Check it out, this was way back when the brick of the roundhouse was still a light cream colored before the pollution and elements turned it a grayish-black (Cream City Brick Company?). Would be curious what color the trim was painted. Note the skylights on the rectangular buildings to let in the sun light.
https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2014/04/16/yesterdays-milwaukee-menomonee-valley-rail-industry/
The story of Cream City Brick which used the clay of the Menominee River outlet to Lake Michigan to make bricks locally in Milwaukee....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cream_City_brick
That was one impressive complex!
One of the very first issues of Trains that I bought 1973? had a full centerspread of the entire MILW complex in Milwaukee. I finally saw it many years later after some of it had been razed.
Trying to find it (as I am wont to do), but can't find Mt Vernon St...
I know it's probably gone, but I like to look stuff like that up anyhow.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
TMER&T's 1952 Transit Guide shows Mt. Vernon Ave. running east/west parallel to and one block south of W. St. Paul Ave. (i.e., two blocks south of W. Michigan St.), the easternmost endpoint being at N. 28th St. From there it runs west ending temporarily at N. 39th St. It resumes going west at N. 41st St. but only for one and one-half blocks where it appears to be cut off completely by the northward turn of the Menomonee River and valley.
Flintlock76That was one impressive complex!
Thats only about 50% in the frame of the picture. They actually had two roundhouses not sure if they were both fully circular when built but when I first saw the shops complex only 50% of each former roundhouse was still standing, the rest was razed but the tracks still radiated out for the razed stalls in most cases. The rectangular buildings were still mostly the old brick but some had been replaced by the new steel construction. Milwaukee manufactured everything there. Wheelsets, Frieight Cars, Passenger Cars, Locomotives, track panels, creosote ties (they experimented with different types of wood other than oak), Steel from ore. They had a carpentry shop as well and it's one reason why you see the use of wood trim inside their passenger cars......it was a holdover from the days when both the boxcars and passenger cars were made of wood.
They had so many dead locomotives on hand by the shops, which they would slowly strip down for parts. They literally ran the locomotives until they failed mechanically, sometimes old age other times just sheer negligence. Most of the FP45's in my opinion died an early death because of lack of maintence (negligence). Five bought new 12/1968 all dead and scrapped by 1984. Some were dead as early as 1980 (compare that with their longevity on Santa Fe).
tree68 Trying to find it (as I am wont to do), but can't find Mt Vernon St... I know it's probably gone, but I like to look stuff like that up anyhow.
Another fun thing is to then put the coordinates into HistoricAerials and see if they have old imagery from back in the day.
Leo_AmesAnother fun thing is to then put the coordinates into HistoricAerials and see if they have old imagery from back in the day.
I often do exactly that. Had to figure out where I was looking first.
In the 1955 aerial, both roundhouses are visible, and complete.
The next available aerial, 1963, still show both roundhouses, but over half of both had been "daylighted."
By 1995, the locations of both were still clear, but they clearly were not in use.
By 2000, you could tell where they'd been, but the roundhouses were gone.
by 2005, all traces were gone, and by 2008, there were new buildings on the site.
Armchair railroad archeology is fun!
Makes me think of CSX's, formerly the C&O's, Fulton Yard in southeast Richmond.
Want to see the "ghost" of the old roundhouse? Here it is:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/CSX+Fulton+Yard/@37.5110484,-77.41438,288m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xc1d9bc5bd9b12108!8m2!3d37.5165271!4d-77.4115405
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