Early Amtrak Across Wisconsin

On May 1, 1971, Amtrak became Wisconsin's rail passenger carrier. Passenger service along the Burlington Northern's Mississippi River Route ended as did all service on the Chicago & North Western. Famous train names such as the Milwaukee Road's Hiawathas, C&NW's Streamliners, and Burlington Northern's North Coast Limited disappeared. When Amtrak began, only the Empire Builder and Chicago-to-Milwaukee corridor service were spared, and the Builder was rerouted from the BN onto the Milwaukee's Twin Cities line.

By November, 1971, Amtrak was ready for some new Wisconsin trains. Added were Hiawatha trains to the Twin Cities; North Coast Hiawatha trains to Seattle via Southern Montana; and St. Louis service through Chicago to Milwaukee. Things were looking up for Wisconsin's rail passenger service!

The first vestiges of Amtrak paint slowly appeared in 1972 and in 1973 there were brand new Amtrak engines. However, mismatched "Rainbow" consists were still the rule. GM&O heavyweight parlor cars often appeared as did Denver, Kansas City and California Zephyr Silver dome-observation cars. Soon the E and F locomotives would disappear forever, but in these vintage years they still dominated the trains.

Early Amtrak Across Wisconsin follows Amtrak from the Twin Cities to Southern Wisconsin in the years 1971-73. Locations include such railroading hot spots as St. Croix Junction south of St. Paul, La Crosse, and Duplainville Tower west of Milwaukee. There are scenic views along the Mississippi River and many photo locations in the metro Milwaukee area. The Amtrak trains you will see include:

# The Empire Builder
# The Hiawatha
# The North Coast Hiawatha
# The Abraham Lincoln

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Early
• Amtrak
• Across
• Wisconsin
• pentrex
• burlington
• northern
• railroad
• train

[tool1661]

trains rock

[SHADOWNADO]

National Train Day May 9!

I'll have my 2000 Oldsmobile Silhouette (painted like an Amtrak SDP40F) at Los Angeles for the event.

[indyfan22k]

Why does Amtrak get so little funding ?? Is there no passenger rail lobbyists??

[TommyBNSF]

3:53, I railfan that place all the time! Mazon, IL!

[historyboy08]

It would be nice to see the North Coat Hiawatha return. Its also a sad state how primitive our country is with rail travel. People complain about the pollution, global warming, and the traffic on the highways, but yet, they choose to forget about rail transportation as a necessity to resolve these issues or at least slow them down.

[tom618ful]

@intercityrailpal i know but one is still there whitehall station in green bay & wester railroad in wisconsin it was turned into a museum in 2006 walthers has a model in ho scale also

[intercityrailpal]

@intercityrailpal But it was too late...they wanted to drive the numbers down. So they not only got rid of the train but the track too! (just my opinion) But today that major Pennsy line to St. Louis is GONE! All that business across Ohio on the highways. Each train station replaced by tens of conveinece stores. And lines of traffic. Just the way they planed it!

[intercityrailpal]

@Amtrak1194 This type of service or NO service was on the National Limited, and train to major cities in the midwest. NY-Pittsburg-Columbus-Indianap­olis-St.Louis-Kansas City. I remember riding ex PC cars, nice cars except the AC was broken (what railroaders call "bad order") It was over 100 degrees in the cars. People got on and walked off before the train left the station! Or got off at the next station. After studies of ridership were completed. Then Amfleet cars were placed on the train.t

[intercityrailpal]

@doomhalopatsfreak So if that's true, why isn't it true in the rest of the world. Where trains do 200 and now 300 mph in China? Maybe it's because we're too busy building waste full highways and airports. To invest in high speed trains. Our transportation policy is run by oil companys and overseas investors. Some from the middle east. Our companys have American names, but were sold off along time ago to overseas investors. Conveinence stores that sell gas hate passenger trains some reason.

[Amtrak1194]

@intercityrailpal Were you on the PC when they still lit and air conditioned the cars?

By the time the merger was closing to the Amtrak and Conrail relief they had no lights or air conditioning on trains to drive away customers. They wanted so bad to be out of passenger business they tried to scare people away from their trains. Back then passenger service was like a cancer to everybody except Amtrak. The longer they carried passenger trains the deeper in debt they went.

[BlackWolfessUSCM]

BN's final Empire Builder was a true Rainbow Fleet, one that I think makes it the most interesting. And my favorite to model.

[kjrehberg]

Look at the trains bounce along all that bad track.

The railroads were looking for any way to save money. Amtrak was a convenient way to do it. Other railroads, like Santa Fe, showed that Amtrak was a cop-out and really wasn't necessary, but after a few years the free money from the government was too much for even them to pass up.