
Lumbering also began to become a significant industry, starting up in
the 1830’s along the Chippewa, Black and St. Croix rivers.
But despite booming population, rapidly growing volume of crops, huge
amounts of lead mined and increasing size of cities, territorial
transportation was almost literally still in the Dark Ages. Shipping or
traveling was by lake or river routes, over mud roads not much better than
forest trails, on a few plank roads or military roads—and all of these
were generally unusable during parts of the year.
The moving of freight was slow, irregular, very expensive and sometimes
hazardous under these conditions. Existing transportation frequently
couldn’t handle the volume of shipping.
During this time, the cities were beginning their growth, and beginning
to compete to see which would have the largest share of industry,
commerce, shipping and trade. It was already clear that the city with the
best transportation would grow fastest. The two earliest cities were
Prairie du Chien and Green Bay. Then Milwaukee began to boom, its
population starting to grow from 1835 onward, reaching about 10,000 people
in 1845, and then almost unbelievably jumping from 21,000 to 46,000 from
1850 to 1851.
People had begun to think in terms of railroads even by the early
1830’s, despite the prominence of canal-building in that era, and even
though the country’s first locomotive had run a few years before, in 1825.
By 1830, the United States had only 23 miles of railroad track; it was
to have 2,800 miles by 1840 and about 9,000 miles of track by 1850.
One man aware of the interest in railroads was Byron Kilbourn, who was
one of the three men who virtually owned Milwaukee in the mid-1830’s.
Kilbourn had settled there in 1835 after having worked the preceding year
in surveying the territory. Earlier he had been an engineer on some canal
building projects. Kilbourn, an important and well-educated man for that
time, was the son of an Ohio congressman and the son-in-law of John Fitch,
an early inventor of the steamboat.
As Kilbourn and his associates looked over the need for better
transportation to serve a rapidly developing region, they first thought in
terms of building a canal between Milwaukee and the Rock River. Some
surveying was done and about two miles of canal were dug before the whole
idea was abandoned.
The earliest proposals to build railroads in the territory came in
1836, the year the territory was organized. In its 12 years of existence,
the territorial government chartered several railroads, only one of which
was ever built. A committee of Milwaukee citizens, including Kilbourn and
some others who also were involved in the canal proposal, had been formed
in 1836 to propose a railroad, this being the one that eventually was
built.
Kilbourn and his associates, after dropping the idea of the canal, then
obtained a charter in 1847 that granted them rights to build a railroad
over the 20 miles between Milwaukee and Waukesha. Later the charter was
amended so that the railroad could be extended to the Mississippi River.
On May 19, 1849, Kilbourn was elected president of the railroad company,
which had authorized capital of $100,000. It first was named the Milwaukee
& Waukesha Railroad Company, then in 1850 the name was changed to the
Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad Company.
One of the first problems was how to raise money in a region that
Indians had given up title to only about 10 years before. The directors
took in whatever they could for stock, and only sometimes was this in
money. Much of the stock was sold by bartering it for something that could
be used to build the line. For example, stock might be given in exchange
for food, for some grading work, for putting up buildings, for harness or
a wagon, and so on.
Construction was held up for a while when cash—not something to
trade—was needed for getting iron rails. This problem seemed solved when
the mayor of Milton stood up at a meeting, offered to mortgage his farm to
help raise cash, and then reportedly asked “are there not one hundred men
between Milwaukee and Rock River that can do the same? If so, here is your
money.”
There were a hundred men, and more, but the problem wasn’t solved.
Eastern money centers weren’t much interested in loan security that was in
the form of mortgages on farms in a nearly undeveloped region. Eventually
the city of Milwaukee had to issue bonds that were used in helping finance
the railroad’s cash needs.
About ten years later, the mortgage idea was to kick back on the M&M
and other railroads, because when the roads failed and mortgages on farms
were foreclosed a great anti-railroad bitterness developed that was to
last for decades, and that led to formation of farm organizations such as
the Grange.
Once the M&M had money in hand, construction went ahead and the first
rails were laid on September 12, 1850. By November of that year, enough of
the road was finished so that railroad officials and guests could take a
trial ride over five miles of track reaching out from Milwaukee.
