Nostalgia & History > Milwaukee Road electric & diesel c1973 Montana #2 video

This post is the second part of the Milwaukee Road in Montana, same general area as the other one, but does have different locomotives and a tunnel scene. Electric and diesel power, who ever was the photographer he filmed the power and caboose and not much in between, probably an economic decision.. Photographer unnknown, my collection,  KCRW287

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Nice Milwaukee memories.  Just like watching old family movies!

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ

First rate video!

Classic scene of boxcabs with a Chessie box car in the consist!

Posted from Android

That's really great to see. I love the Milwaukee Road. Something about the tunnels and bridges and mountains and curves and to think about all that went in to making that railroad, and to think it's gone. Rode the Olympian Hiawatha end to end in 1957. Wish I could do it again. 

what an awesome video, especially with those remotes.............

66

goneon66 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> what an awesome video, especially with those
> remotes.............
>
> 66

Was called Locotrol back then. Unlike today it was fairly common for "remotes" to lose communication with the "master" locomotive on the head end back in the '70's due to the mountainous terrain. Several derailments resulted...

Keith_Kevet

Posted from Android

america can't have neat things

Can someone identify locations of the video?

Keith_Kevet Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> goneon66 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > what an awesome video, especially with those
> > remotes.............
> >
> > 66
>
> Was called Locotrol back then. Unlike today it
> was fairly common for "remotes" to lose
> communication with the "master" locomotive on the
> head end back in the '70's due to the mountainous
> terrain. Several derailments resulted...
>
> Keith_Kevet
>
> Posted from Android

thanks for that info, much appreciated.

besides the locotrol "comm losses," did the track conditions also contribute to the derailments?

66

Here is a link to my previous MR video from a few days ago, member steeplecab gave some info as to locations.

www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,5846350

mdolot1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That's really great to see. I love the Milwaukee
> Road. Something about the tunnels and bridges and
> mountains and curves and to think about all that
> went in to making that railroad, and to think it's
> gone. Rode the Olympian Hiawatha end to end in
> 1957. Wish I could do it again. 

I grew up in a community in Iowa on a Milwaukee Road branch line, that was originally the Kansas City main line before the cut off was built.  My first cab ride was on the Milwaukee Road between the depot and the Amana Refrigeration plant.  (I lived closer to the Rock Island Chicago-Omaha/Denver mainline, so I became a RI fan 1st, MILW 2nd.)  Yet when I think of the Milwaukee Road, my mind kind of defaults to Montana and Idaho first.

Great action... Thanks for posting...

> Can someone identify locations of the video?

I'll give it a shot, but everything is subject to correction.

That first set of clips is interesting. The Butte switcher appears to have a block of seven cars they've picked up from the Silver Bow interchange and is hustling them to the Butte Yard. That first location is Nissler Junction, just west of Rocker, shot from the I-15 bridge looking northwest. The bridge over Silver Bow Creek between the tracks was the first US 91 highway bridge and the building beyond it was the Nissler Junction roadhouse. I understand  it was also a brewery at one time, but don't have any firm knowledge of that. At 00:15 in the center background is a stone building, probably a hotel or boarding house, that still stands.

Starting at 00:32 we find the Butte switcher shuffling cars and hustling a boxcar toward Montana Street and a number of online industries. At 00:54 he's returning across the Montana Avenue crossing with Matt's Drive-In showing just behind the caboose. The stone wall on the right is the northeast corner of the Mount Moriah Cemetery, reportedly one of the most active voting districts in old Butte.

Starting at 1:00, I believe this is probably the top of the first loop at Newcomb, south of the Butte Yards, heading toward Janney. The Butte Helpers are on the point followed by the train's diesel road power. The first diesel is a GP40, and that lone diesel back in the middle of the freight consist is an SD45. This was one of the first Locotrol pairs the Milwaukee experimented with.

At 1:43 the power has crossed the Blacktail Creek trestle and is headed toward the Pipestone Pass summit tunnel, and Donald just on the other side. The highway through here (that this footage was shot from) was known for many years as Harding Way, because this is the section of main line where President Harding operated a westbound Milwaukee freight. It was a westbound freight heading downgrade in regeneration, so there wasn't too much to go wrong.

At 3:00 we see returning Butte Helpers coming out of the Pipestone Tunnel west portal, heading downgrade and probably going into light regeneration to counteract gravity by pushing power back to the MG sets at Janney. At 3:20 the helper set has reached the bottom of the grade at Newcomb and is rolling back down to Butte Yard.

3:36 sees the Butte switcher tied down with it's pan down while the Butte Helper gets into their pocket to tie up. This is apparently before the newer brick Butte Yard depot was built.

Starting at 4:20 we find the Deer Lodge switcher pulling a mixed manifest out to the east (compass south) end of the yard and adding the power set to the head end in preparation to leave town, The prominent peak in the background is Mount Powell, with a little late spring snow remaining.

In the background at 5:43 is the Louisiana Pacific sawmill. a major shipper in Deer Lodge. Today that is the Sun Mountain sawmill, and the operation has grown.

I believe that next short segment is a westbound just upgrade from Grace. There is a gravel road that takes off south from Ninteenmile that would give easy access to that stretch and the topography is right. Then we see the same train climbing westbound up through Donald and disappear into the Pipestone Tunnel. This is followed by possibly the same westbound dropping downgrade at Newcomb again. Note the work car and two bay hopper right behind the power. Those photographers were making some good time getting down the hill!

6:50 find us back at the Butte Yard and then following an eastbound train with quite interesting power on it. The head end power is probably a Locotrol master GP40, a large U-boat and another geep, possibly another GP40. Following this is an EMD switcher that was likely returning to Three Forks for the Gallatin Valley local having just gotten maintenance in the Deer Lodge shops. Behind this is a two-unit boxcab set and about seven cars back a three unit boxcab set. All I can say is that Deer Lodge was the heavy maintenance shop for the Rocky Mountain Division, and a lot of equipment went there from the east end of the division for heavy maintenance.

As I noted, this is all subject to correction.

steeplecab
Montana

goneon66 Wrote:
> besides the locotrol "comm losses," did the track conditions also contribute to the derailments?

The track conditions didn't deteriorate until a few years later with the advent of the 100 ton grain car. At the time these movies were shot the Milwaukee trackage was in very good shape as you can see. But the newer 100 ton cars really beat up the track, and most railroads had to scramble to deal with it. Milwaukee had a contributing problem because of the slightly greater plate clearances and tunnels, The Milwaukee sledded their tunnels to gain the added clearance, partly to avoid having to rework the catenary through the tunnels. Unfortunately, they didn't provide enough of a taper to the original grade at the portals, and cars coming out of the tunnels had a problem of 'hopping up' on these transitions enough to cause the wheelsets to derail. It's been discussed at length on the [MILW] group.
steeplecab
Montana

Love these older films!
I like the 3 Electric/3 diesel consist.

Yes one had to be very frugal with shooting time each scene back then, especially if one could only afford one or 2 rolls of film as short as they were.

I found myself doing the same thing with 2 hour (highest quality speed) video tape in the 1990's too, because I could only afford about 1 high quality tape per month!

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

Chasing the Milwaukee road Full Documentary

is on youtube  a look at the western section  by drone  coverage

Warden  Lind Wa   Ellensburg  etc  are seen as many other abandoned locations

Thanks for the info from steeplecab and bakersfielddave, and thanks for all the views, it is great to know where this and the other video were taken,  I would of liked to have had a chance to run any elctric loco, let alone hear one, I have ran and heard all the GEs and EMDs,  KCRW287