Gotta show off, guys. Today I purchased the whole Hiawatha & Milwakee Twin Cities 10 car seton Ebay, there was no bid, so I hit the Buy button like a bull, I love those cars, they're awesome. The seller asked for $ 325, starting at $ 295. I said to myself 30 bucks is 3/4 of my franchise, and I bought it. I'm dying to fumble it, just imagine the ecstasy.
Hiawatha,gotta show off
- Thread starter csxfan
- Start date
Dortoh1
Member
One of the guys in my modeling group is a big Milwaukee fan and has loads of passenger cars including those, and I can tell you for a fact they did a nice job on them. I custom painted a dozen or so brass MILW cars for him and in both of our opinions the Walthers cars are much much nicer. You could buy two of the sets you bought for what one of the Shoreham Shops brass Super Domes cost. And having seen both and if money was not an object, I would buy the Walthers car.
Do you want me to post a picture of my engine? I can do so but it is a standard Fox Valley Hiawatha that came with a tender and passenger cars. The reason for my post is that the engine stalls repeatedly when running on my DCC layout. I have super cleaned the track and the wheels are clean because the engine is only a week or so old. All my other engines (25 or so) ( Kato, Atlas, Bachmann and Athearn) run w/o stalling. Some have sound and some don't but they all (other than the Hiawatha) run without stalling.
RW&C
N Scale with Stone Tools
Check the pickups on the Hiawatha, sounds like maybe the connections from the tender aren't getting to the engine? Bad solder joint somewhere?
Also diesels will take a lot worse track than steamers, especially long steamers. If you've got tight corner or sharp transitions between grades, it could be lifting wheels and losing power.
Also diesels will take a lot worse track than steamers, especially long steamers. If you've got tight corner or sharp transitions between grades, it could be lifting wheels and losing power.
Railrunner130
Well-Known Member
I've been watching a few Hiawatha auctions on Ebay recently. They look really cool, but are way out of my price range. At least for now. I'd still love to see photos so I can drool with envy.
Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
Is this the Fox Valley 1938 Hiawatha or is this the Walther's 195x set? I've got all three (Walthers in both color schemes), none of which have ever hit the rails. sigh.
Railrunner130
Well-Known Member
My "justification" is that in addition to being a Rutland, layout (or will be) I also like bullet trains. I very highly doubt any streamliners of such caliber ever visited Vermont, but I don't care. From what I've read recently, generally speaking, the steam streamliners were never very good at hills.
montanan
Whiskey Merchant
The Milwaukee Road had one advantage over other railroads when it comes to the mountains, electric locomotices. They had a big advantage over diesel and especially steam, especially in extremely cold weather. Hete's a link to a movie made by the Milwaukee Road promoting the Hiawatha.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQupCrYLLbk
This is an interesting propaganda movie. As a kid I have ridden on both this train and the NP's North Coast Limited. A lot of great memories.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQupCrYLLbk
This is an interesting propaganda movie. As a kid I have ridden on both this train and the NP's North Coast Limited. A lot of great memories.
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Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
As I understand it the Milwaukee had just updated the electrical before the whole railroad went belly up, so it was in great shape when it "went to scrap". Do any Milwaukee fans have the real/whole story?
montanan
Whiskey Merchant
I'll give it a try. Most of the electric locomotives the Milwaukee had we built in the teens and soldiered on thanks to the shops and mechanics of the Milwaukee road. No new electric locomotives were added until the time of the Korean war. General Electric built 20 locomotives that were slated to be sold to the Soviet Union, but due to the cold war, the deal fell through. These locomotives were to become the EF-4 and EP-4 locomotives for the Milwaukee Road, better known as the "Little Joes". The Milwaukee bought 12, the Chicago South Shore and South Bend bought 2 and the remaining 5 went to South America. Fourteen had to be rebuilt from the 5 foot guage of the Soviet Union to our 4 foot and 8 and a half guage. These locomotives almost went to scrap.