Pulling the two open freight cars was a locomotive that had been
shipped in by lake boat. Built in 1848 by the Norris Locomotive Works in
Philadelphia, the first engine was known successively as Number One, Bob
Ellis, Iowa and by the number 71 in the years before it was finally
scrapped.
The railroad’s line to Waukesha was completed early in 1851, and on
February 25 came the first formal trip between Milwaukee and Waukesha.
Of course, there was a great amount of civic fuss and hoopla when that
first train ran, and when other first trains came to other cities.
Standard procedure was to have parades, civic banquets, speeches by
politicians, strongly favorable stories and editorials in the local paper,
cannon shooting, dog barking and other such things. After all, it was a
time when many people saw a train for the first time in their lives.
Many of these things happened on that 20-mile inaugural trip of the
Milwaukee & Mississippi. People lined the tracks along the entire route.
Things went so well that by April 14 of 1851 the M&M had begun
operating two daily trains between Milwaukee and Waukesha. This was quite
a thing, in a time when a 20-mile trip was a hard day’s journey by horse
and wagon.
Later in 1851, Kilbourn, who could be a controversial, obstinate and
arrogant person, found himself in trouble with the company’s board and was
removed from the presidency, being replaced by John Catlin.
During the remaining part of 1851, the main line was extended to Eagle
and then in the fall of 1852 to Milton, where it forked. From there, a
subsidiary company built a line from Milton to Janesville, completing this
in January, 1853.
Also during 1853, the main line was extended to Stoughton and, early in
1854, to Madison. In 1857, the line was completed through to Prairie du
Chien on the Mississippi River, the railroad’s original destination. The
first train entered that city on April 15, 1857.
Even as the Milwaukee & Mississippi was growing, other things were
happening, some not so favorable.
For one thing, a number of other budding railroads were being built in
that part of Wisconsin. One of these was the La Crosse & Milwaukee
Railroad Company, chartered by the state legislature in 1852 (Wisconsin
became a state in 1848) and authorized to build between the two cities
named.
Byron Kilbourn, let go by the M&M directors, was president of the La
Crosse & Milwaukee, which was consolidated in 1854 with the Milwaukee,
Fond du Lac & Green Bay Railroad Company, chartered in 1853. The combined
company built a line to Horicon, 50 miles from Milwaukee, completing this
in December of 1855, and the next year extending it to Portage, about 95
miles from Milwaukee.
Then came the financial panic of 1857, a time of trouble for individual
people, for many businesses and for railroads. A number of railroads were
unable to survive, among them the Milwaukee & Mississippi and the La
Crosse & Milwaukee.
This was true even though the M&M, by 1858, was rather a substantial
operation for the era, with more than 260 miles of track, 43 locomotives,
46 units of passenger equipment (including baggage and express cars) and
more than 550 freight cars. Even so, it was weak financially, going
bankrupt in 1860.
The La Crosse & Milwaukee defaulted on its obligations in 1858 and
1859, also going bankrupt.
On January 18, 1861, the Milwaukee & Mississippi was offered for sale,
with debt of close to $6 million, in addition to which capital stock
amounted to about $3.5 million. Three days later the company was acquired
for $7.5 million and reorganized as the Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien
Railway Company.
The La Crosse & Milwaukee, which had been going through complicated
legal maneuvers and problems, lost Byron Kilbourn through resignation in
late 1857. After some litigation that lasted for several years, the La
Crosse was sold on May 5, 1863, to the newly formed Milwaukee & St. Paul
Railway Company.
Three men come into more prominent view at this time. One is Russell
Sage, a New York financier who was to have many fingers in many things
during these years, including fingers in many railroads.
Associated with him were Alexander Mitchell, president of the St. Paul,
and Sherburn S. Merrill, who, for years, was to be the general manager in
charge of operating the Milwaukee & St. Paul.
Mitchell, a Scottish immigrant, had come to the U.S. as a young man,
arriving in America in 1838 and in Milwaukee in 1839. He went to Wisconsin
as the representative of a Chicago banker, but soon took over the whole
business, becoming Milwaukee’s leading banker.
Mitchell was a part of virtually every early day railroad formed in
Wisconsin, whether acting openly as a director or banker, or as an
informal advisor. He was on the Milwaukee & Mississippi board from 1849 to
1855 and again in 1858, had been a commissioner of the Milwaukee &
Watertown, a director of the La Crosse & Milwaukee and trustee of the
small Milwaukee & Western railroad.
