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This is a fascinating and enlightening discussion. This is a topic of particular interenst to me. I try to learn as much as I can (in a casual manner) of the extension and demise of the MIlwaukee Road. In my caual efforts and own ponderings, some of my conclusions are as follows: The "writing was on the wall" for teh pacific extension when the Justice Departemnt allowed James Hill to own both the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern. Possibly had he had to divest one or the other much like Harriman had to divest the Southern Pacific, much would have changed. As Mark has so eleoquently presented, there was not and still is not enough traffic to justify three transcontinental lines in the notrthern tier. If the ICC was really interested in competition, perhaps a more logical 1970 merger would have been MILW + NP, and GN + CB&Q. This could have given the Milwaukee Road on line customers and wouild have allowed the removal of duplicate trackwork. Would this have saved the Milwaukee "lines west"? Probably not, except for the few locations where the MILW alignment was better than the NP. The Pacific Extension was a bold(perhaps foolish in hindsight) attempt by the managers to compete on thier own terms with the Hill lines. But at least those men had vision and sought to survive as their own company rather than be part of another. Men (and women) with such vision and drive are few these days. Just my opinion.
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