Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Minneapolis Railroad The railroad that became the Milwaukee Road began as the
Milwaukee and Waukesha Railroad in
Wisconsin, whose goal was to link the developing
Lake Michigan port City of
Milwaukee with the
Mississippi River. The company incorporated in 1847, but changed its name to the
Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad in 1850 before construction began. Its first line, long, opened between Milwaukee and
Wauwatosa, on November 20, 1850. Extensions followed to
Waukesha in February 1851,
Madison, and finally the Mississippi River at
Prairie du Chien in 1857. As a result of the financial panic of 1857, the M&M went into receivership in 1859 and was purchased by the
Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien Railroad in 1861. In 1867,
Alexander Mitchell combined the M&PdC with the
Milwaukee and St. Paul (formerly the
La Crosse and Milwaukee Railroad Company) under the name
Milwaukee and St. Paul. Critical to the development and financing of the railroad was the acquisition of significant land grants. Prominent individual investors in the line included Alexander Mitchell,
Russell Sage,
Jeremiah Milbank, and
William Rockefeller. In 1874, the name was changed to
Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Company after constructing an extension to Chicago in 1872. The company absorbed the Chicago and Pacific Railroad Company in 1879, the railroad that built the
Bloomingdale Line (now The 606) and what became the
Milwaukee District West Line as part of the 36-mile Elgin Subdivision from
Halsted Street in
Chicago to the suburb of
Elgin, Illinois. In 1890, the company purchased the Milwaukee and Northern Railroad; by now, the railroad had lines running through Wisconsin,
Minnesota,
Iowa,
South Dakota, and the
Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The corporate headquarters were moved from Milwaukee to the
Rand McNally Building in Chicago, America's first all-steel framed skyscraper, in 1889 and 1890, with the car and locomotive shops staying in Milwaukee. The company's general offices were later located in Chicago's
Railway Exchange building (built 1904) until 1924, at which time they moved to
Chicago Union Station.
Pacific Extension In the 1890s, the company's directors felt they had to extend the railroad to the
Pacific to remain competitive with other railroads. A survey in 1901 estimated costs to build to the Pacific Northwest as $45 million ($ in dollars). In 1905, the board approved the Pacific Extension, now estimated at $60 million ($ in dollars). The contract for the western part of the route was awarded to
Horace Chapin Henry of
Seattle. The subsidiary Chicago, Milwaukee and Puget Sound Railway Company was chartered in 1905 to build from the Missouri River to Seattle and Tacoma. Construction began in 1906 and was completed three years later. The route chosen was shorter than the next shortest competitors, as well as better grades than some, but it was an expensive route, since Milwaukee Road received few land grants and had to buy most of the land or acquire smaller railroads. The two main mountain ranges that had to be crossed, the
Rockies and the
Cascades, required major
civil engineering works and additional locomotive power. The completion of of railroad through some of the most varied topography in the nation in only three years was a major feat. Original company maps denote five mountain crossings: Belts, Rockies,
Bitterroots,
Saddles, and Cascades. These are slight misnomers as the Belt mountains and Bitterroots are part of the Rockies. The route did not cross over the
Little Belts or
Big Belts, but over the Lenep-Loweth Ridge between the
Castle Mountains and the
Crazy Mountains. Some historians question the choice of route, since it bypassed some population centers and passed through areas with limited local traffic potential. Much of the line paralleled the
Northern Pacific Railway.
Trains magazine called the building of the extension, primarily a long-haul route, "egregious" and a "disaster". George H. Drury listed the Pacific Extension as one of several "wrong decisions" made by the Milwaukee Road's management which contributed to the company's eventual failure. Beginning in 1909, several smaller railroads were acquired and expanded to form branch lines along the Pacific Extension. • The
Montana Railroad formed the mainline route through
Sixteen Mile Canyon as well as the North Montana Line which extended North from
Harlowton to
Lewistown. This branch led to the settlement of the
Judith Basin and, by the 1970s, accounted for 30% of the Milwaukee Road's total traffic. • The White Sulphur Springs & Yellowstone Park Railway, originally built by Lew Penwell and John Ringling, primarily carried lumber and agricultural products. Together, the of main-line electrification represented the largest such project in the world up to that time and would not be exceeded in the US until the
Pennsylvania Railroad's efforts in the 1930s. The two separate electrified districts were never unified, as the Idaho Division (Avery to Othello) was comparatively flat down the
St. Joe River to
St. Maries and through
eastern Washington, and posed few challenges for steam operation. Electrification cost $27 million, but resulted in savings of over $1 million per year from improved operational efficiency.
