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Silk cars were used to haul silk. They were wood lined air tight units on passenger trucks for high speed service

Having a dad that worked for the Milwaukee as lineman in the signal dept he was gone a lot for derailments. I think the Orange and Black could have and should have been saved. Our governor Dixie Lee Ray in Washington didn't help the matter if remember correctly, I believe the employees want to take over operations of the Milwaukee. I was a young kid heard the adults taking. To this day I can't stand too much for Burlington Northern now BNSF why the federal government allowed their mergers and not the Milwaukee's wish to stay alive. Also the CEO and the board should be in prison for purposely miss management and the death of crews as a result. Comment by.Kenneth L Boren.

If only the Milwaukee Road management wasn’t so horrible. We could have still had the Milwaukee Road today.

Thanks to all who shared the pictures and videos & history of the Milwaukee road !MAY GOD BLESS THEM ALL !

This film reminds me of the budget crisis that cut me off a vibration study of the Old Milwaukee Road tracks. My grandfather William al-Jordan was locomotive engineer for fifty years on part of the Olympian Hiawatha route. My uncle Chief Joseph Flynn was likewise.

Many thanks for the detail, I watch the scenery & marvel at all the Bridges & Viaducts = much labor to bring to grade then build these marvels of engineering. Growing up in SE Mich in the 70’s we heard of the Milwaukee rd but never seen it. I appreciate your efforts to bring the story to my 65 “ screen tv via TH-cam . I’m retired for 12 yrs & like to watch old film bites of how it used to be 👍😉❤️

So sad to believe that lives were lost in those head on train collisions and wrecks! I grieve for all the railroaders who lost their lives. RIP to them!

Thank you so much for this presentation. I worked on the Milwaukee from 71 to the end in Chicago u s on signa😢ls and communication. Never got to lines west but talked with the supervisors out there and had a crew that was eventually worked taking catinary down.

Unbelievably painful to watch! The laws of physics are utterly unforgiving of neglect and ignorance of track-train dynamics realities. 2024/04/23. Ontario, Canada.

Wonderful presentation. I’ve been fascinated with the history of the railroads in this area of my state. An absolutely beautiful region of Washington.

at 33:06 could it be a coals fire transfer? where they transfer the fire from an out going train to another inbound train to help in the heat up?

21:50 the time period that all molders shoot for. That steam/diesel cross. My mom always said I was born in the wrong era, but now I can model it to perfection....so maybe not.

Enjoyable presentation!!!

Excellent! My favorite NW railroads, Milwaukee Road and the S&NC!

Awesome, long live the Milwaukee Road👍

Another great presentation. Thank you!!

This is amazing. Thank you for sharing your tremendous knowledge and experience. As a 60-year-old lifelong resident of teh city of Milwaukee, I'm now first discovering how special my city's namesake railroad was to so many people in the west. What a feat of engineering it was and a sad story of decline. There is barely a trace of the railroad left here. After the shops were torn down and the contaminated soil remediated, the site became a parking lot for the Brewer's new baseball stadium and a small industrial park for light industry. They tried to leave 2 of the shop smokestacks up as monuments to the railroad but they were not safe to leave free-standing and were eventually taken down too. Like most of the US today, the city doesn't manufacture much anymore and rail traffic here is a tiny percentage of what it used to be. Again, thanks to you!

This is an amazing video. Thank you so much for sharing it here. I'm a life-long Milwaukeean and grew up in the late '60's and '70's. Seeing my hometown's name on the side of hundreds of railcars and locomotives was a source of pride until the company had been run into the ground. Very sad to see what became of a once proud company, especially with the deaths of dedicated workers. The railroad's end in the '80's corresponded with the end of most of the city's once-dominant breweries and large manufacturers. The land the Milwaukee Road shops occupied is now a parking lot for the Brewer's stadium and much of the nearby railyards have been converted to parkland. One could easily make the case that the city is better off now but there is not a trace of the railroad left here, which is sad to those of us who appreciate history. Again, many thanks to you.

I am just seeing this for the first time. This is fantastic footage. Wow, alot of carnage for sure. Cool seeing wrecked now fallen flag railcars. Cool watching the Big hooks in action.

I'm wondering if the two structures were loco blowdown boxes to direct the steam up rather than straight out to the sides?

Fascinating, especially all the info on the Beverly bridge.

It's good to see these open to public use. I'm just sorry the Lind bridge is gone.

I would like to see a monument for the memory of Gabriel Zelaya, who was killed in the Beverly Bridge restoration project on 8/4/21. It's impossible to ride a bike many days due to wind shear.

Thank you Cascade rail for posting this video about the Milwaukee Road. My late father worked for this railroad in Chicago until he retired in the mid 70s. It gives us railfans a chance to look at railroading in the 70s. Great video and Milwaukee Road employees who worked hard to transport the nations goods and to the wrecking crew! Again thank you!

I was the last working foreman in Everett. Is there a presentation on Everett?

great presentation

are there any scale drawings on the bridges?