Mitchell and his associates saw the chance to build a large, unified
system from the small railroads that had been broken by the panic, and
they moved to gather up a number of these lines.
Eventually there would be more than 200 corporate entities going to
make up the corporation that now is the Milwaukee Road. In those early
days, many were railroad companies that had systems of no more than 30, 40
or 50 miles of track. Some were shorter; the Ripon and Wolf River Railroad
Co., had 9.56 miles, the Pine River Valley & Stevens Point Rail Road Co.
had 16.22 miles between Lone Rock and Richland Center, the Stillwater &
Hastings Railway had 2.00 miles— in other words, some had corporate names
nearly as long as their trackage.
Mitchell’s basic structure came from the La Crosse & Milwaukee. From
that, he moved to arrange a working agreement with the Milwaukee & Prairie
du Chien (the former Milwaukee & Mississippi) in 1865. Then in 1866
Mitchell became a director of the Prairie du Chien and the next year was
elected its president, merging it with the La Crosse.
This also brought the McGregor Western under control of Mitchell and
Sage, because this line had been leased in 1865 by the Prairie du Chien.
The McGregor Western was an important addition. It had one end in
McGregor, Ia., just across the Mississippi River from Prairie du Chien,
where the old M&M ended. The other end of the McGregor reached nearly to
Minneapolis-St. Paul, this line being finished under Milwaukee & St. Paul
management in 1867. The line from Milwaukee to the Twin Cities went by way
of Cresco, Ia., and Owatonna, Minn., crossing the river, of course, at
Prairie du Chien.
By 1868, the Milwaukee & St. Paul was a railroad with 825 miles of
track, 135 locomotives, more than 130 units of passenger equipment and
more than 2,400 freight cars. It was a big railroad for the era, but
Mitchell and his associates were just beginning. *
* (As a note of historical interest and curiosity, but not much
significance, it was at this time, in 1869, that Mitchell served for a
short while as president of both the Milwaukee & St. Paul and of the
Chicago & North Western, a railroad growing as fast in Illinois and
southern Wisconsin as the M&StP was elsewhere in the Wisconsin area.)
In the 1870’s the St. Paul built rapidly, once again with some help
from a financial panic, the one that came in 1873.
By 1872, the second line was opened to the Twin Cities. This one, which
followed the Mississippi River from St. Paul to La Crosse, came with the
acquisition of the St. Paul & Chicago Railway. Also in 1872, the M&StP
completed and opened a line between Milwaukee and Chicago.
By that time, Chicago clearly was becoming a major city and, to reflect
this, the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway in 1874 changed its name to the
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company.
The railroad grew rapidly, either by construction of lines or
acquisition, as the 1870’s passed.
In 1879, the company formally acquired the Western Union railroad,
which had been under Mitchell’s control since 1869. The Western Union gave
access to the Mississippi River by a route that went from Racine through
Beloit to Savanna, Ill. The company then reached Savanna from a different
direction in 1880, when the Chicago & Pacific was acquired, a line that
ran straight west from Chicago to Savanna.
By the end of 1880, the Milwaukee had 3,775 miles of completed road
(compared to only 1,412 three years earlier) and had 425 locomotives, 319
pieces of passenger equipment and more than 13,000 freight cars. As nearly
as we can confirm, it was in 1880 that the company first adopted the
familiar tilted rectangle trademark that is still used in a form similar
to the original.
The Milwaukee’s goals in the early 1880’s were Kansas City, Fargo, and
Omaha, destinations it reached within a few years. Once these points were
reached, the railroad began to extend branch lines from the main lines, a
process that was to be repeated again and again over the years.
As the line spread through the midwest, the company began to be known
for its introduction of important railroad innovations. It also started
scheduling trains that, 10 or 20 years later, would become famous “name”
trains.
In 1887, the Milwaukee was the first railroad to equip all of its
passenger cars for steam heating. The next year, it was the first railroad
to operate electrically lighted trains west of Chicago, the first of these
operating between Chicago and the Twin Cities on September 10, 1888. The
first electrically lighted train to Omaha went over company tracks in
1889.
