The Milwaukee's system was set up such that motors on downgrades could feed power, ("regeneration"), back through their substations into the outside power grid, and they received credit for it. This kept their operating costs low, to virtually none. Regeneration also served in the same way that dynamic brakes on diesels work, except in the instance of a diesel, all that generated energy is completely wasted.
As a fond of Milwaukee Road I have this DVD that I recommend to everyone who loves this fallen flag : https://www.pentrex.com/DVD-Milwaukee-Road-Vols-I-III-DVD_MILW-DVD . I just happened to watch it again a few days ago. And I remember the narrator speaking of regenerating breaking in regard to the Joes, while he was speaking of dynamic breaking for trailing diesels. I'm not an electrical engineer, but I've always been hearing of regenerating breaking for electric locos, whichever the electrical feeding system (for example here in France, both on 1.5 kV DC system and on 25 kV AC system). Dom
And finally I found this rather interresting website about the very last "train" trip on the soon to be torn off Pacific Extension, in August 1980, just a few months after the last run of a revenue train. These guys, two Penn Central railroaders, purchased in a scrapyard a Fairmont Speeder for $400, and made a hidden 8-day trip starting in Miles City, Montana (the beginning of Pacific extension) and ending in Cedar Falls, Washington, not far from Seatac MILW terminus. Very moving to watch all those pics. One can imagine the mighty Joes and Boxcabs that ran the line during decades.. http://newwww.weedroute.com/ Dom
What bothers me the most are videos such as the "Weed Route". Far too many people get the impression from them that the line was decrepit due to not making any money. What happened was that Chicago deliberately slowed then stopped funding any normal maintenance. No operation can survive YEARS of that deliberately chosen neglect. Not even the mighty (ha ha) BN. Which at that time was no all star for earning money. Essentially all that saved them was the coal boom, early 1980s time frame. But I digress. Cedar Falls, Milepost 2137, was 57 miles short of their true terminus of Tacoma, Washington. The line into Seattle was actually a branch line, albeit very profitable. I lived for many years just a few minutes drive from Cedar Falls. Before that, just a quick 15 minute hop down the highway and up the hill. A very favorite place to just sit, listen to the silence. Then a train would roar past. And just like a switch as thrown, the silence again. I got to see, many, many times, the Boxcabs. I saw a few Bipolars, one up very close as a small boy. Truly sad, (I own one of the official hand drawn maps of this), was that the initial embargo and abandonment was planned to be twice the size of the shorn remnant which Soo Line bought. After chopping off Lines West, and not enough branches in the midwest, (which should have been dumped thirty years beforehand), they were under 3400 miles. Because they discovered how much of Lines East was a waste of time and money. They had to dump another 2200+ miles, originally not planned, to keep a barely clinging to life little regional railroad. Oh well. Memories come racing back. I've been corresponding a lot recently with a long, long time friend who worked for the MILW. (Also worked for BN , but has little good to say about them.) We've been digging out old photos and more. Refreshing memories. Sad. But still good fun.
I don't think these guys, when creating this website, wanted to avoid any argument. Their only goal was making a reporting of what their trip had been. About the causes of MILW's downfall, I guess the reasons have been well written about in various publications. To start with, a very interresting article of Trains (Kalmbach), June 2019 issue, that accurately shows what happened : deferred maintenance, bad corporate choices, crony capitalism. I don't think it was the purpose of these guys who had travelled all the way long on this speeder to speak about this. Myself, I'm a guy from the east side of the Pond and I've never been nowhere close to the northwestern parts of the US, nor I have any plans to go there over the next years of even decades, but I'm just fond of a railroad I've never been close to, nor in time nor in location. And in my opinion this reporting is just a good tribute to what this magnificient railroad was.. Dom
Of course I am not speaking to any intentions they might have had for their presentation. Nor in any way saying anything negatively of your post. Just noting, from years of personal experience, how too many others have used (and abused) such to continue the misinformation and outright distortions. As someone who has quietly contributed background from actual company resources, too many times, to counter such, it long ago went beyond very frustrating for myself and many others. But it should also be noted that in the USA, we have significant issues with people going on actively owned railroad property. The rails look rusty, so they proclaim it to be "abandoned". Others who see these types of "trips" may take a thought from it which is not good. They trespass, vandalize and steal as well. There was just very recently a sad incident in a Pacific Northwest State, of such a trespass. Where I am hearing of fatality to the "visitor", apparently rail riding, as told to me from someone within the railroad community there. Everything is owned by some entity. So is never abandoned. In making their trip, they trespassed on active still owned by the MILW track, (St. Regis to Haugan, MT), being actively operated by Burlington Northern RR. Or on wholly owned now by BN rails. Thankfully they stopped at Cedar Falls, where they were already not only on active BN track, but also within the restricted and heavily patrolled City of Seattle Cedar River Watershed. Which is considered to actually be a part of the City of Seattle. And those people have ticketed, fined or arrested many a "railfan", which has made them become very unfriendly through the years. At one time I worked within that watershed, had gate keys, and was familiar with the whole process.
I understand what you're meaning. I actually don't know whether these guys were totally clandestine on this trip, or having asked local MILW employees still on site.. I may believe these guys, then beeing railroaders, knew all the issues with trespassing a railroad property. About St Regis - Haugan section, the famous SPV's Comprehensive Railroad Atlas (Steam Power Publishing, UK) issue that covers Montana and Idaho shows 2 parallel railroads about 1/3 mile appart. Not sure to understand, one is former Milwaukee Road, and the other former Northern Pacific then BN. Both are now closed, but is someone sure that these guys actually ran on then active NP/BN section ? Dom
Yup, for awhile the NP had they're own line to Wallace, but parts were washed away and they used a connector track at St. Regis and ran over the Milw. Seen some cool pics of NP Geeps in a siding meeting Little Joes!
What Kurt mentions is true. The Northern Pacific section had suffered severe damage from the St. Regis River during flooding. (This was well before WWII.) They then obtained trackage rights via MILW between Haugan and St. Regis. A connector was built at Haugan, back to NP rails. The two tracks were actually quite close together along that route, all the way to the area of Saltese. So it was a fairly easy change.
