Milwaukee Road Stories

[joseph2]

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.

[Anonymous]

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 the Milwaukee and the Soo line met to complete the sale. There were a lot of details to work out. We had many boxes of Pizza and soft drinks. Finally just before midnight we were ready and former Governor Ogilvie, who was the bankruptcy trustee, handed over the stack of deeds to the Soo Line president. We left soon afterward and were back at work the next morning but now on the Soo Line payroll.

The Soo line closed most offices in Chicago and moved most operations to Minneapolis. The Soo Line offered jobs to those they wanted and everyone else got a good severance package based on years of work. No one was forced to go and anyone who did not want to work for the Soo Line or move got the severance package. This was very good for employees and unlike what the UP later did to North Western employees in that they refused the severance package to anyone who would not take a job they offered. I stayed in Chicago for about a year at the request of the Soo Line and then, since I did not want to move to Minneapolis, I left about April 1986. I was lucky in being able to go three blocks down the street to work in the real estate department of the North Western. I stayed with them for 9 years until the UP took over the North Western in 1985.

I can tell you more stories if you are interested.

Bye. Larry

[Anonymous]

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 the Milwaukee and the Soo line met to complete the sale. There were a lot of details to work out. We had many boxes of Pizza and soft drinks. Finally just before midnight we were ready and former Governor Ogilvie, who was the bankruptcy trustee, handed over the stack of deeds to the Soo Line president. We left soon afterward and were back at work the next morning but now on the Soo Line payroll.

The Soo line closed most offices in Chicago and moved most operations to Minneapolis. The Soo Line offered jobs to those they wanted and everyone else got a good severance package based on years of work. No one was forced to go and anyone who did not want to work for the Soo Line or move got the severance package. This was very good for employees and unlike what the UP later did to North Western employees in that they refused the severance package to anyone who would not take a job they offered. I stayed in Chicago for about a year at the request of the Soo Line and then, since I did not want to move to Minneapolis, I left about April 1986. I was lucky in being able to go three blocks down the street to work in the real estate department of the North Western. I stayed with them for 9 years until the UP took over the North Western in 1985.

I can tell you more stories if you are interested.

Bye. Larry

[Anonymous]

Correction. The UP took over the North Western in 1995, not 1985.

larry

[Anonymous]

Correction. The UP took over the North Western in 1995, not 1985.

larry

[route_rock]

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.

[route_rock]

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.

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

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

[camarokid]

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

[camarokid]

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

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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 ..??

[Anonymous]

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 ..??