#MILW

[20th-century-railroading]

Milwaukee Road service track, Minneapolis, MN

A Gary L Powell slide shows nothing but treasures laying over in Minneapolis.

8-31-1975

[trainsinanime]

Today was a successful day! I've been dreaming of getting the Olympian Hiawatha from Katy for literally years (I think I first thought of it 2016 or 2017?), but it was always hard to justify. It's cheap per car, but not cheap in total, and I already have several Kato american train packages (Super Chief and Broadway Limited), and at well over a meter long each, they're not actually all that practical. But they are cool. Anyway, one of the german importers for Kato had sets of this at basically every train show, and it seems they finally wanted to get rid of them, so they were now heavily discounted: 100€ for the full nine-car set with display tracks. Well, that was not a hard decision.

I don't have the right locomotives yet, they didn't have those there. My options right now are to buy the FP7s from Kato, or wait until someone makes the Bipolars or Little Joes in N scale, maybe, eventually, some day. I do know one store in Germany that still has a very limited number of the FP7s in stock unless their website is lying. If I go that route, do I need an A-B-A set or is A-B enough? …do I want an A-B-A set? Will I put Digitrax decoders in them or solder myself? The last one's actually easy, soldering in normal decoders is easy enough, cheaper, and in my experience it works better.

[gothluke]

my favorite album of all time ✅

blue & sparkly promo ✅

luke acknowledging the mother allegations ✅

pride month show ✅

wfttwtaf getting the recognition she deserves ✅

✨ manifesting the most girly pop campy outfit to complete the sequence of good events ✨

[zponds]

12 days, I made a post going over my OCs from the Chicago & Northwestern. Now this post will go over my OCs from…

Now these engines in the Milwaukee Road heritage fleet are under ownership of Soo Line, BNSF and Union Pacific, and these engines are only found…

on railroad territories there were once owned by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), which was more commonly known as The Milwaukee Road. And these OC engines from the “Route of the Hiawatha’s” are…

Mike, the 4-4-2 Class A #2 and first Twin Cites Hiawatha engine

Otto, the 4-4-2 Class A #3 and first Midwest Hiawatha engine

Stevenson, the 4-6-4 Class F7 #100 and second Twin Cities Hiawatha engine

Penny, the 4-6-4 Class F7 #102 and second Midwest Hiawatha engine

Gaston, the streamlined 4-6-0 class G #10 and North Woods Hiawatha engine

Whitsun, the streamlined 4-6-0 class G #11 and second North Woods Hiawatha engine

Hubbard, the streamlined 4-6-2 class F3 #151 and first Chippewa Hiawatha engine

Cassie, the streamlined 4-6-2 class F3 #152 and second Chippewa Hiawatha engine

Courtney, the 2-8-2 class L2 #361

Maxie, the 4-8-4 class S3 #261

Olympus, the FM Erie-built #6 and first Olympian Hiawatha engine

Zeus, the FM Erie-built #5 and second Olympian Hiawatha engine

Reanne, the EMD F7 #60a

Amanda, the EMD F7 #80a

Grant, the EMD F7 #109a

James, the EMD F7 #69a

Cal, the EMD GP40 #2026

Arthur, the EMD GP40 #2057

Mindy, the EMD GP40 #2035

Norman, the EMD GP40 #2006

[acarefullycuratedmess]

Crew Change,

Marmarth, North Dakota

1974

[guerrerense]

First trip to Fox Lake por Chris Guss Por Flickr: Metra's newest heritage locomotive makes its second revenue trip from Chicago after its release, this time to the end of the Milwaukee District North service in Fox Lake.

[aryburn-trains]

Illinois Central 4003 (E6A) is on Train #21, the Governor's Special, at Springfield, Illinois on June 26, 1967. Photographed by R.R. Wallin.

