The Milwaukee Road in Montana

Today, it's a fallen flag railroad, but it was once one of the most unique rail lines in the United States. The Milwaukee Road, which ran from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest, operated as an electrified line in Montana up until June of 1974. Photographer Ted Pope captured the last 4 days of the electric operations before the line switched to full diesel operations. The territory you will see in this video runs between Deer Lodge and Harlowton, Montana. Several scenes feature in-cab footage in the Little Joes as the trains travel through Sixteen Mile Canyon and the scenic Jefferson Canyon. They're places so remote, you can only see them by rail!
Get ready to enjoy historic footage of these magnificent electric locomotives pulling heavy freight across the beautiful Montana Mountain landscape!
For Milwaukee Road fans, this era represents the Milwaukee at its best! Be a part of this historic time period and enjoy the great action of The Milwaukee Road in Montana!

Running time 72 minutes, color/silent films with music and narration.
Copyright 2011, C. Vision Productions/Ted Pope

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Entertainment

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• montana
• electrics
• little
• joe
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• harlowton

[SLSF1522]

Got my copy a couple of weeks ago and I've already watched it several times. Any chance for a DVD on the Washington operations?

[clasko69]

@SLSF1522 I would love to only if there is someone out there that has the footage. Just got to find it if there is any.

[tugaman1000]

When I lived in Renton WA in 1973 I used to see these trains go right through the middle of town. Traffic would be screwed up for a while.

[GLICOSE35]

beautiful! Congratulations on posting!

[niselat]

@peiyuwhu A lot more. The expense of running the powerhouses, maintaining the catenary and other infrastructure is very high. And you still have to maintain the locomotives. Plus no one mass produces electrics that can haul freight so per locomotive cost would be high.

[Jmsimer]

@peiyuwhu : I have read that one of the issues is that the height of the catenaries (overhead lines) prevents the train from hauling double-stacked containers. You can see how that would lead to an increased cost for hauling the containers, which impacts the economics considerably. You could put the catenaries higher, but that would require special-built locomotives, which would cost more. Hopefully someone more familiar with this subject than me can add more detail.

[peiyuwhu]

Is it much more expensive to run an electric railroad than run a full diesel railroad in USA?For what I've seen most of the US freight train locomotives are diesel engines。

[TRAVAM91]

ive driven my truck on most of the railbed between east portal, montana and st.regis montana... theres not much left and its hard to not shed a tear when you know what it used to look like... long live the MILW!!!

[Isochest]

The USA needs a 100% electric transcontinental freight corridor now. Where is it? Make it so now.

[DWINXSEmergencyFan]

Love seeing all these pictures of the Little Joes. I was five when my parents and I took a trip to Avery to see them. My dad was watching the Little Joes and taking pictures of them from atop some overpass, but I was watching squirrels. But, the LJs are some of my favorite locomotives of all times.