The Milwaukee Road at Cedar Falls--and not.

(See Craig Magnuson's "Bygone Railroad Days At Cedar Falls".)

The Milwaukee Road--more precisely, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific Railroad, or CMSP&P--has an intriguing history, of which the following is only a brief sketch. When it first opened, in 1850, it was just one of hundreds of the "Granger" railroads that were connecting "the West" to markets in "the East". Keep in mind that this was before the Civil War, and "West" still meant west of the Appalachian Mountains. In our neck of the woods, it was not so many years since Lewis and Clark had come out to see what was here. There was yet no transcontinental railroad, there were no highways, and such "roads" as existed were little more than muddy strips through the woods and prairies.

For many years the "Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad" (as it was called then) was just a regional railroad connecting the city of Milwaukee (on the shore of Lake Michigan) and the adjoining regions of the state of Wisconsin to Chicago and St. Paul, and thereby to the rest of the country. But at the turn of the century there was such a concentration of economic power--what was euphemistically referred to as "the interests"--that the management of the Milwaukee Road became concerned about their survival. They were particularly concerned that in a battle between James Hill of the Great Northern Railway, backed by banker J. Pierpont Morgan (gotta read those history books!), and E. W. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railway, backed by the Standard Oil Trust and the Rockefellers, they might lose their access to the Pacific coast ports. The Milwaukee Road needed its own line to the West coast, but how to build it without being thwarted by their competitors was a problem.

As it turned out, the volume of transcontinental rail traffic became more than the existing railways could handle, and "the interests" had no objection when construction of the Pacific Extension began in 1906. Construction from their existing railhead in South Dakota to Puget Sound proceeded quickly, partly because they were able to work on many sections simultaneously, often using the Northern Pacific tracks to bring in heavy equipment and supplies.

The section here was completed in 1909. Through freight service started in 1909; passenger trains across the entire Milwaukee Road system began running in May of 1911. (And continued running until May of 1961, when passenger service was discontinued.) At first the route was over Snoqualmie Pass, as the Snoqualmie tunnel was not completed until 1915. (Part of the old roadbed over the pass was used for old Highway 10.) The 55 mile branch from Cedar Falls to Everett was completed in November of 1911.

One of the hallmarks of the Milwaukee Road was its use of electrically powered locomotives. While it was not entirely electrified (only where it crossed the Cascade and Bitterroot Mountains), nor the only railroad to do so (the Great Northern electrified a short section over Stevens Pass), the Milwaukee Road embraced electrification to such an extent that it was commonly regarded as an "electric" railroad.

The Milwaukee Road was built to be the shortest, fastest, and lowest-cost route to the Northwest, with easier grades and curves than the Great Northern and Northern Pacific. Combined with the lower costs of electric operation, it was able to move freight at lower cost than its competition. Given such an advantage at the core of its business, it is not easy to account for why the Milwaukee Road failed. The end may have started in the 1920's when sheer bad luck, some ill-advised acquistions, and Director disinterest put it under the control of the banks. At the end executive management, and the succeeding bankruptcy trustees, seemed hell-bent on suicide.

The Milwaukee Road's final slide into ruin started in the 1960's when it began neglecting maintenance in order to keep dividends up. This started a vicious cycle: as the track deteriorated derailments increased, speeds had to be reduced, and operating expenses zoomed, while customers and revenues declined, leading to further cost-cutting.

Electric operation over the Cascades was terminated in 1971. (And in the rest of the system in 1974). Management claimed it could not afford the necessary upgrades. But then it spent the money anyway on new diesel locomotives. The justifications claimed are suspect. The diesel locomotives did not perform quite as well as the electrics, and when the last electric run was made in 1974 diesels cost twice as much to operate as the electric locomotives.

The decline continued. At the end of 1977 the Milwaukee filed for bankruptcy. In 1980 came the final act of self-decapitation: the Milwaukee abandoned everything west of Miles City (on the eastern edge of Montana).

The remnants of the system fared no better. At the beginning of 1986 the Soo Line (a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific) took over what little remained, and the once much respected Milwaukee Road was gone.

The Milwaukee's main line out of Seattle to Cedar Falls was not abandoned in 1980. It, and the branch line as far as the town of Snoqualmie, was taken over by the Burlington Northern to access the Weyerhaeuser mill at Snoqualmie. The Northern Pacific had originally accessed the mill by way of a long branch line that came through Woodinville, Issaquah, Preston, and the west side of Snoqualmie Falls. But this route had a number of wooden trestles, which are expensive to maintain, and the BN was quick to abandon it in favor of the line via Cedar Falls. However, the mill stopped shipping by rail in 1990, and eventually the tracks were pulled up. The former branch line is now the Snoqualmie Valley Trail.

The roadbed of Milwaukee Road's main line from Cedar Falls east is now the John Wayne Pioneer Trail, said to be named after the actor because he exemplified some of the values that made the West great. But this two-thousand mile artefact across the West, this ineffable trace of an unrailroad , is an unsigned memorial of an immense failure, that of the once mighty Milwaukee, Chicago, St. Paul & Pacific Railway. By comparison, the Boxley Blowout is an insignificant pit, a little slip-up on a project that endures to this day. Perhaps the Blowout is more appealing because it is simpler, and easier to comprehend. Even so, what vital lessons might we learn in studying why did the Milwaukee Road fail?

There is more material on "The Milwaukee Railroad in the Snoqualmie Valley" from the Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum. See also the web site of the Friends of the South Cle Elum Depot (just on the other side of the Cascades) for additional links.

There is also much printed material. One of my favorites is Frederick Hyde's The Milwaukee Road (Hyrail, 1990), which has beautiful pictures, many of them taken in this area.