In my younger days, I do remember all of the railroads still having the telegraph polls. Each railroad company had its own distinct telegraph pole so you knew which railroad line you were crossing.
From 1980-2024 live 100' from main line going into ford plant,last train in/ out 2012... Refrigerator has many pix of sw1200,sw1500,gp7,sd9 going by my apt ,3-5 xs a day...just great memories ever
The Pacific extension was cut back in 1980 to Miles City, MT. Subsequent cuttings pared it back to Montevideo, MN. The Soo Line bought it in 1985 then parent CP took over in 1991. You forgot the Soo Line part. . .
I’d love to see a video about The Milwaukee Road line through far southern Minnesota which ran through Austin, Grand Meadow, Spring Valley and into the driftless area of SE Minnesota. My family had a farm in the SE corner of the town of Grand Meadow and the tracks were 1 block north of us. I learned to count up to about 67 cars as the train went by. My family bought another farm 5 miles north of Grand Meadow in 1973. No longer able to watch trains go by but Racine was 3 miles directly east of us with the CGW. I only remember seeing a few trains on that line before it was also abandoned.
I consider the Milwaukee Road a Wisconsin railroad that just happened to pass through Minnesota. Think about when they built the H&D division. They didn’t put all that money in just to get to St. Paul faster. I think their plan was to blanket South Dakota and go no further but the further west they poked, the logic said to keep poking now that you’ve spent the money. It’s like what happens when you paint the living room walls. Next thing you know you’ve got new flooring and furniture. We’ll never know exactly when the board sat down and said, “We can’t survive on row crops, what else can we do?” Minnesota was never going to have a deep industrial base-it cost too much money to get our goods to market. I still often wonder If the Milwaukee could have garnered enough grange business to stay alive if they hadn’t built west.
I remember the Milwaukee Road in Waukesha WI. I think Soo Line took it over. Here in Alaska, my former employer has a Milwaukee Road semi-trailer that is used for storage.