[collinthenychudson]

Day 3: Little Joe

Info from Wikipedia:

The Little Joe is a type of railroad electric locomotive built by General Electric. The locomotives had twelve axles, eight of them powered, in a 2-D+D-2 arrangement. They were originally intended to be exported to the Soviet Union and designed to operate on Soviet Railways (SZhD) 3,300-volt DC overhead line system. They were never exported to the Soviet Union due to rising political tensions. Only 20 were built, with 15 sold to domestic operators and five exported to Brazil.

After World War II, the Soviet Railways continued its electrification program, this time targeting the Kropachyovo-Zlatoust-Chelyabinsk line of the South Urals Railway. As local factories were recovering from the war efforts, the Soviet government (then led by Joseph Stalin), ordered 20 of these locomotives. Known by their factory classification of GE 2-D+D-2 406/546 8-GE 750-3300V, in the Soviet Union, they would have received the classification of the A-series locomotive, with the A standing for Amerikanskiy elektrovoz (Russian: Американский электровоз), meaning "American locomotive". At the time, this was the strongest electric locomotive, producing a power of 4320 kW, being comparable to the Union Pacific Big Boy.

The locomotives were built by General Electric (GE) at Erie, Pennsylvania, with the supervision of Soviet specialists. The Ministry of Railways of the USSR was so confident about receiving these locomotives, that they were also allocated running numbers, initially 1591-1610 and later 2301-2320. The first test run of the locomotive (unit A1598) took place on 7 September 1948 on a test track of the New York Central Railroad.

GE built 20 locomotives of this type, but the company was prohibited from delivering them as relations between the United States and Soviet Union deteriorated into what became known as the Cold War. Fourteen were built to the track gauge of 5 ft (1,524 mm) and the final six were built to 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge.

The locomotives were never delivered because the State Department banned sales of strategic goods to the Soviet Union whilst production was underway. This included the electric locomotives, which were considered strategic to the Soviet Railways. Before the ban, the tensions between the US and USSR caused the Soviet railway engineers to be recalled back to their country. GE completed the locomotives, but they were left with no owner. Two were damaged during the trials. Although minimal, unit 29924 collided with unit 29923, causing significant damage to the leading axle.

The Soviet Union was then forced to design its own locomotive, the N8 (later VL8), which only ran in 1953. This led to the development of the VL10 (3kV DC) and VL80 (25 kV AC) locomotives.

The Milwaukee Road had offered to buy all 20 locomotives, plus their spare parts, for $1 million. That was little more than scrap value, but GE accepted. However, the Milwaukee's Board of Directors would not release the money.  Nonetheless, unit 29927 was tested on 24 December 1948 on the Milwaukee Road, but it revealed some issues during trials.

Demand during the Korean War boosted the Milwaukee's need for locomotives on their electrified mainline. The railroad was also beset by a coal strike that required sending most diesels back East (Milwaukee Lines East steam engines still burned coal, unlike the oil-burning Lines West steamers). So the Board of Directors returned to GE, only to discover that eight locomotives and all the spare parts had been sold. Three had gone to the Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad (the South Shore Line), and five to the Companhia Paulista de Estradas de Ferro of Brazil.

Still, the Milwaukee Road bought the remaining 12 locomotives for $1 million. The railroad designated its new locomotives as "class EF-4", denoting them as the line's fourth model of electric freight engine. Two units were modified before delivery for passenger service; these were designated "class EP-4". The Milwaukee's operating employees referred to the EF-4/EP-4 units as Little Joseph Stalin's locomotives, which was eventually shortened to simply Little Joe.

As originally tested, the Milwaukee was not impressed with these locomotives, finding them prone to wheelslip. The World War I-vintage General Electric motor-generator substations had difficulty supplying more than two EF-4s under heavy load, which meant that their true ability could not be demonstrated. Additionally, the controls were initially labelled in Russian. After being modified with increased weight, raising the maximum height of the pantographs and being provided with adequate power, the EF-4s were excellent performers and very reliable. Some substations were later modified to supply up to 3,400 volts to take advantage of the high power of these locomotives.

