MILWAUKEE ROAD ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVES

MILWAUKEE ROAD ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVES - COLOR MOVIE FILMS

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Charles Smiley Presents Videos

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 65

@charlessmileyvideos 11 ай бұрын

This is one never before seen chapter from our movie "Milwaukee Road Scrapbook" available at www.cspmovies.com

@anb7408 11 ай бұрын

The plight of the Milwaukee and the PCE to Seattle was a prime example of how NOT to manage a railroad. They inherited a huge amount of traffic as concessions for the BN merger (up to two extra trains each way per day), and they pissed it away with deferred maintenance, and spending the profits elsewhere. Makes me sick every time I’m out west, and see the dirt path that was once the Milwaukee mainline.

@dougb5202 11 ай бұрын

Yup, such a shame. Just imagine if they realized what they had. It would have been the most profitable, environmentally friendly railroad in North America, and probably so much so that they would have forced the other competing railroads to go electric. I did the bike trail from the St Paul Pass tunnel down over all the trestles thinking to myself the whole way "I shouldn't be here on a bike, I should be watching doubestack container trains being pulled by electric locomotives."

@anb7408 10 ай бұрын

Given that the BNSF and MRL mainlines across Montana are both running above capacity now, the Milwaukee’s mainline would likely be just as busy now. Ironic that it went bankrupt the same year deregulation/Staggers act was passed.

@Isochest 19 күн бұрын

@@dougb5202 Sad to see this happen. Greetings from Manchester UK

@diesel71 11 ай бұрын

It seems we were further ahead environmentally 75 years ago with the electrics than today.

@HanKim-b7g 11 ай бұрын

I am part of the Milwaukee family, from the Rocky Mountain and Coast Divisions. My Grandfather, Father, Mother, Brother, Myself, Niece and her husband all worked the Milwaukee. I don't usually get chocked up but!

@tudwortyjmcguern5689 Ай бұрын

i miss the milwaukee , have since its engineered demise

@Jeff-uj8xi 10 ай бұрын

I got to see the catenary before it was cut down, but sadly I missed the electric operation. It had ceased not long before I was out there. I put the abandonment of the Milwaukee Road electrification right up there with the tearing down of Penn Station in New York City. Both tragic acts of vandalism.

@Isochest 3 ай бұрын

Agreed. The Milwaukee would be a national asset now if still in operation particularly if the Avery-Othello gap were wired

@durandjohnson1321 7 ай бұрын

I remember the power sub-station in Tacoma had a neon sign,.. "Milwaukee Road".. that would light up at night, wish I had of gotten a photo of it!

@MontanaDirtRoads 11 ай бұрын

I drove and filmed the rout from taft to avery this last summer,i was born the year they died off so never got to see this in action but love the history of this railroad.

@chrisloomis1489 2 ай бұрын

I remember seeing the Milwaukee Electrics on our first trip " home " to Seattle after moving to Lower Michigan , and the substations were still there. Later when our family moved to Wyoming , I drove oil field and mining or tanker loads. I was shocked to see the whole of the sub stations , gone evaporated and many in Montana felt left in a lurch losing their local railroad , the same in Idaho . Only the Great Northern remained with the green and white simplified paint scheme , somehow until the BNSF era the trains just seemed to have lost their souls. Many of the high bridges in the mountains East of Seattle still stand. You can see them from the freeway and that is how you KNOW your in the Great Cascade Mountains. ❤

@FrankZellerhoff 8 ай бұрын

Being a past chief substation operator at cedar falls i didn’t see that there was a operation shortfall. I loved the silent smoke less power. Great job I loved every minute , even the 3400 amp trip outs . Great video F Z

@anthonyxuereb792 9 ай бұрын

How sad and how could it just disappear?