During these years, the Milwaukee was a highly respected, progressive,
rapidly growing and soundly financed company, but changes again were
ahead. Some came with Russell Sage’s departure from the company in 1879
(he actually had ceased holding a title before this, but retained a large
share of ownership) and then with the death of Alexander Mitchell in 1887.
General Manager Merrill had died in 1884.
With the departures of Sage, Merrill and Mitchell, control of the
company began to pass to a new group, headed by the Rockefeller-Standard
Oil interests. In 1881, William Rockefeller joined the board of directors,
with some associates. In the mid-1880’s, the Armour meat packing interests
began to be represented on the board by Philip Armour. The Rockefeller and
Armour interests were to be dominant until into the 20th Century.
Even with this ownership, the Milwaukee managed to keep to itself and
to keep growing during the era when huge corporations were being formed
and consolidated, and when great western railway systems were being built.
However, it couldn’t keep to itself through the whole period. In the
late 1890’s, a fight developed. On one side were J. P. Morgan, the famous
financier, and his ally, James Hill, who built the Great Northern and
later also controlled the Northern Pacific. On the other side were E. H.
Harriman, who controlled the Union Pacific, and his allies from the
Rockefeller—Standard Oil interests. The Milwaukee was in the middle for a
time, since the fight was by the Harriman group to keep Morgan/Hill out of
Chicago—in fact, at one point Morgan offered to buy the Milwaukee. The
battle ended when Morgan/Hill got control of the Burlington, and thereby
entered Chicago.
One thing this in-fighting showed the Milwaukee’s management was that
its railroad needed to do some more growing, if it were to stay
competitive with railroads that reached the Pacific Coast, either in
California or Washington and Oregon. The Milwaukee couldn’t prosper by
turning over the more profitable long-haul business to other lines.
More and more, it seemed that the Milwaukee should be extended to the
Pacific, although the company was divided for a time on whether it should
go straight west or northwest.
Director William Rockefeller, as late as 1905, still thought the line
should be built to California. For a while he was seriously thinking that
it should be built in cooperation with the North Western, which— like the
Milwaukee — ended in Omaha.
One thing that did seem clear was that the company had ample resources
for extending itself, since it was soundly financed and highly respected
by financial men, who considered it one of the best-run railroads in the
country.
By 1901, the Milwaukee had 6,596 miles of track, its farthest northwest
point being Evarts, N. D., on the Missouri River.
In that year, A. J. Earling, the Milwaukee’s president, sent an
engineer to estimate how much it would cost to duplicate the Northern
Pacific’s line to the Pacific Northwest. The engineer thought $45 million
would do it.
After much deliberation, the company’s decision was made: go northwest.
On November 28, 1905, the board of directors voted to build the line to
Seattle and Tacoma.
Construction began less than a year later, jumping off from both ends
and some in-between points in April, 1906. The route chosen, then
estimated to cost $60 million, was to be 150 miles shorter than the
combined NP/Burlington route and 80 miles shorter than the GN/ Burlington
route. The Milwaukee’s route also was chosen so as to have better grades
than the competitive routes. However, it also was an expensive route since
the Milwaukee—given no land grants—had to purchase land or buy smaller
railroads to make the extension.
In a remarkable engineering feat, about 2,300 miles of railroad—built
on a path going through five major mountain ranges, the Saddles, Belts,
Rockies, Cascades and Bitter Roots—was built in only three years.
After construction started in 1906, the line was open for westward
traffic to Harlowton, Mont., by April of 1908, and then was open for full
passenger service over the entire route to Seattle by August, 1909.
On May 28, 1911, the Milwaukee began operating its Columbian and
Olympian passenger trains between Chicago and the Northwest.
During the four years from 1906 through 1910, the Milwaukee Road grew
from 7,000 to nearly 10,000 route miles, because of the extension and
because of the branch feeder lines that either were built or acquired.
It wasn’t long before the railroad found that steam operation in the
mountains was difficult for several reasons, one being temperatures that
could go as low as 40 degrees below zero.
Keeping in mind that water-power for generating electricity was
abundant in the Northwest, and that large supplies of copper for electric
wire were available at Anaconda, Mont., the Milwaukee’s board first
studied, then approved, plans to construct an electrified operation in the
Northwest.
