Milwaukee Road
Prominent individual investors in the line included Alexander Mitchell, Russell Sage, Jeremiah Milbank, and William Rockefeller.The subsidiary Chicago, Milwaukee and Puget Sound Railway Company was chartered in 1905 to build from the Missouri River to Seattle and Tacoma.The two main mountain ranges that had to be crossed, the Rockies and the Cascades, required major civil engineering works and additional locomotive power.Some historians question the choice of route, since it bypassed some population centers and passed through areas with limited local traffic potential.[7] George H. Drury listed the Pacific Extension as one of several "wrong decisions" made by the Milwaukee Road's management which contributed to the company's eventual failure.[11] Between 1914 and 1916, the Milwaukee Road implemented a 3,000 volt direct current (DC) overhead system between Harlowton, Montana, and Avery, Idaho, a distance of 438 miles (705 km).[14][15][16][17] Together, the 645 miles (1,038 km) of main-line electrification represented the largest such project in the world up to that time, and would not be exceeded in the US until the Pennsylvania Railroad's efforts in the 1930s.[18] The two separate electrified districts were never unified, as the 216-mile (348 km) Idaho Division (Avery to Othello) was comparatively flat down the St. Joe River to St. Maries and through eastern Washington, and posed few challenges for steam operation.[21] In 1927, the railroad launched its second edition of the Olympian as a premier luxury limited passenger train and opened its first railroad-owned tourist hotel, the Gallatin Gateway Inn in Montana, southwest of Bozeman, via a spur from Three Forks.To boost competition, the ICC gave the Milwaukee Road the right to connect with new railroads in the West over Burlington Northern tracks.[citation needed] In 1970, the president of Chicago and North Western offered to sell the railroad to the Milwaukee Road outright.President William John Quinn refused,[28] stating that it now believed only a merger with a larger system, not a slightly smaller one, could save the railroad.By the mid-1970s, deferred maintenance on Milwaukee Road's physical plant, which had been increasing throughout the 1960s as it attempted to improve its financial appearance for merger, was beginning to cause problems.[29][30] In 1976, the Milwaukee Road exercised its right under the Burlington Northern merger to petition for inclusion based on its weak financial condition.[37] A final attempt to devise a plan to rehabilitate the Pacific Extension under the Milwaukee Road Restructuring Act failed.[39] Still in reorganization, the Milwaukee Road attracted interest from three potential buyers: the Grand Trunk Corporation, the Chicago and North Western Railway, and the Soo Line Railroad.[42] Without the railroad, CMC's primary function became disposal or redevelopment of Milwaukee Road real estate not sold to the Soo Line, which stretched from Bedford, Indiana, to Washington state.The CMC itself was beset with legal and financial woes, filing for bankruptcy (under numerous versions of CMC/Heartland Partners), as a result of environmental cleanup costs and liabilities at former Milwaukee Road sites.After assuming operation of the UP's services, the Milwaukee Road gradually dropped its orange and maroon paint scheme in favor of UP's Armour yellow, grey, and red, finding the latter easier to keep clean.Daily long distance service to and from the Pacific Northwest is provided by the Empire Builder along the Chicago-St. Paul route after the train was rerouted by Amtrak on the first day of operations on May 1, 1971.In 2024, Amtrak began service for the Borealis, supplementing the Empire Builder with an extra daily round trip from Chicago to St. Paul.
Saint Paul and Pacific RailroadTwin Cities HiawathaChicago, IllinoisReporting markMidwesternWestern United StatesSoo Line RailroadBNSF RailwayUnion Pacific RailroadCanadian Pacific Kansas CityCanadian Pacific RailwayWisconsin and Southern RailroadTrack gaugestandard gaugeClass I railroadMidwestNorthwestbankruptcyMontanaWashingtonsubsidiaryMilwaukee Road DepotMinneapolisMilwaukee Road 261WisconsinLake MichiganMilwaukeeMississippi RiverWauwatosaWaukeshaMadisonPrairie du ChienAlexander MitchellRussell SageJeremiah MilbankWilliam RockefellerBloomingdale LineMilwaukee District / West LineHalsted StreetChicagoElgin, IllinoisMinnesotaSouth DakotaUpper Peninsula of MichiganRand McNally BuildingRailway Exchange buildingChicago Union StationPacificHorace Chapin HenrySeattleRockiesCascadescivil engineeringBitterrootsSaddlesLittle BeltsBig BeltsCastle MountainsCrazy MountainsNorthern Pacific RailwayTrainsMontana RailroadSixteen Mile CanyonHarlowtonLewistownJudith BasinBozemanThree ForksGallatin Gateway InnYellowstone National ParksteeplecabelectricswitcherboxcabOlympiansteam locomotivesElectrificationhydroelectric powercopperAnaconda, Montanadirect currentHarlowton, MontanaAvery, IdahoOthelloTacomaSnoqualmie TunnelSnoqualmie Passcompany-owned ski areaPennsylvania RailroadSt. Joe RiverSt. Marieseastern WashingtonIndianaGreat DepressionHiawathaWorld War IIOlympian HiawathaPuget SoundDieselisationChicago and North WesternUnion PacificstreamlinerSkytop LoungesWilliam John QuinnInterstate Commerce CommissionChicago and North Western RailwayBurlington NorthernLittle JoeNorthern PacificGreat NorthernBurlington RouteSpokane, Portland and Seattle RailwaySouthern PacificPortland, OregonSumas, WashingtonPort of SeattleChicago, Rock Island and Pacific RailroadEMD SD40-2GE Universal SeriesDeer Lodge, MontanatrestleRosalia, WashingtonThomas R. McMillenMarquette, IowaRapid City, South DakotaMitchell