@Isochest 10 күн бұрын

A combination of bad management and political decisions that don't favor electrification

@Duececoupe 10 ай бұрын

😍🥰😎 Yip, I'm a HUGE Milwaukee Road fan boy, deal with it! 😉😆😂 More, moooore, MORE Milwaukee Road please! 🤜🏻🤛🏻 Wouldn't mind more GN, NP, D&RGW, SP and WP either, mountain railroading rules! ✊🏻

@wdd6864 11 ай бұрын

Another great DVD. I watched it multiple times.

@charlessmileyvideos 11 ай бұрын

The Milwaukee Road was one of the most special and unique railroads in our American History. They were always pushing the envelope and dealing with tough times making them even more inventive!

@craiganderson7565 11 ай бұрын

Me too … nicely done ; very sad to see what happened to a once great railroad .

@hartmutlorentzen9659 11 ай бұрын

Excellent video, Thanks for presentation, from Germany

@Tom-xe9iq 10 ай бұрын

Sadly, MILW RD was a late player to the Pacific Northwest: there was the Hill Lines and UP. Early on, they had extremely disastrous forest fires in Montana that almost sank the MILW RD! In the end the cuts on track maintenance made the MLW a joke. Derailments brought them to their knees. With the BN merger, there was no room at the table for MLW. All they could do was pick up the scraps. In the end, they pulled up tracks and erased the MLW from the Earth.

@anb7408 10 ай бұрын

Milwaukee was granted a very large amount of traffic from BN due to merger agreements. Deferred maintenance and pissed customers handed the traffic right back to BN in the end.

@Joe-d7m6k 8 ай бұрын

Let's not forget, that along with the competition from other RR's, the MILW was also fighting its own management.

@AndreiTupolev 11 ай бұрын

What it could have been if the entire route had been electrified on 25 kv AC when the DC system was worn out. It really could have been an example to the world

@Isochest 10 күн бұрын

GE proposed that and even underwrote the investment to electrify the gap between Avery and Othello. Against the odds when faced with the Monopolists who call the shots.

@johnweber6612 10 ай бұрын

Great video

@marvwatkins7029 11 ай бұрын

These scenes make me all smiley!😉

@jslasher1 8 ай бұрын

Part of me died the day that the ICC approved the request by the Milwaukee Road that their "Olympian Hiawatha" be discontinued from Seattle/Tacoma to Minneapolis/St. Paul. The trade-off, was that their train [ by then, unnamed] would operate from Deer Lodge, the division point, to MSP with a diner, touraluxe sleeper and chair car. If the ICC had employed some common sense [the Seattle World's Fair was but a year away], they would have ordered the Milwaukee Road to operate the service once weekly, with the original equipment, over the entire route.

@oregonwesternrailroadprodu5239 11 ай бұрын

14:00 this is hands down my favorite segment from any of your dvds “milw scrapbook” and “milwaukee road west” are what got me into the milwaukee and i have you to thank mr. smiley

@NormanSilver 7 ай бұрын

Thank you Charles. They are missed.

@losh330 8 ай бұрын

The right of way for the Milwaukee Road passes right through the campus of Central Washington University which I may transfer to this autumn. Not too far away, there's a bridge that still has the catenary poles in place. I'm definitely going to go check that bridge out if i end up attending CWU.

@Jman771 Ай бұрын

Great video very informative!!!

@AndreiTupolev 11 ай бұрын

Fascinating all round, not least because of the unexpected sighting at6:31of - is that a Simca?? That's about the least thing I'd have expected to find in that kind of location

@charlessmileyvideos 11 ай бұрын

I actually got to drive one of those owned by a young lady I knew. It could barely make 25 mph up some hills on the highway. Add to that... the brakes didn't work much on the other side of the hills. Yikes!

@durandjohnson1321 7 ай бұрын

@@charlessmileyvideos Wow!

@rockguitarist931 11 ай бұрын

Scrapping their electrification equipment at the height of a recession wasn't a great idea, either, if I had to guess I would say that the plan to modernize the electric operations would've worked but some pencil pusher probably hated the idea of taking a loss to invest in what would eventually become profitable.

@durandjohnson1321 7 ай бұрын

Let alone.. the government wouldn't step in and do it's job!