Contracts were made for electric power in 1912, and in 1914 work was
begun on 440 miles of electrification between Harlowton, Mont., and Avery,
Ida. On November 30, 1915, the road’s first electrically hauled train ran
from Three Forks to Deer Lodge in Montana, over 112 miles of track.
The early stages of electrified operation proved so successful that in
1917 it was decided to go ahead with electrification between Othello and
Tacoma in Washington. The first test run on that track was on November 11,
1919, and formal operation began in March, 1920. Considerably later, a
10-mile electrified section between Seattle and Black River was
constructed and went into operation on July 5, 1927.
One interesting aspect of this operation is that electric locomotives
are equipped with regenerative braking. This means that when the electric
motors are reversed for braking, they become generators of electricity, so
that about 12 per cent of the power used by the trains is recovered during
braking. Some of these first locomotives are still in use today, proving
their durability and efficiency. The Milwaukee’s 656 miles of electrified
operation is the largest such operation in the U.S.
However, not for the first or last time while the company was making
progress in its operations, some dark financial clouds were beginning to
appear.
One reason was the westward extension and the, following
electrification. Instead of meeting original estimates of either $45
million or $60 million, the extension—including the $22 million
electrification cost—actually totaled about $257 million, at least four
times the original estimate.
As a result, the company’s debt and annual interest had soared.
The company’s funded debt had actually been decreasing in the years up
to and through construction of the expansion. Debt of $127 million in 1899
had shrunk to only $115 million in 1909, the year construction was
finished.
But then it began to shoot upward. Debt was $115 million in 1909, $147
million in 1910, $192 million in 1911, $227 million in 1912, $299 million
in 1913 and $331 million in 1914.
By 1920, debt was more than $400 million, or nearly four times what it
had been in 1910. Annual interest payments had risen proportionally, with
these amounting to nearly $20 million a year by 1920, in a time when the
company’s income and revenues were somewhat uneven.
Another problem of the time was the return of the company from Federal
control. The government had taken over the Milwaukee and other railroads
during World War I and operated them at capacity, with maintenance
deferred, so that the property was somewhat depleted when company
management again was in control. This Federal control lasted slightly more
than two years, from December of 1917 through March, 1920.
Other factors contributed to the financial weakening. One was that two
weak, deficit-ridden railroads were acquired, the Chicago, Terre Haute &
Southeastern being taken over in May, 1921, and the Chicago, Milwaukee &
Gary Railway in January, 1922. The Terre Haute was a 360-mile road with
good connections with eastern railroads and with access to Indiana coal
fields; the Gary basically was a 95-mile road bypassing Chicago.
With this trackage also came nearly $20 million in debt in the case of
the Terre Haute, and the Milwaukee had to take over interest and principal
on debt of the Gary, this being about $3 million. In hindsight, it is
clear that the Milwaukee hardly needed more debt at that time.
Still other things played a part. The automobile and truck began to
make inroads on the railroad’s passenger and freight volumes as early as
the 1920’s. For example, the Milwaukee’s total of passengers carried
annually dropped from 16 million in 1920 to only 6.7 million passengers in
1930. This industry-wide decline has continued until today, of course,
leading to the disappearance of many passenger trains, including some very
famous ones.
Still another thing was the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, which
diverted long-haul traffic the Milwaukee had hoped to attract to its
lines.
The Milwaukee began to encounter annual deficits beginning in 1921
(from that year through 1940, the railroad was to have only three years of
deficit-free operation, annual deficits in those years reaching as high as
$20 million). In 1924, some sizeable debt came due and, with the weak
state of the railroad’s finances, this could neither be paid nor financed.
Only one answer was possible: bankruptcy. It came, by vote of the board of
directors, on March 17, 1925.
On March 31, 1927, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific
Railroad Company was organized to acquire the property of the previous
company, which it bought that November in an auction held in Butte, Mont.
After Interstate Commerce Commission approval of the corporate
transfer, the reorganized company took possession of the former’s property
at midnight, January 13, 1928. Elected president was Henry A. Scandrett, a
former Union Pacific vice president.
The company hoped that reorganization would leave it financially strong
enough to survive. However, the Depression of the 30’s followed on the
heels of reorganization.
