1926 – Milwaukee Road sold and reorganized; 1927 – Railroad renamed the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad following bankruptcy sale in Butte, Montana; July 5, 1927 – Last part of the electrification completed from Black River Junction (near Renton) to …

Nov 6, 2024 · For power the Milwaukee Road used a number of different electric locomotives on the Extension including General Electric-built boxcabs (Class EP-1 and EF-1), the unique Bi-Polars (Class EP-2), rare Baldwin-Westinghouse Quills (Class EP-3 they were somewhat similar to boxcabs) and finally the last motors ever purchased the highly powerful (and ...

At the height of electrification, 656 total miles along the extension were electrified (albeit in different locales and therefore disconnected), making the Milwaukee Road the largest electrified railroad in the US.

The Milwaukee Road had the distinction of building and operating the longest main line heavy electric railroad in the U.S. For more than 50 years, brutish electric locomotives hauled trains over five mountain passes in the Pacific Northwest on what was called the Pacific Extension.

Nov 27, 2014 · General Electric Press Photos, Phase I of Milwaukee Road Electrification. W.S.H. Hamilton's GE Electrification Photos

The Pacific Extension, including subsequent electrification, cost the Milwaukee Road $257 million, over four times the original estimate of $60 million. To meet this cost, the Milwaukee Road sold bonds, which began coming due in the 1920s. [20]

L.W. Wylie, "Improvements in the Design, Maintenance and Operation of the Milwaukee Road Electrification", AIEE Conference Paper, 1956 Electric-Drive Rotary Snowplow, X-900212, Description and Operating Instructions, January 26, 1955.

Nov 12, 2015 · The last electrically powered road train on the Milwaukee Road operated on June 15, 1974. Incredibly, No. 10200, by then numbered E50A and B, was still on the Milwaukee Road’s roster at the time, having turned in an amazing 59 years of service.

Jan 8, 2014 · The Milwaukee Road (Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific) really had no choice but to ditch electrification. It was the last railroad to be built across the northern USA…that was when “and Pacific” was added to its name…and the other lines, Great Northern and Northern Pacific had the best routes through the more populated areas.

Today, what's left of the Milwaukee Road is cut up among different railroads and the best engineered route through the rugged Rockies and Cascades is but weeds and trails, a vital transportation artery no longer available to shippers and the American economy.