@rockguitarist931 7 ай бұрын

@@durandjohnson1321 yes, God forbid that we lose a single railroad in the northeast but we can forget about that one going out to the Pacific ocean or wherever.

@AmericanPatriot5222 14 күн бұрын

@rockguitarist931 Unfortunately it was when the milw rd went bust that the dominant idea in society was that government shouldn't interfere in the economy, and spending money outside of defense + tax breaks was heresy

@johnuhelski8613 11 ай бұрын

Great vid , Milwaukee Road Pacific Extension was a great success , but it was just too late ....

@charlessmileyvideos 11 ай бұрын

They had a super vision, but times were tough back then! They are still a favorite of ours!

@anb7408 11 ай бұрын

The PCE was still turning a profit until the day it was abandoned, despite all the slow orders and an idiot pencil pusher in accounting double entering the deficit of the line in the profit/loss annual report. Piss poor management caused the demise of this line, not it being “late to the party” with the transcons.

@rockguitarist931 11 ай бұрын

@@anb7408 Many railroad operations have fallen prey to poor management, either because their profits were squandered or their potential was never realized.

@Joe-d7m6k 8 ай бұрын

@@anb7408THANK. YOU!!!!!

@rottenroads1982 4 ай бұрын

If the Milwaukee Road could be restored, and all of its Catenary Wires Rebuilt, and the two former separate sections of Catenary Wires connected together, or even expanded beyond to create the First Electrified Transcontinental Railroad Line, connecting to the Electrified NorthEast Corridor, than we could well be on our way to make the railroads Zero Emissions. And/Or we can convert all of our current Diesel Locomotives to run on Bio-Fuels.

@marvwatkins7029 11 ай бұрын

So sad and tragic.😢

@darylcheshire1618 11 ай бұрын

the 5500 HP rating makes a mockery of the English Electric VR L class of 2400 HP, although the Gippsland terrain is mostly flat. The Ls were also expected to run passenger trains at mainline speeds, so not an ideal freight loco.

@charlessmileyvideos 11 ай бұрын

5500 was amazing for back then! The Milwaukee Road was ahead of it's time in so many ways. Futuristic even now!

@RobertSwickard-o1w 2 ай бұрын

THE PENNSY HAD A 4650 HP LOCOMOTIVE (( SINGLE UNIT )) THAT COULD OVERLOAD TO 9300 HP IN 1934 ;;;;; IT WAS THE GG1 !!!!!!

@jimihendrix991 11 ай бұрын

The Crime of the Century...

@EpicThe112 6 ай бұрын

Impressive had Milwaukee Road merged with Erie Lackawanna you would have seen this happening an electrified Transcontinental Railroad 3kv DC Hoboken to Seattle Washington. That meant Little Joes climbing the Saddle Rockies and Watchung Mountains the section for it is Summit to East Orange. Which of the railroads could have brought it out modernized its electrification? If Amtrak bought them out in 1971 the main line would have been upgraded to use Northeast Corridor Trenton to Boston New Haven Providence Boston South Station 25kv 60hz wires. Also the Milwaukee railroad Powder River Basin Electrics would have been 3kv DC unless upgraded to 25kv 60hz if their current management was replaced by the ones that are experienced in railroading

@zaklex3165 11 ай бұрын

The demise of the Milwaukee's road electrification system was the failure to allow GE to build new electric locomotives and upgrading the system while at the same time closing the gap which GE had proposed during the 70's. If that had happened the Milwaukee would still be around today, or at least have been able to hang around long enough to merge into another railroad.

@johnweber6612 10 ай бұрын

There was not enough business to support four railroads between chicago and the pacific northwest, milwaukee was the weakest with or without electrics

@zaklex3165 10 ай бұрын

@@johnweber6612 Actually there was, especially as soon as the Powder River basin coal mining boom hit, and had the Milwaukee managed to keep their infrastructure in shape they could've carried more over head traffic...there's a study out there showing how they would've survived and prospered.