Milwaukee Road, SP, GN and NP branchlines.

[JanOlov]

Starting to work up an interest for these railroads branchlines. What kind of traffic did they have, engines, grades, bridges, tunnels and so on?? Any good books?  

[enr2099]

Shortlines? I'd hardly call the Milwaukee Road or the Great Northern a short line.

[wjstix]

Do you mean branchlines??

[JanOlov]

Sorry folks, that's what I meant, these railroads branchlines.....silly me! 

That's what happens when you too much going on in your head....  

[WP 3020]

For the SP in the West coast states look up books by John Signor for CA branchlines, and The Southern Pacific in Oregon by Ed Austin & Tom Dill is great for all the ones in Oregon.

SP had a wide range of branclines in Oregon, The hilly ones dealt mostly with timber products while the ones on the flat had almost every thing for traffic.

What era are you interested in?

[JanOlov]

Any era....

[joseph2]

The NP once had a 54 mile branch from the mainline at Livingston,Montana south to Yellowstone National Park.I will guess that back in the steam days it was more of a passanger line then a freight line.

[CMSTPP]

The milwaukee road had many branch lines. A good portion of those lines were in the mountains. The milwaukee road had a couple of electrified sections. One of which was the Rocky mountain division. The other electrified line was the coast division. Most of the branch lines were located in the Midwest such as Minnesota and Wisconsin.

If you would like to know much more about the milwaukee road visit my Website at: www.freewebs.com/cmstpp/  Here you will learn much about were the line goes and what kind of things went on with the railroad. Also you will find out about the electric locmotives that ran in the mountains.

Check it out!!!

 

James

[jimrice4449]

The Milw had three branches in North Idaho.   There was a branch that ran south from St Maries to Elk River but it had been abandoned from Bovil to Elk River by the time I went to work for them (1976).  During steam days the procedure was to run from St Maries to Clarkia w/ a Mike hauling the empties.   At Clarkia the Mike was swapped for an N-2 2-6-6-2 Malley (there's a SERIOUS grade btween Clarkia and Bovil.)   The Mike would then take the loads gathered bt the Malley back to St Maries.   The branch logger generally ran about 50 log flats along w/ a few chip and lmbr loads.   An interesting operation was the interchange w/ Lafferty Transportation Co. )a tugboat operation that floated logs from the log dump at Ramsdell down the St. Joe river and Lake Coeur d Alene to the mills at CdA.  At one time there was psgr service using one of those cute "Mini Hiawatha" branchline cars that the Milwuakee Shops built.

There were two branches out of Spokane, one to CdA which was largely forest products and one that originally branched off of the CdA branch at the Idaho/Wash state line and ran north to Metaline Falls where there was a Lehigh cement plant.   Traffic was primarily forest products and (suprise!) cement.

There were 2 other branches east of the Cascades, one to Royak City (out of Warden just east of Othello) which service a beet sugar plant and one that ran from Beverly one the Columbia River into the Hanford nuclear facility.

[JanOlov]

Thanks folks.....keep 'em coming, please.

[andrechapelon]

One of the better known of the SP branchlines was the SP Monterey Branch which hosted a named passenger train up until Amtrak.  http://www.wx4.org/to/foam/sp/san_jose/long_haul/del/monte.html  http://www.wx4.org/to/foam/sp/san_jose/long_haul/del/monte3.html      The branch departed from the SP's Coast Line at Castroville Junction (a few miles north of Salinas). http://www.wx4.org/to/foam/sp/castro/ville.html

Until the sardine industry died (starting around 1945), the SP did a lot of business hauling freight into and out of Cannery Row. In later years, there was considerable traffic out of the sand mine at Lake Majella. There was also a sand pit just east of Marina.

Andre

[billbtrain]

Great Northern Railway's Kalispell,Montana branch circa 1969.

This branchline left the mainline at Columbia Falls and ended at Somers(milepost 24.85).Columbia Falls to Kalispell was part of original mainline built in the 1890's.It became a branchline in 1902 when the mainline was relocated thru Whitefish.Points on the branch were Columbia Falls,La Salle,Kalispell,and Somers.La Salle was just a storage siding with a capacity of 44 50 foot cars.Somers was the location of a tie treatment plant run by Somers Lumber Company(a subsidiary of Glacier Park Company,itself a GN subsidiary).Columbia Falls,Kalispell,and Somers all had wyes.