In the darkest days of the Depression, the Milwaukee made one of its
best-known steps—introduction of the famous 100-mile-an-hour Hiawatha
trains.
The company had been experimenting with high speed passenger trains for
some time. One important speed test was on July 20, 1934, involving a
five-car steel train with roller bearing cars. Pulling it was locomotive
6402, a four-year old engine regularly used on the Chicago-Milwaukee run.
On that day, the special train left Chicago’s Union Station, gathered
speed, was hitting 87 miles an hour by Morton Grove, reached up to 90 and
then 92 at Northbrook, then 97 and 100 mph. A little later, the train was
clocked at 103 mph at Oakwood, Wis. This run established a new world’s
sustained speed record for passenger train travel, averaging 92.62 miles
an hour for a distance of 61.4 miles between Edge-brook, Ill., and
Oakwood, Wis. Average speed for the full 85.7-mile Chicago-Milwaukee trip
was 76.07 mph.
As this test was underway, the Milwaukee was planning and then building
the completely new cars, with the company’s own design ideas, that were to
be used in the Hiawathas. In September of that year, the Milwaukee placed
orders with the American Locomotive Company (Alco) for locomotives to be
built at that company’s Schenectady shops.
Following trial runs and tests, Hiawatha service began on May 29, 1935,
on a regular 6½ hour schedule covering 410 miles, Chicago-St. Paul. The
Hiawatha routinely made the 85-mile Chicago-Milwaukee run in 75 minutes,
attaining the permitted 100 mph speeds at points en route.
Looking back, it may be hard for younger people to realize how much
attention these new streamlined trains received both nationally and
internationally. In an age of supersonic jets and of rockets, 100 mph may
not seem like much. But in the 30’s, when propellor-driven planes were
still being developed and when 60-miles-an-hour seemed pretty fast speed
in autos of that time, a 100-mile-an-hour train was really something. The
Hiawathas were talked about all over the country and the world. Long after
their introduction, the Hiawathas had daily audiences of people who lined
the tracks to watch the orange, maroon and silver streamliners flash past.
Other Hiawathas were to come. The first Hiawathas were so successful
that service was expanded in January, 1939 into a Morning Hiawatha and an
Afternoon Hiawatha. The Midwest Hiawatha was put in operation on December
11, 1940, operating between Chicago and Omaha, Sioux City and Sioux Falls.
In 1947 came the Olympian Hiawathas, t h e Chicago - Seattle service.
To give you an idea of the success of the first Hiawathas, on August
31, 1935, a Hiawatha train carried 1,632 revenue passengers on one trip.
In that month, 25,000 people rode the Hiawathas.
Despite this patronage and other favorable developments on the
operating side of the railroad, financial troubles continued to pile up.
In June of 1935, the Milwaukee again filed a bankruptcy petition and then
was operated under a trusteeship, not coming out of bankruptcy through
reorganization until December 1, 1945.
During the early 40’s, the Milwaukee Road—and other railroads—did an
awesome job of moving troops, materials and supplies for World War II.
After the war came the relative prosperity of a postwar period.
In 1950, the Milwaukee celebrated its centennial, dating its history to
that first train that ran in Wisconsin in 1850.
Not long afterward, the company embarked on a program of rebuilding
freight yards into new, completely m o d e r n gravity-type freight
classification yards, where most switching is done by a combination of
hump and retarders. The Airline Yard in Milwaukee was opened in 1952, the
huge Bensenville yard west of Chicago was rebuilt in 1953 and the St. Paul
yard opened in 1956.
In 1955, the Milwaukee began operating the famous “Cities” trains over
Milwaukee trackage between Chicago and Omaha, in an operation reminiscent
of such famous— but by then vanished trains—as the Pacific Limited and
others. The “Cities” are the City of Los Angeles, City of San Francisco,
City of Denver, City of Portland and the coach train, the Challenger.
It also was in 1955 that the Milwaukee ran its last regularly scheduled
steam locomotive, although the final steam run wasn’t to be made until
March 16, 1957, since a few steam locomotives were kept for standby
service after 1955.
Again, the Milwaukee was to find that property improvements and
progress came side-by-side with financial problems—although the 50’s
brought not disaster, but a decline. This was true in general of the
entire railroad industry, not just the Milwaukee.
