How to lose a railway

[signalmaintainer]

Not really i have my father with me. We were just talking about how the MILW had to maintain substations every 15 miles and keep the wires up in heavy snow.

 

Substations every 15 miles? I don't think so. The Milwaukee Road had a total of 22 substations between Harlowton, Mont., and Avery, Idaho, and between Othello and Tacoma, Wash., a distance of about 650 route miles. So about one substation every 30 route miles distributed between the two divisions. In between Avery and Othello was the non-electrified section known as The Gap.

[Glorious NSE]

Ex IC? Geeps masquerading as Milwaukee Units, Dell Raipds SD 2004

 

They're not from the IC/ICG, Paducah's have rebuilt battery box arrangements plus ox-yoke filters making them fairly easy to spot once you know what to look for - have a compare with:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=550168

The frog eye headlight is another IC spotting feature but not all had them

 

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locolist.aspx?id=DAIR

Reckons the #5 is an ex Milwaukee GP9 whilst the #24 is an ex BN (nee Northern Pacific) GP9

[coachmann]

Probably unrelated, but I have quite a number of railway videos and it is striking how many times the narrator says...."It was obvious from the outset that the Western Region had decided to shut the line down once they had taken over control of the line". This was always in reference to someone elses line like the Somerset & Dorset etc.

[signalmaintainer]

They're not from the IC/ICG, Paducah's have rebuilt battery box arrangements plus ox-yoke filters making them fairly easy to spot once you know what to look for - have a compare with:

http://www.rrpicture....aspx?id=550168

The frog eye headlight is another IC spotting feature but not all had them

 

http://www.rrpicture...st.aspx?id=DAIR

Reckons the #5 is an ex Milwaukee GP9 whilst the #24 is an ex BN (nee Northern Pacific) GP9

 

I agree that odds are the #24 is a former BN (nee NP) torpedo tube Geep 9.

[Ozexpatriate]

Not really i have my father with me. We were just talking about how the MILW had to maintain substations every 15 miles and keep the wires up in heavy snow.

 

Substations every 15 miles? I don't think so. The Milwaukee Road had a total of 22 substations between Harlowton, Mont., and Avery, Idaho, and between Othello and Tacoma, Wash., a distance of about 650 route miles. So about one substation every 30 route miles distributed between the two divisions. In between Avery and Othello was the non-electrified section known as The Gap.

There were huge operational advantages with electric traction in the mountains.

 

Trains in the mountains normally required double-heading of steam locomotives. One of the MILW EP-2 electric units could out-pull two of their normal mainline locomotives. This was actually demonstrated in a "push-of-war".

 

Considering that this was 1910s electrical technology, the power distribution was remarkably effective. The choice of 3kV DC limits the distance between substations but the rotating converters used could absorb regnerated power back to the grid and could operate up to a 200% overload.

 

Regenerative braking from the electric motors was also beneficial in mountainous terrain in reducing wear on other braking systems.

 

Crossing the mountains involved some long tunnels. Electric traction could easily handle these where steam locomotives would stuggle to maintain their fire, while simultaneously asphyxiating their crews. (The SP went as far as to build cab-forwards to solve this problem in their tunnels and snow sheds.) The Snoqualmie Pass tunnel on the coast divsion was 2.3 miles long at an altitude around 3,022'.

 

Perhaps snow on the wires was an issue, but snow on the line was probably a bigger issue and was equally problematic for either steam or electric hauled mountain lines.

 

I think this link was listed earlier on this thread but it contains a lot of relevant information about MILW electrification.

[Bloodnok]

It's interesting to think about what might have happened had the proposed buyout occurred. IIRC a group of Japanese businessmen wanted to buy 'lines west' shortly after closure. The plan was to turn it into an express freight route - taking containers from ships arriving on the west coast straight across the mountains. Dropping all other service along the line, and as a result of this (and fixing the track!) having the fastest shipping time across the mountains of any railroad. Apparently, a major factor in why this didn't go ahead was the anti-Japanese sentiment in the US at the time.

[signalmaintainer]

The Snoqualmie Pass tunnel on the coast divsion was 2.3 miles long at an altitude around 3,022'.

Actually, the altitude is a bit lower than that, as Interstate 90 crests the pass at 3,022 feet. The former Milwaukee right of way enters the east portal of the tunnel at Hyak, a couple miles east of the I-90 summit and, off the top of my head, probably closer to 2,700 feet altitude.

 

Bottom line is that the Milwaukee Road possessed the best route through the Cascades, even though they were the Jimmy Come Lately, well after Northern Pacific Railroad (not "Railway" until 1893) had surveyed (and rejected) Snoqualmie Pass and the Great Northern selected what became known as Stevens Pass.

 

Milwaukee also boasted truthfully of having the most direct route between Seattle and the Midwest, and was beating NP and GN times moving freight between Seattle and Minneapolis/Chicago.

[AndyID]

I only discovered recently that the short-line near where I live was actually part of the main Milwaukee Road. It's still in operation transporting lumber from a mill in Plummer, Idaho. I found this video made a few years ago. It's not far from here near the Idaho/Washington border.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOVj7ew54ds

 

BTW, there's a plinthed "Little Joe" in Deer Lodge, Montana. I'll post the pics I have if I can find them. There's also a small museum in Avery, Idaho.

[pH]

23 minutes ago, AndyID said:

BTW, there's a plinthed "Little Joe" in Deer Lodge, Montana. 

 

Yes, I know. I drove through Deer Lodge, looked at the remains of the tracks, but didn't find out about the 'Joe' till later .

[AndyID]

Found it. (I have more close-ups if anyone wants them.)

 

[AndyID]

The museum at Avery.

 

 

 

[AndyID]

Looks like the bit of the old Milwaukee Road track near here won't be disappearing any time soon. UP is replacing many or perhaps all the ties.