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Thanks, Michael, for taking the time to provide additional detail. Now I understand the context of your earlier posts, and what you've stated now makes sense to me. I'm never one to say I know everything. Were we speaking in person, doubtless the confusion on my part would not have occurred. Forums aren't the best medium for some discussions. [quote]QUOTE: $400 million is, in fact, the equivalent of what was required on the eastern end of the transcontinental mainline, Chicago-St. Paul, on a per-mile basis. One of the interesting mythologies from that era is the fact that the Lines East transcon mainline was in much worse shape structurally than the Lines West mainline, but that uninformed observers thought the reverse. The derailment differences between the sections could be seen more accurately as the difference in deployment of human maintenance resources, rather than as any kind of accurate measure of structural deficiencies. [/quote] That's an eye-opener for me. I'd always thought the reverse was true. I've seen the "extension" referred variously as the Pacific Extension ([url]http://wx4.org/to/foam/big_rr/milw/milw.html[/url]), Pacific Coast Extension, and Puget Sound Extension (for the latter ref. see [url]http://www.northeast.railfan.net/classic/MILWdata5.html[/url] and [url]http://www.mrha.com/links.cfm[/url]). The Milwaukee Road Historical Association refers to it as the latter. Maybe it's a parochial designation. The derailments and slow orders to which I referr were, as you likely know, an all-too-frequent occurrence during the latter years of the PCE/PSE due to lack of maintenance. I'm primarily referencing the condition of the track in Washington. I lived near the MILW during its latter years here in the Pacific Northwest and saw it frequently; lightly used branchlines (now shortline railroads) here in Central and Eastern Washington are in better shape, in many cases, than the condition of the MILW mainline in the late 1970s from my observation and recollection. Some of those shortlines today operate on former MILW property. Anyway, the idea probably persists that the PCE/PSE was being neglected moreso than Lines East because management wanted to dump it ASAP.
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