At 1:21:17 with Boxcab E25B profile in the rain where engineer framed in side window is looking back: Long time ago I had the privilege to meet Dick Steinheimer in person at a Railroad / Railfan expo somewhere in either Oregon or California circa mid-seventies and he talked about photography tricks he used to simulate night when in actuality the photo was taken in daylight. Not sure if he did that here but he suggested sometimes such trickery made the scene more interesting. Access to those trestles situated west of Hyak WA was possible using a hiking trail that crossed the railroad tracks. Rather than stay on the trail all you had to do was hike east from where the trail crossing was along railroad right of way. Allen Miller: now I know what you look like in person. I want to shout out a big Midwestern Thank You for airing your extemporaneous experiences on here while working for the Milwaukee Road and travails encountering the Seattle Watershed characters. I can sure relate to the latter brethren aka Tacoma Watershed the times I had to hike in there invisibly back in the day just to photograph trains, lol. You know me on Facebook as Ken Albrecht as I believe on here my nom de plume is Massive Minion.

Thank you for this video, nothing like talking to the guys who ran the railroad! At 1:21:12 there is an engineer or fireman stepping into the E-30, I’d swear that was my Dad John P Matlack. He fired on the Hiawatha many times early in his career.

47:30 My Dads train at Ramsdell, he was on duty at 4am that day they must have waited along time for their train dog caught it or work in the yard. The power was the same as his Teko turn the day before minus 2 units. They tied up in Othello at 8:50 pm, 16 hours and 50 minutes the story pictures don’t tell!! Thank you for the presentation!

The train at Mowry and Ramsdel on Sunday March 25 1979 are my Dads train we lived in the Spokane Valley. He commuted along with many others to St. Marie’s after getting called at all hours!

Hi...Were there any prints made of the Robert Dowler Milwaukee Road at Harlowton painting or Gary's pencil drawing at Harlowton? Thanks! Marc

The fact that they think it's ok to send Freight Cars tumbling down the mountainside is beyond me.

Well done Frank. Worked with you in Seattle Yard when you were in charge of MILW & BCR barge operations. John Crosby, Seattle

Sad Milwaukee road is gone no money to fix the tracks so derailments happened

Amazing. Thanks to Mr. Lex (and his son) for all of this MILW history.

Beautiful

Even near 1980 there is still no graffiti on the rolling stock!

😂just impossible for me to watch this avoidable distruction . As a trainmaster struggling to maintain operations. Many man hours went into making these consets, just to have the destroyed

WOW, Finally my friend Dowler has gotten his due. He helped me with his rare photos for my MRHA book, "Milŵaukee Road's Wooden Cabòoses" still for sale at MRHA company store/caboose book publications, please get one, all $ goes to MRHA, thanks.

Excellent presentation!

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The mystery car is probably not in service. A semi permanent ladder is attached on the left side of the car. Also the looks as if the rails are cut . There are spaces in the rails. A quill is a type of drive that transfers the rotational power from the motors to the wheels. The PRR P5a and the GG-1s I believe had quill drives. I was a hollow axel surrounding the solid axel of the driving wheels with a cup drive. Too much to explain in such a little space.

One wonders how many of these derailments were caused by saving money on track & bridge inspection / maintenance? Over my lifetime I've seen way too much of saving money only to have it costing way more than the original savings.

Does anyone know if the boxcar wreck heading towards summit is still there

Beautiful work! I spent my summers as a kid going back and forth from Seattle to Aberdeen, SD, to visit family. I am sure I was close to some of these photos in June, July and August...

Covid didn’t affect me, but before it interrupted leisure travel I made yearly trips from MN to the Idaho backcountry. At Wallace I asked locals at the gas station where the road with the railroad tunnels to Avery started? They had never heard of railroad tunnels and said you can’t get to Avery from here! Someone suggested Moon Pass street at the end of town maybe? I found my own way, including a walk to Pulaski’s tunnel, then on to Avery. That is an incredible driving experience for a flatlander that has never seen a railroad tunnel! Truly a national treasure. In 2016 I was further west to see what the Scablands were all about, and I wandered the backroads north from Wallula Gap. The few miles from Pine City to Malden felt like I was entering the Twilight Zone and a mile past Malden something told me to turn around and go back for a better look at that little town. I took some pictures and parked downtown for a walkabout. Mid morning on a slow day, not a person in sight, & the Post Office was the only thing open. I walked in and visited with the lady in charge and she gave me 1/2 hour history lesson on the place, including the railroads. I put Malden on my short list of peaceful places to retire someday and was heartbroken by the fire and smoldering ruins on the national news. A few more miles to Rosalia and I was again stunned to find those bridges looking like abandoned Roman Aqueducts, so more pictures to take. Getting on 195 into Spokane brought me back to harsh reality.

Oh yes, the Milwaukee Road is one of the railroads that no longer exist anymore.

Hello from Kansas 🇺🇸

I wish I could get a copy of the picture of the depot at Avery with the fish tank. I spent many hours there as a young girl when my dad worked on the Mikwaukee in the late 50s.