Saving the Milwaukee Road Skytop Observation Cars

The remains of two former Milwaukee Road Skytop sleeping cars once used on the Olympian Hiawatha are are at Montevideo Milwaukee Road Heritage Center, 301 State Road Suite 1, Montevideo, MN 56265. Visit us on www.montevideomrhc.org

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Milwaukee
• Road
• Skytop
• Hiawatha
• Olympian
• Heritage

[jackpark7927]

I've owned postcards of the Skytops in their Canadian livery, but only in the CN colors. I'd love to know which of the Skytops is photographed here. I know a Wisconsin rail executive owns one of them. I think there were four or six of them.

[thomasrosiefan1]

What will be done to these remains? Will they use them to reconstruct the cars?

[pipey61]

@snickpickle CN did buy some of the Skytop cars from Milwaukee Road in the late 1960s and assigned them to the Ocean (Halifax - Montreal service). However Transport Canada deemed the cars did not meet Canadian railway safety requirements in the 1970s because they did not have any exits at the rear of the car in the event of emergencies. I do not think they were ever painted or used by Via Rail in the early years. Ultimately the cars were re-sold to collectors and may well be preserved.

[snickpickle]

@edmonton67 I remember that CN bought several of the full-length dome cars, but I thought they also bought a couple of the Skytops, too...

[DEATHBYFLYINGCDS]

Disgusting, you can see graffiti on the other part of the car, some people have no consideration for beauty, or history.

[ble643]

these once sat at the lake front in eire on a barge I thought they sank cause the barge was getting low in the water one year and the next year we came back and they were gone

[edmonton67]

Why does this car have a cheater line at the top of the car that resembles that of the CNR's black and grey livery?. They ran the same cars in the sixties on what was then the Rapido to Montreal. Curious.

[jrahrig]

Thanks for saving MILW Skytops from the wreak Lansdowne.

I remember years ago when they both parked on the waterfront in downtown Detroit next to Cobo Center, now the Detroit Princess docks their.

Hopefully you can piece together something from the remains.