Bankruptcies The Chicago, Milwaukee, and Puget Sound Railway was absorbed by the parent company on January 1, 1913. In 1955, the Milwaukee Road took over from the
Chicago and North Western's handling of
Union Pacific's
streamliner trains between Chicago and
Omaha. s in their fourth Milwaukee Road paint scheme, matching
Union Pacific colors The whole railroad industry found itself in decline in the late 1950s and the 1960s, but the Milwaukee Road was hit particularly hard. The Midwest was overbuilt with a plethora of competing railroads, while the competition on the transcontinental routes to the Pacific was tough. The premier transcontinental streamliner, the
Olympian Hiawatha, despite innovative scenic observation cars, was mothballed in 1961, becoming the first visible casualty. The resignation of President John P. Kiley in 1957 and his replacement with the fairly inexperienced
William John Quinn was a pivotal moment. From that point onward, the road's management was fixated on merger with another railroad as the solution to the Milwaukee's problems. Railroad mergers had to be approved by the
Interstate Commerce Commission, and in 1969 the ICC effectively blocked the merger with the
Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW) that the Milwaukee Road had counted on and had been planning for since 1964. The ICC asked for terms that the C&NW was not willing to agree to. The merger of the "Hill Lines" was approved at around the same time, and the merged
Burlington Northern came into being.
Early 1970s " electric locomotive, ready to lead an eastbound freight at Avery, Idaho in 1971 The formation of Burlington Northern in 1970 from the merger of
Northern Pacific,
Great Northern,
Burlington Route, and the
Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway on March 3 created a stronger competitor on most Milwaukee Road routes. To boost competition, the ICC gave the Milwaukee Road the right to connect with new railroads in the West over Burlington Northern tracks. Traffic on its Pacific Extension increased substantially to more than four trains a day each way as it began interchanging cars with the
Southern Pacific at
Portland, Oregon and Canadian railroads at
Sumas, Washington. The railroad's foothold on transcontinental traffic leaving the
Port of Seattle increased such that the Milwaukee Road held a staggering advantage over BN, carrying nearly 80% of the originating traffic along with 50% of the total container traffic leaving the
Puget Sound (prior to severe service declines after roughly 1974). In 1970, the president of
Chicago and North Western offered to sell the railroad to the Milwaukee Road outright. President
William John Quinn refused, stating that it now believed only a merger with a larger system, not a slightly smaller one, could save the railroad. Almost immediately, the railroad filed unsuccessfully with the ICC to be included in the
Union Pacific merger with the
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. By the mid-1970s, deferred maintenance on Milwaukee Road's physical plant, which had been increasing throughout the 1960s as it attempted to improve its financial appearance for merger, was beginning to cause problems. The railroad's financial problems were exacerbated by their practice of improving its earnings during that period by selling off its wholly owned cars to financial institutions and leasing them back. The lease charges became greater, and more cars needed to be sold to pay the lease payments. The railroad's fleet of cars was becoming older because more money was being spent on finance payments for the old cars rather than buying new ones. This contributed to car shortages that turned away business. The Milwaukee Road chose at this time to end its mainline electrification. Its electric locomotive fleet was reaching the end of its service life, and newer diesel locomotives such as the
EMD SD40-2 and the
GE Universal Series were more than capable of handling the route. The final electric freight arrived at
Deer Lodge, Montana on June 15, 1974. In 1976, the Milwaukee Road exercised its right under the Burlington Northern merger to petition for inclusion based on its weak financial condition. The ICC denied it on March 2, 1977.