Several related reasons were behind the decline. One was that
railroads, completely regulated and completely unsubsidized, were
competing with modes of transportation that were mostly unregulated and
that received direct or indirect subsidies from government funds. This
competition grew in almost direct ratio to the rising level of Federal
spending on airways, waterways and highways. For example, in a period when
Federal waterway spending increased by four times, the ton-mile volume of
barge lines also quadrupled.
It should be recognized, too, that the railroad industry had some other
built-in problems that had largely been ignored during the postwar
prosperity. This was shown in the railroad industry’s share of total
intercity freight traffic, which fell from nearly 70% in 1944 to only 41%
in 1962.
The passenger traffic decline continued in the 40’s and 50’s, primarily
because of the inroads of automobile travel, partly because of the
airplane. The family car’s share of intercity passenger travel rose from a
wartime low of 58% in 1944 to about 90% in 1962.
From the late 50’s to 1961, railroad industry employment was cut by
one-third, industry net income fell by 58% and the industry’s freight
revenues dropped significantly, even though these were years when the
nation’s overall freight traffic volume was growing strongly. Then the
Milwaukee—and other railroads—began to fight back.
New ideas in service, equipment innovations, fleets of new freight cars
and locomotives, and other new things were brought to the Milwaukee.
Here are some of the more notable developments, given on a year-to-year
basis:
In 1958—the Milwaukee began its piggyback operations.
In 1959—it installed the Car-scope car tracing system, designed to
supply up-to-the-minute information on freight car movements.
In 1960—work began on installation of a computer facility at the
Fullerton Avenue accounting offices in Chicago; a $1 million “one spot”
car repair facility was opened at the Bensenville freight yard; transport
of motor vehicles on multilevel rack cars began to be important new
traffic; and talks got underway with the Chicago and North Western about a
proposed consolidation.
In 1961—the Milwaukee’s suburban operations in Chicago were largely
modernized with double-deck, air conditioned commuter coaches; more
tri-level freight cars went into service for carrying motor vehicles; and
data processing operations began at Fullerton Avenue.
In 1962—the railroad expanded use of VHF radio for communications
between dispatchers, station agents and train personnel; expanded its
automatic dialing system for the company’s own phone lines; and installed
the first hot box detectors, used to detect overheated freight car
journals and protect against derailments or other problems.
In 1963—the Milwaukee inaugurated the XL Special and Thunderhawk
freights, the fastest between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest, running
on schedules that cut a full day off previous schedules; began its first
unit train operation carrying coal from mines to an Indiana power
generating plant; installed the first link of a microwave relay
communications system; began a major freight car rebuilding program;
ordered 22 more commuter cars to complete modernization of the suburban
fleet; and stepped up acquisition of new, larger and sometimes specialized
freight cars, adding also to the locomotive fleet.
In 1964—came initial agreement with the North Western on consolidation
terms; the first grain unit trains were operated, moving between the Twin
Cities and Duluth-Superior in the Upper Midwest to Buffalo, N. Y.; a
gantry crane was installed at the again-expanded Piggyback Park facility
in Bensenville, used to lift the trailers on or off flatcars; and the
Milwaukee became the first railroad to have complete hot box detector
protection on Chicago-Omaha and Chicago-Twin Cities routes.
In 1965—A new, contemporary-design passenger station was opened in
Milwaukee, Wis.; stockholders voted approval of the consolidation plan.
In 1966—the Milwaukee inaugurated the first all-piggyback train to
operate between Chicago and the Twin Cities; on June 6, filed an
application for consolidation with the North Western.
In 1967—a 360 computer system was installed at Carscope, giving
virtually instantaneous access to information on freight car location,
later the 360 was equipped with the first video display units to be used
by a midwest railroad; a second, larger gantry crane was put into use at
Piggyback Park; a Piggy Packer, a four-wheel drive vehicle with two
lifting arms for handling trailers, was also installed at Piggyback Park,
being the first such handling unit to be used by a midwestern-based
railroad…
And so, as this is being written, the work goes on, as the Milwaukee
Road develops the ideas and acquires the tools needed to continue building
a new and better railroad system.
10M-9-68
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