The Chicago, Milwaukee, Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad, better known as the Milwaukee Road was one of the largest and most popular railroads in the mid-western United States. It's been known for many of its routes and locomotives but by far, its largest claim to fame is their Hiawatha passenger train. The Hiawatha was first brought into service in the late 1930s and was meant to compete with the CB&Q, and the C&NW for the quickest train from Minneapolis to Chicago. This also came at a point where passenger ridership was at an all time low for the MILW as a result of the great depression. They had set out to build the a locomotive built for pure speed. In order to do this, they elected to order 2 streamlined 4-4-2 Atlantic type steam locomotives from ALCO. These would be considered the first steam locomotives designed to regularly operate at over 100 MPH. The passenger train was a huge success attracting thousand of riders each year. Later, in the 1940s, series of F class 4-6-4 Baltic (more commonly referred to as Hudsons on other roads) type steam locomotives were built to pull the train as well. To add the full 400 mile route between Chicago and Minneapolis would simply be too much, so I instead propose that the 90 route from Chicago to Milwaukee be made instead. Not only would this make for some fun, high speed, steam passenger runs, it could also be fun for freight operations as well. The locomotives that I have in mind for the route are the class A Atlantics and class F Baltics mentioned earlier for passenger operations, as well as a non streamlined version of the Baltic, and a S class 4-8-4 for freight operations. Included rolling stock could consist of Hiawatha passenger cars (obviously), heavyweight passenger cars, 40 ft PS-1 boxcars, reefers, maybe some hoppers, gondolas, tank cars, and of course a caboose. What do you guys think? Would this make for a good route?
This would be cool. Maybe we could get an electrified version with Little Joes or EP-2 Bi-polars or a diesel version in the 1970s with FM Erie-Builts, EMD SD45s, FP45s, or SD40s, and other engines. I think the steam engines would be a great choice.
OOH!! I had a thought looking at this. If this route gets made, there could be two versions of it made. One in the time period originally described, and another in the 60's and 70's with scenarios utilizing my suggested FP45 pack. I mean, the Santa Fe AND Milwaukee Road bought, owned, operated, and maintained FP45's for their passenger services before Amtrak took over. Here's the link to the thread: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/emd-fp45-and-passenger-cars.27666/ Still yet another fantastic suggestion overall. Keep it up Buynot .
I've had another thought. This route could possibly be merged with your Chicago in the 50's "hub" route, for a good bit of action. That'd be one heck of a sight. Might or might not be the most realistic, but hey, it's not like the scenery changed to much between those two time periods, so it could quite possibly work. Besides, if there was any 20th century railroad that had the potential to make it into the 21st, it was the Milwaukee Road. Shame it didn't though. Ah well. What's past is past.
OH YEAH!!!! The Milwaukee also had corridor tenders on their A class Atlantics too, so there's that for another uniqueness point. ^^ Literally the only photo I've been able to find of 'em.