Final bankruptcy , still in use near
Rosalia, Washington, on the Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail Between 1974 and 1977, the Milwaukee Road lost $100 million, and the company filed for its third bankruptcy in 42 years on December 19, 1977. Judge
Thomas R. McMillen presided over the bankruptcy until the Milwaukee Road's sale in 1985. The railroad's primary problem was that it possessed too much physical plant for the revenue it generated. In 1977, it owned of track, and 36% of that mileage produced a mere 14% of the company's yearly revenue. The approach taken by the bankruptcy trustees was to sell or abandon unprofitable or marginally profitable lines, leaving a much smaller railroad which could be profitable. Outright liquidation was considered, but not pursued. In 1980, the secondary line between
Marquette, Iowa and
Rapid City, South Dakota on its section between
Mitchell and
Kadoka was embargoed and then acquired by the
South Dakota Department of Transportation. , in October 1974, after the end of electrified operation Between 1977 and 1984, route distance was reduced to a quarter from its peak and a third from its total in 1977, shrinking to . The most extensive abandonment eliminated the Milwaukee Road's transcontinental service to the West Coast. While the
Burlington Northern merger generated more traffic on this route, it was only enough to wear out the deteriorating track, not enough to pay for rebuilding. This forced trains to slow at many locations due to bad track. A final attempt to devise a plan to rehabilitate the Pacific Extension under the Milwaukee Road Restructuring Act failed. Operations ended west of
Miles City, Montana, on February 29, 1980. The new, smaller railroad began earning small profits in 1982 (that same year, its two commuter rail lines, collectively known as the
Milwaukee District West Line and
Milwaukee District North Line respectively, were turned over to the Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Rail Corporation, a forerunner of commuter rail agency
Metra). Still in reorganization, the Milwaukee Road attracted interest from three potential buyers: the
Grand Trunk Corporation, the
Chicago and North Western Railway, and the
Soo Line Railroad. The
Interstate Commerce Commission approved the offers by both Soo Line and C&NW. Ultimately, Judge McMillen approved the former's offer on February 19, 1985. The Soo reorganized the property as the Milwaukee Road, Inc., prior to merging the Milwaukee into the company itself effective January 1, 1986. The Soo Line would be acquired by Canadian Pacific in 1990 with the latter consolidating with the
Kansas City Southern Railway 33 years later. In 1982, all that remained of the main line to the Pacific to Miles City, via
Aberdeen, South Dakota, along with other lines in the same state and in Montana was sold to BN. and
Idaho following the Milwaukee Road The successor-in-interest to what remained of the Milwaukee Road after the Soo Line sale was its holding company, the
Milwaukee Land Company, reverted to Chicago Milwaukee Corporation ownership (CMC). Without the railroad, CMC's primary function became disposal or redevelopment of Milwaukee Road real estate not sold to the Soo Line, which stretched from Bedford, Indiana, to Washington state. The larger properties were developed into big-box retail or industrial sites. The CMC itself was beset with legal and financial woes, filing for bankruptcy (under numerous versions of CMC/Heartland Partners), as a result of environmental cleanup costs and liabilities at former Milwaukee Road sites. CMC Heartland, and its various reincarnations, were dissolved in a final liquidation process that came to a close in 2010. Much of the abandoned Milwaukee PCE line has become
rail trails. The
Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail (formerly the John Wayne Pioneer Trail) in Washington, the Milwaukee Road Rail Trail in Idaho, the Route of the Hiawatha Trail in Idaho and Montana, Route of the Olympian in Montana, the
Midtown Greenway in Minnesota, the
Bugline Trail in Wisconsin, and the Milwaukee Road Transportation Trailway in Indiana all run on sections of the right-of-way among others. Today, both the Milwaukee Road and Soo Line Railroad trackage make up the Midwest US routes of the
CPKC. The Pacific Extension was abandoned in 1984 and sections in Washington state were subsequently acquired by various firms.
Tacoma Rail purchased all of Milwaukee's lines south of Tacoma in 1989 and leased its tracks to the Tacoma Eastern Railway Company until it took over all freight operations in 1998. The
Centralia–
Curtis section was acquired by
Weyerhauser for their lumber operations and later leased to the
Chehalis–Centralia Railroad, a heritage operator founded in 1986. The
Port of Chehalis purchased the line in 1996 and sold it to the Chehalis–Centralia Railroad in 2019. A section from
Royal Slope to
Othello, Washington, was purchased by the Port of Royal Slope in 1982 and operated as the Royal Slope Railroad until it was transferred to the
Washington State Department of Transportation in 1994. Most of the surviving section of the former Milwaukee Road main line to the Pacific, from Appleton to the west, is currently operated by
BNSF Railway, classified as the Appleton, Mobridge, and Hettinger Subdivisions. Milwaukee Road Historical Association now owns the Milwaukee Road trademarks/copyrights, except for the AAR reporting marks (MILW) used by the Soo Line Railroad (which does business in the American Midwest as the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway). ==Passenger train service==