The E20 and E21 locomotives became EP-4 engines to be used for passenger service. They were modified before delivery to remove driving controls and windows at one end to permit moving new, improved main circuit breakers into a cooler environment. The Milwaukee Shops replaced the operating controls in the "B" end with a steam generator before they entered service. The loss of this cab was operationally inconsequential, as many Milwaukee electric locomotives were normally turned at the end of their runs in Avery, Deer Lodge or Harlowton, the road having preferred to maintain only one set of controls even on double-ended units. The most important and final major modification was the provision of multiple unit controls for trailing diesel-electric locomotives. This system was designed in-house. It was not uncommon to see several diesel-electric locomotives being led by, and controlled from, one or two Joes (or a set of Boxcabs) in the 1960s and 70s.

The external difference that most readily distinguished class EP-4 from EF-4 was the use of roller bearings on all axles on the E20 and E21 as delivered. The EF-4s were delivered with roller bearings on the forward (unpowered) trucks only, though they would have individual roller bearing axles substituted piecemeal in the shop whenever original plain bearing axles on the motorized sets burned out or were wreck-damaged.

Like almost any locomotive class, the Little Joes were occasionally involved in accidents. One such, in 1966, resulted in the E78 being rebuilt (back east in the Milwaukee Shops) to a slightly different appearance from the other 11 units, due to the use of a pair of stainless steel side ventilation grilles intended for use on EMD F-units.

The Milwaukee Road used two for passenger service, designated class EP-4 (2-D+D-2), and the remaining ten for freight, designated class EF-4. They were used on the railroad's electrified Rocky Mountain Division in Montana and Idaho to take the place of older GE boxcab electrics that had been operating there since the 1920s. They were never used on the road's electrically disjunct Coast Division in Washington, as none of that division's substations were upgraded to accommodate them. Three had been delivered in standard gauge, while the rest were converted to standard gauge in the Milwaukee's shops.

The EF-4s performed well, so much so that Milwaukee management soon desired to utilize the two EP-4s exclusively on freights. This was being done by 1956, when the passenger Joes were replaced by newly migrated EP-2 Bipolars. After the latter turned out to be ill-suited to the Rocky Mountain Division, they and the EP-4s were replaced by three-unit consists of EMD E-unit and/or FP7 diesels which hauled the Olympian Hiawatha end-to-end, unassisted, until its discontinuation in 1961. Neither EP-4 received the post-1955 Union Pacific-inspired Armour Yellow, red and gray paint scheme used on Milwaukee passenger power, such as the Bipolars and GE Passenger Motors.

The Little Joes lasted until the end of electric operation on the Milwaukee on June 15, 1974. By that time, they were the Milwaukee's only electric road locomotives, all the GE Freight Motors (except two which were used together in MU as the Harlowton switcher) having succumbed to old age.

The South Shore, while primarily a commuter railroad between Chicago, Illinois, and northwestern Indiana, used them in freight service. hey were modified to operate on 1500 V DC catenary, and were delivered with roller bearings on all axles as on the Milwaukee EP-4s. In service on the South Shore the "Little Joe" name was not generally used; they were called "800s". Two of the three lasted until 1983, making them the last electrics in regular mainline freight service on a US common-carrier railroad. Today, freight trains are pulled by diesel-electric locomotives.

Two 800s survive today, 802 at the Lake Shore Railroad Museum, and 803 in running condition at the Illinois Railway Museum.

The Companhia Paulista de Estradas de Ferro converted its locomotives to its 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) gauge. They became known as Russas, and stayed active through each re-organization of the Brazilian railways, finally ending up with FEPASA in 1971.

These were the most powerful electric locomotives in the country. On this railway, the locomotive of number 6454 gained the title "Engenheiro Jayme Cintra" - a tribute for an important person of the Paulista Railway history: he was the responsible for electrification of the main Brazilian railway of that season.

