Welcome to another Then and Now segment at WARail! In this post we focus on the once mighty Milwaukee Road.EMD Serial #74610-1 was one of the many GP38-2 units built for the MILW in the early 1970s. This first Then and Now photo was taken at the Morton Depot in the summer of 1977. Morton is in the eastern part of Lewis County, near the southern end of former Milwaukee Road trackage (now owned by Tacoma Rail). MILW #356 was photographed by John Crosby, former Milwaukee Road employee and railroader. John had the sense to document a lot of MILW activity in the 1970s when he worked there; what he compiled then is now a rare look at a "Fallen Flag." This picture is only one of the many he has on file.
The second picture is of the same unit - now known as SOO 4506 - and was taken by Frank Rizzo during the summer of 2008 in North Dakota. That's 34 years to date on the rails...and counting! For those who might not know why this unit is now in SOO paint (and technically owned by Canadian
Pacific), #356 was one of the many locomotives purchased by SOO Line when they bought all the bankrupt Milwaukee Road assets in the mid 1980s. For more pictures of the same unit over the years - in various paint schemes - click HERE!In recent years there has been an awakening to the history of The Milwaukee Road and the years it served Washington. The Lost Rail blog does a great job of documenting the relics left from the line. There is a beautiful restored depot in South Cle Elum. Streets around former locations of Milwaukee Road properties are named things like...you guessed it...Milwaukee Rd, Milwaukee St, and Milwaukee Way. In Tacoma one can still see the tilted red rectangle of its logo painted on a trestle Sound Transit uses day in day out. The Milwaukee Road's "Tideflats Yard" is now the "Tideflats Division" of Tacoma Rail. The underdog of the Western rail expansion pulled out of Washington in 1980 before eventually disappearing into a paper trail around 1987. In its wake the Milwaukee left legends, stories, a kickin' logo, and a large number of Washington-based former employees spread from Port Angeles to the Idaho Border.
It's no secret that I love the Milwaukee Road. I won't hide that fact. My oldest son wears a Milwaukee Road hat because he too loves the Milwaukee Road. I even created a fictitious railroad called The Wilburton Line and based the logo on the famous angled rectangle. It's something in the colors, the versatility, and the fact that it ran here when I was in my formative years, even using trackage rights through East King County within earshot of my home.
If a person knows where to look, bits of "The Road" can be found all over Washington. Thankfully we have pictures like the ones above to see what was and what is still today!
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