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Milwaukee Road history - Wikipedia version

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[quote user="ChuckHawkins"] What exactly do you question in their route choice? [/quote]I assume you're refering to my concurrence on the Wikipedia entry in which "some historians" questioned the initial route choice.Prior to joining this forum, I had several long held views regarding the Milwaukee's route to the Pacific Northwest.  I liked the Snoqualmie Pass section, disdained the Saddle Mountains crossing, and wondered if the north bank of the Columbia Gorge could have been secured if the directors had acted with a little more urgency once the transcon decision was made.  I questioned why the Milwaukee chose to bypass both Spokane and Lewiston, why they chose the St. Paul Pass line over either the Lolo Pass route (used by US Highway 12) to hit Lewiston directly or Lookout Pass and Fourth of July Pass to hit Spokane directly.  Why turn down toward Butte instead of using a shorter route through Helena?  Why didn't they avoid the Belt Mountians altogether by using Rogers Pass via Great Falls?Well, some of those inquiries were answered by the contributions of forum members, not just Michael but also kenneo and artfbe.  For example, I had no idea that Milwaukee was considering Cadette Pass (just north of Rogers Pass) as a new mainline route to either supplement the Pipestone Pass line or supercede it.  What I still question about this is why go to all the trouble of building via Butte with heavy duty permanent construction?  Why not just build a temp track over Cadette until the longer tunnel could be availed?  A branch line down to Butte to tap the mines would have sufficed, right?  I also was unaware that Milwaukee had planned a long tunnel underneath St. Paul Pass to reduce the ruling grades from 1.7% both ways to under 1% both ways, as well as eliminate some mileage and curvature.  But again, why the heavy duty permanent construction if the eventual route was intended as a temp line?Milwaukee built grain branches aplomb in Montana, but seemed to neglect the best grain growing areas of the Palouse in Eastern Washington and North Central Idaho.  Milwaukee also built some branch lines that just seem to defy logic - the line to Port Angeles via car ferry, the branch up the Swan River Valley in Montana, the dead end branch up to Ione Washington, the branch to Hanford WA.  If they had money to build branchlines, why not tap up to Wenatchee and the Big Bend Country of Washington instead of down to Hanford?  Why not build one down into the heart of the Palouse country and down to Lewiston instead of a mostly logging branch to Elk River ID?  Why not build to a connection with one of the Canadian roads instead of dead ending a few miles south of the border?It just seems on the surface anyway that the Milwaukee didn't take full advantage of "untouched" areas along a logical mainline corridor, areas along the mainline where Milwaukee was either the only game in town or the dominate mainline.  Butte already had NP, UP, and GN; Helena had the NP mainline; and both had to be reached by going through the Belt mountain ranges and the Continental Divide at 5800' to 6500' - meanwhile Great Falls only had a GN branchline at the time, and could have been reached from the east with nary a mountain grade.  Spokane had GN, NP, UP through town, while Lewiston ID had an NP branch from the north and a UP branch from the west, yet Milwaukee chooses to bypass Spokane to the south, thus misses both towns, and just skims the north end of the Palouse grain growing region.  They missed the Tri-Cities, missed Yakima, missed Portland, missed Wenatchee.I also question the choice of crossing the Columbia River at Beverly instead of farther south.  It just looks rough to cross a bridge located by a natural wind tunnel, then have to start 20 miles of 2.2% grade.  By crossing farther south they could then follow the natural contours of the ridges off the Saddle Mountains and keep the grade less harsh.  But of course, they chose to utilize Lind Coulee to get from southern Spokane County to the river, and of course they took that course because they chose to cross the Bitterroots at St. Paul Pass instead of Lolo.  If Milwaukee crosses at Lolo, they avoid any steep grades from there all the way to Puget Sound, since Lolo gives them a more southerly latitude.That kind of stuff.Since I'm on a roll, I believe in hindsight the best route for Milwaukee, CB&Q, or CNW through Montana to Puget Sound would have been to avoid the Belts and head for Great Falls.  Right there you maintain a Prairie Division profile all the way to Great Falls, and that pesky NP isn't your constant companion.  Then head west/southwest over Cadette or Rogers to Missoula, then over Lolo to the Clearwater River drainage near present day Lowell ID.  That's your primary Mountain Division, Great Falls to Lowell, two passes, roughly 200 miles, and the only time you see another railroad is when you cross over the NP at Missoula.  Then from Lowell you're running water level grade all the way to Benton County in Washington, and if you can't get the Gorge, then head northwest along Umtanum Ridge over the Saddles to Ellensburg (1% grades both ways), and then head over Snoqualmie at 0.7% ruling westbound grade, 1.6% eastbound.  That's your secondary Mountain Division, less grades but more snow to deal with, either way a much better alignment than your competitors NP and GN.But whatever you do, try to get that North Bank of the Columbia as Priority Number 1.  If you do it'll pay dividends for years to come.
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