TMRT Road Trips -- Lonnie King, June - July 2007

Reports from the Milwaukee Road

by Lonnie King

TMRT member, Lonnie King, first described his trip to us in February, and we are fortunate that he's been willing to share this fabulous trip with us. We hope you enjoy sharing this trip with Lonnie, as we have.

Thu 2/1/2007: "... we hope to leave for a mega-trip in June and July that will (hopefully) let me see all of the remaining large CMStP&P electric locomotives in the Midwest (Duluth for the EP-2 and St. Louis for the EP-2), attend the 2007 MRHA meeting in Elgin, IL, and then drive the old Lines West route all the way to Seattle/Tacoma, seeing the Little Joe in Deer Lodge and riding the Hiawatha Trail in Idaho and stopping for the MilWest meeting in Coeur d'Alene on the way!" ~ Lonnie T. King

July 2007 -- Part One

July 2007 -- Part Two

June 2007

Bellevue, IA	McLaughlin, SD	Miles City, MT
La Motte, IA	Morristown, SD	Cartersville, MT
St. Louis, MO	Thunder Hawk, SD	Forsythe, MT
Duluth, MN	Hettinger, ND	Vananda, MT
Milbank, SD	Marmarth, ND	Ingomar, MT
Marvin, SD	Plevna, MT	Sumatra, MT
Driving from Marvin to Summit, SD	Ismay, MT	Melstone, MT
Summit, SD	Mildred, MT	Roundup, MT
Aberdeen, SD	Calypso Bridge, MT	Lavina, MT
Mobridge, SD	Custer Creek Bridge, MT	Ryegate, MT
Mahto, SD	Kinsey Bridge, MT	Barber, MT

Date

Location

6/10

Bellevue, IA

Well, I was surprised to find that my first exposure to the old Milwaukee Road was a visit to my wife's great-great-great grandfather's old farm just to the west of Bellevue, Iowa. Just before I left for the mainland to do this trip, I received my copy of The Milwaukee Road Narrow Gauge, Iowa's Slim Princess. The book was fascinating but what was surprising was that the line ran right up the Mill Creek valley (I think named because it supplied the G_G_G_grandfather's flour mill in Bellevue. My first "Milwaukee Road" photos are of the restored depot in La Motte, Iowa, the first stop to the west of Bellevue.

6/11

La Motte, IA

6/14

St. Louis, MO

[This is] a photo of the Bipolar which is located at the St. Louis Transportation Museum out west of downtown St. Louis. It is a small part of a rather large collection of very interesting locomotives and other rolling stock. It is also, in effect, a small yard off what is now a UP main line (inherited when they bought the remnants of the Missouri Pacific.

6/16

Duluth, MN

This is a photo ... of the first EP-1 Milwaukee took delivery of for the electrified Lines West. It was one of the very first acquisitions of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum up in Duluth and doesn't really fit with their theme. According to the museum docent I spoke with, it is slated to be moved to "another railroad museum in Montana" "as soon as they complete the building needed to house it." It truly is a very large locomotive and it is quite crowded in its current setting but at least it is inside and protected from the weather."

This photo is taken in the trailing of the two unit set, looking into what I can only remember as the compartment on each unit that housed the plates that made up the switches that set up the various circuits to place combinations of traction motors in series, parallel and combinations of same depending on speed and load.

6/28

Milbank, SD

Looking West toward

the Highway Overpass

Looking East

toward Minnesota

Immediately on leaving Milbank, the line passes under the highway overpass and continues to move away from US-12 to the south.

6/28

Marvin, SD

After returning to 147th we visited Marvin, a quaint and quite dead little collection of a few houses, a firehouse and a closed up bar.

6/28

Driving from Marvin to Summit, SD

While back driving on US-12 I found this farm road RR overpass, which my reading would tell me is fairly classic Milwaukee Road concrete construction.