They continued to operate until 1999, becoming the last units of their class in revenue service. It was at this point that FEPASA was privatized, and electric operation was ended.

Surviving Little Joes:

Milwaukee Road #E70 is on static display at Deer Lodge, Montana.

South Shore #803 is preserved, in operational condition, at the Illinois Railway Museum (IRM). South Shore #802 is preserved and on public display at the Lake Shore Railway Historical Museum in North East, Pennsylvania, 10 miles (16 km) away from Erie, where the GE Locomotive Assembly Plant that constructed the Little Joes is located.

In Brazil, 6451, 6453, and 6454 were scrapped after the deactivation. Number 6452 is in a museum in Jundiaí, São Paulo and #6455 is in a museum in Bauru, São Paulo, but is missing many parts. As of 2008, 6455 was transferred in safe for the stop-station gare and now is safe in a rail station-museum.

Models and Route By: RRmods, Auran, and Download Station

[twosibold]

Mehano T072 - Milwaukee Road Live Stock Car MILW 26349

[aryburn-kc]

Blanco and the Bandit by Mike Danneman Via Flickr: Soo Line GP40 No. 2014 and Kansas City Southern SD40 No. 633 sit at the Joint Agency Yard in Kansas City, Missouri, on September 14, 1990. I used to joke with people that I shot enough former Milwaukee Road ‘bandits’ that I could show them a whole slide tray of ‘em—and it’s true—even though I didn’t like them, I still shot them. A lot of people didn’t like KCS’s white scheme (if you can call it that) either. Sometimes the passage of time has a way of making something more desirable to see. But does anyone really want to see photos of ‘bandits?’

[20th-century-railroading]

CMStP&P train, engine number E-23-A,B, engine type GE 2-B+B Passenger. Photographed: Seattle, Wash., ca. 1958.

[trainsinanime]

Short model railroad update: I got the locomotives for the Olympian Hiawatha! An FP7A, F7B and another FP7A of the Milwaukee railroad

Going ABA instead of just two units does look nicer, doesn't it? I've fitted them all with DCC, using a PD10MU decoder, a basic thing for soldering in.

I've tried the Digitrax plug-and-play decoders before for other F units, and I've always been less than impressed. They're relatively expensive (two Digitrax ones would have cost more than the three I picked), not really that much less work, and I always felt like they're not super great with dirty rails. Of course in an ideal world Kato would just put a standard decoder plug in these things, but I'm not holding my breath. Instead I'm holding my soldering iron.

As for speed matching, that has not been a problem, since all three have the same decoder. And the long passenger train with the long train of locomotives in front looks really nice. The passenger train also has lights in now, but no pictures because, well, I couldn't be bothered. Maybe I'll make another post explaining the reason why I couldn't be bothered. It's to do with yet another train.

[givemegifs]

[spideystevie]

Hi!! Could you write this prompt "21) You need help fixing your cufflinks, and my fingers keep scraping against your skin. How are you so warm? And how are you acting like I’m not right behind/in front of you?  "

with Steve?

thank you for the request! hope you enjoy <3 (0.9k) 

21) You need help tying the back of your dress/fixing your cufflinks, and my fingers keep scraping against your skin. How are you so warm? And how are you acting like I’m not right behind/in front of you?

Spring brought fresh blossoms and sun, the scent of honeysuckle sticking to the air. It brought in the wedding season, the newly bloomed flowers and warmer weather ideal. 

Joyce and Hopper seemed to agree, their own wedding scheduled for the end of April. White puffy, cotton ball clouds hang in a cerulean sky. The air was floral and breezy, everything that made spring perfect.

It’s a tiny backyard wedding and the house being venued is a flurry of organized chaos. The whole wedding party is inside, using the space to get themselves and the bride and groom ready. You slip away from the bridal area, hair and makeup sorted to find Steve in the hustle and bustle of it all. 