Traffic was mostly forest products(finished lumber,plywood,and woodchips),agriculture(wheat,barley,and cherries),filled out with fuel oil,scrap,propane,fertilizer,cement,ties(treated and untreated)poles,timbers,carload and LCL freight.

Trains were #'s 369 and 370,the Kalispell Transfer operated from Whitefish yard to Columbia Falls and Kalispell six days a week,then as an extra twice a week to Somers.Power at the time were one or more GP7's from 620,621,and/or 622 or one of the SW9's based at Whitefish (17 or 18),maybe even an NW2.Caboose used on the branch that year was reported to be X19.All of these in the GN's Big Sky Blue paint.Extra to Somers was always restricted to one locomotive.Train length could be anywhere from a handfull of cars during the winter months,when the train frequency was only once a week at times,to 60 to over 100 cars during the late summer.

Speed limit was 40MPH on thios branch with a 5MPH restriction at Main Street crossing in Kalispell.

I can provide more information on industries and operations if anyone is interested.

Have a good one.

Bill B

[wjstix]

Well if you'll accept three roads of your four, the GN Minneapolis - Superior line and NP's St.Paul - Duluth line crossed at grade at Hinckley MN, and the Milwaukee had trackage rights over the NP. This was typical midwest country - small towns,  farms and gently rolling hills, but with a good amount of coal, grain and mixed traffic from the "Twin Cities" to the "Twin Ports". Passenger trains were a manageable model RR size, the GN Gopher/Badger was one former Empire Builder E unit and 5-6 cars when I rode it in 1969. Amtrak's North Star was about the same size, and was one of the first Amtrak trains to get Superliners.

[Anonymous]

Jan:  Check out this site:  http://www.brian894x4.com/AbandonedRRmainpage.html

Lots of interesting items and pictures there.

[JanOlov]

Cheers mate!

[ilgtoo]

 I'm sorry for replying to such an old message, but I'm digging for information on the old MILW Elk River branch.  Does anyone know where the N-2 2-6-6-2 Malley the Mike bunked overnight?  Did it return to St. Maries?  St. Maries had the wye and what looks like a mallet house currently used as their diesel house I think.

Also, does anyone know if there were any passenger/baggage trips made out to Elk River?  Or how much interchange with the WIM at Bovill?

I'm thinking of doing a small layout of this branch as a first go-round and then incorporate that into a larger layout based on Avery and St. Maries.

 Thanks!

[Road Fan]

Don't forget about the Milwaukee Road's branches at Port Angeles to Port Townsend, WA on the Olympic Penninsula; it's branch from Bellingham, WA to somewhere near Mt Baker and its line to Everett, WA.

Thanks,

Road Fan

 

[aricat]

If you are a Milwaukee Road fan then you MUST buy Fred Hyde's superb book on the Milwaukee. This book spends a lot of time on branch lines,and the pictures are of the highest quality. Dr Hyde covers everything from Indiana to Washington and it is worth every penny. I hope that you can locate a copy. The time covered is the 1960's and 1970's. Aricat.

[upjake]

Just a little tidbit of info. I remember reading that the Great Northern had one of the more unique early road switchers, the NW-5, which was basically a switcher with modifications for branchline use. I believe they were mainly used for western Minnesota branchlines although I don't know if they were used in other states.

[billbtrain]

upjake

Just a little tidbit of info. I remember reading that the Great Northern had one of the more unique early road switchers, the NW-5, which was basically a switcher with modifications for branchline use. I believe they were mainly used for western Minnesota branchlines although I don't know if they were used in other states.

 

Great Northern's NW5's (189,191-195)were assigned to branchline use on the Dakota Division out of Grand Forks and Breckenridge,GN 186 and 190 were assigned to Minneapolis Jct(one on the Wayzata to Hutchinson branch and the other in transfer service),GN 188 was assigned to the Spokane Division working the branch to Coeur d' Alene Idaho,and GN 187 was assigned to Seattle on the cascade Division.Check out Hol Wagner Jr's 1974-75 BN Motive Power Annual.

Have a good one.

Bill Burge