While absent mindedly looking at the RoW I found this example of a concrete culvert but under what seems to be the original line with the later realignment in the background.

6/28

Summit, SD

At Summit, there are a couple of shots taken of the East end of the yard followed by the west (because of the approach I could make in my car).

6/28

Aberdeen, SD

6/28

Mobridge, SD

6/29

Mahto, SD

We were following a country road route that roughly paralleled US-12 that took us to Mahto and back to US-12. The country was pretty having benefited from the wet spring. DSC03100.JPG is of one of the BNSF signals as seen across a field of freshly rolled hay.
A deck girder bridge.
These were a total surprise!

6/29

McLaughlin, SD

We found to find the depot in Mclaughlin, SD still present, but in need of a coat of paint.
A view in each direction along the line:

6/29

Morristown, SD

A few miles east of Morristown, SD we found this pile deck bridge.

6/29

Thunder Hawk, SD

In Thunder Hawk the Milwaukee Road scenery consisted of only the sign.

6/29

Hettinger, ND

The old depot was still standing.
As were numerous grain elevators.
Old Milwaukee Road block signals west of Hettinger.

6/29

Marmarth, ND

We had discovered the old depot building just to the right of the road as we drove into town from the east.

6/29

Plevna, MT

6/29

Ismay, MT

We after following a winding gravel route shown in the 2007 Yellowstone Trail Guide we’d picked up in Aberdeen.
Could anyone identify this building as the old Ismay Masonic Hall?

6/29

Mildred, MT

We arrive in Mildred!
As you can see, there is not a lot here.

6/29

Calypso Bridge, MT

As we drove down old US-10 from Terry toward Miles City my wife read aloud McCarter’s discussion of the Calypso Bridge. We drove past a side road labeled “Milwaukee” and I thought that it might be the road I wanted. A few minutes later we could clearly see the Calypso Bridge off to our right.
I stopped, turned around and drove back to “Milwaukee” road. It took us to the Calypso Bridge and there was access to cross it - so we did.

6/29

Custer Creek Bridge, MT

We decided to see just how far toward Miles City we could drive on the old right of way. From McCarter’s discussion of the Custer Creek bridge we knew it was somewhere south of us but were surprised when we suddenly found it! (We were able to drive around rather than cross on the ties.)

6/29

Kinsey Bridge, MT

After what seemed to be an interminable period of time before “popping” out back on the right of way next to the Gumbo Ranch, we came out next to the Kinsey Bridge that we drove across -- and into Miles City!!!

6/30

Miles City, MT

6/30

Cartersville, MT

There is nothing except the old right of way and a road sign. We started driving toward Forsythe. Twelve miles later, we pulled up onto the old RoW, and drove on toward Forsythe.

6/30

Forsythe, MT

It was a short lived endeavor; we encountered an old stock loading platform.

We later did find this bridge.

6/30

Vananda, MT

We found Vananda! The two story brick school house was the giveaway:

Across the highway from where I stood to take the school house photo were foundations of some Milwaukee structure

6/30

Ingomar, MT

6/30

Sumatra, MT

Somewhere between Ingomar and Sumatra I discovered at least one of the current uses for the old right of way

Sumatra: the photo says it all:

We are about half way between Melstone and Sumatra and we can see why Montana is called Big Sky Country!

6/30

Melstone, MT

6/30

Roundup, MT

In Roundup, we visited the historical society Museum where, among other things, we were shown this jar which was a battery cell in the early Automatic Block Signal System

We also found the old depot:

6/30

Lavina, MT

In Lavina, MP = 755.4; no time recorded, The Adams Hotel still stands:

6/30

Ryegate, MT

Further west there was nothing to be seen in Ryegate, not even a grain elevator!

6/30

Barber, MT

and this may have been the general store

A look west along the right of way:

And a look east:

What we found curious was McCarters failure to mention the small church that has been Barber for 75 years and that is still being used:

July 2007 -- Part One

July 2007 -- Part Two