What Happened to the Milwaukee Road? The Railroad That Tore Up Its Own Main Line

In 1974, why was the Milwaukee Road selling copper wire off its own main line by the pound? Six years later the track under that wire was abandoned as well, and the owners still left bankruptcy with a fortune. The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific reached Puget Sound in 1909 and ran 656 miles of its route under 3,000-volt wire. By 1975 it spent $5,802 per mile on its roadway while its chief rival spent $9,832. Its Seattle to Chicago freight schedule had slowed from 55.5 hours to 71. It filed for reorganization on December 19, 1977, and trains stopped west of Miles City, Montana, in March 1980. What this video covers: • 1906: a $60 million estimate that became about $257 million • 1973: the announcement that the electric wire would come down • 1977: 10,797,849 pounds of copper sold at an average of 70.7 cents • 1979: the application to abandon 2,497.7 miles of line • 1985: the sale of what was left to the Soo Line The Milwaukee Road was worth more stopped than running. If you ever watched a Little Joe pull freight under the wire in Montana, tell us where you stood. Subscribe for more careful histories of the railroads America lost. #MilwaukeeRoad #MilwaukeeRoadElectrification #PacificExtension #LittleJoe #Hiawatha #SooLine #BurlingtonNorthern #AbandonedRailroads #RailroadHistory #DeadRailroads Disclaimer: The voiceover used in this video was generated using AI.