The room you find him in is empty and small. You cross your arms, leaning against the doorway for a minute. Steve’s fiddling with the cufflinks of his shirt, struggling to get them on. A frustrated sigh escapes him, brows pinching together while his lips curve into a frown. 

“Need some help?” you ask, already crossing over to him. Steve looks up at you, a little surprised to see you in the doorway. You’ve yet to change into your dress, instead wearing a simple robe from home. 

“My dad got me them when I was 16 but I never bothered with them,” he mumbled in defeat, holding out his wrist to you. Your fingers are a little timid in their movements but they keep grazing against the warm skin of his wrist. You’re left wondering how he’s so warm and how it’d feel to press your skin together outside of helping him fix his cufflinks. “He hated it.”

You hum, a silence falling over the two of you. Your eyes flit up to him in between each wrist. Being this close to Steve while he’s dressed for a wedding and his cologne has been freshly applied makes your head spin. Your breathing is shallow, heart thumping against your chest. 

You wonder how he’s able to be so normal this close, how he can act like you’re not right in front of him, nearly chest to chest with two layers of fabric to separate you. 

“All done,” you squeeze his wrist, flashing him a simple smile. Steve returns it, the gratitude clear in his eyes. 

“When I get married, I’m going to the courthouse. None of this cufflink shit,” he says, shaking out his arms and adjusting how the sleeves sit on his arms. His biceps strain against the cottony material. You bite your lower lip. There’s something in the way Steve says it, the way he looks at you when he does, that makes you feel like you’re included in that plan. That you’d be who he stands next to in the courthouse.

You suddenly feel very warm. The room suddenly too stuffy, air too thick. 

“I’m gonna change,” you turn and leave and Steve watches you go, suddenly feeling like he can breathe properly. He thought he might keel over being so close to you for that long. 

When you come back into the room, a simple lilac dress hanging off your shoulders, he really thinks he will keel over. He gulps, lips parting in slight awe because you have to be the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. 

You flounder under his gaze, shifting demurely in front of him. “Can you help zip me up?”

Steve nods, motioning for you to turn around. You do, listening carefully to his footsteps crossing the floor to stand behind you. Something about what he’s about to do feels so intimate and you think you might die from yearning.

He brushes the hair off your back and over your shoulder, fingertips barely brushing against your skin. Your breath hitches, more than aware of the open expanse of your back and how Steve’s fingers are warm where they brush against it. 

He pulls the zipper up the length of your back, fingers scraping against your skin. It takes seconds but feels like it drags out for minutes. Steve feels so completely lovesick, he can’t fathom how you seem unreactive to him being right there behind you, nearly a hair's width apart. 

You turn back around when he’s done. The air becomes charged when your eyes meet, a matching unknown shimmering on the surface of your eyes. 

You try to pretend you don’t notice his eyes glance down at your lips covered in a thin layer of gloss. His hand brushes the exposed skin of your upper arm, sliding down until your fingers are touching and linking together. 

Steve would’ve kissed you had there not been a knock on the doorframe. You both flinch apart, fingers separating immediately. You turn to see Nancy standing in the doorway and you feel like you’ve just been caught doing something you shouldn’t have. 

“Joyce needs you,” she says, a knowing smile curling her lips. Yours is sheepish as you nod, watching her go. 

“I’ll see you out there?” you ask Steve before you head towards the door. He nods, a tight smile on his face. 

He catches your wrist as you go to leave, stooping to press a kiss against your cheek. The skin there warms immediately, the gesture more romantic than platonic. If you seem to float into the room smiling a little wider than usual a minute later, nobody says a thing.

[acarefullycuratedmess]

Perry

[nero-neptune]

wild wild country is such a crazy documentary, like it made me feel genuinely conflicted about both sides of the situation (bc it's about a cult). but as many episodes into this series as i am, idk. it'll be a cold day in hell before i ever defend the state of oregon.