These locomotives were used in the Rocky Mountain Division between Harlowtown, MT and Avery, ID. These giants continued in service for a couple of more decades until diesels were showing up under the catenary. The Joes were used as helpers many times running along with diesels, and with the smarts of the Milwaukee shops, were also controlled by the Joes. There were no plans for modernization that I was aware of for the overhead or powerhouses. The powerhoues were still performing just as they had when they were built. When Passenger service ceased in 1970, the Milwaukee was thinking about de electrifing with diesels being the main power. The powers to be at the time seemed to be trying to run the Milwaukee road into to ground. The electric operation ceased in June of 1974, right when the "73 oil crisis really hit. The copper from the catenary did provide the road with some much needed cash, but due to more bad decisions, the Milwaukee went into reorginizayion in 1977, but never recovered and was finally taken over by the Soo. In 1984 the Milwaukee Road ceased operations here in Montana.
The photo shows a typical lash up of electric and diesel. The picture was taken at Saint Regis, MT, crossing the Clark Fork River. In the background you can see the Northern Pacific' rails. The bridge is still there today, and can be seen from I-90. Driving along I-90 in western Montana you can see the old Milwaukee right of way running right along side the now BNSF rails, with many of the bridges and tunnels easily seen.
These locomotives were used in the Rocky Mountain Division between Harlowtown, MT and Avery, ID. These giants continued in service for a couple of more decades until diesels were showing up under the catenary. The Joes were used as helpers many times running along with diesels, and with the smarts of the Milwaukee shops, were also controlled by the Joes. There were no plans for modernization that I was aware of for the overhead or powerhouses. The powerhoues were still performing just as they had when they were built. When Passenger service ceased in 1970, the Milwaukee was thinking about de electrifing with diesels being the main power. The powers to be at the time seemed to be trying to run the Milwaukee road into to ground. The electric operation ceased in June of 1974, right when the "73 oil crisis really hit. The copper from the catenary did provide the road with some much needed cash, but due to more bad decisions, the Milwaukee went into reorginizayion in 1977, but never recovered and was finally taken over by the Soo. In 1984 the Milwaukee Road ceased operations here in Montana.
The photo shows a typical lash up of electric and diesel. The picture was taken at Saint Regis, MT, crossing the Clark Fork River. In the background you can see the Northern Pacific' rails. The bridge is still there today, and can be seen from I-90. Driving along I-90 in western Montana you can see the old Milwaukee right of way running right along side the now BNSF rails, with many of the bridges and tunnels easily seen.
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montanan
Whiskey Merchant
Here are some pictures of the Milwaukee Road box cabs that remained in service right up to the very end. No parts were available and with their experience, Milwaukee crews kept these locomotives in service, sometimes having to canabalizing parts from other locomotives.
The first shot was taken at the top of Pipistone Pass, just easr of Butte, MT.
The second is leaving Missoula, MT.
The third shot was taken in Deer Lodge, MT
The kast is of what was called the Harlowtown switcher. A section of this locomotive is now on display at Harlowtown, MT
An O scale brass collector had me custom pain a number of his Milwaukee locomotives. I did a couple of Joes, steeple cab switchers and other box cabs, but when I did the Harlowtoen switcher I had to cut into some of the body panels to put in windows and grills, and I heavily weathered it as I don't believe this locomotive had many baths. He was a bit hesitant when I told him about the weathering, but when he saw the finished model alongside a picture, he was estatic.
The first shot was taken at the top of Pipistone Pass, just easr of Butte, MT.
The second is leaving Missoula, MT.
The third shot was taken in Deer Lodge, MT
The kast is of what was called the Harlowtown switcher. A section of this locomotive is now on display at Harlowtown, MT
An O scale brass collector had me custom pain a number of his Milwaukee locomotives. I did a couple of Joes, steeple cab switchers and other box cabs, but when I did the Harlowtoen switcher I had to cut into some of the body panels to put in windows and grills, and I heavily weathered it as I don't believe this locomotive had many baths. He was a bit hesitant when I told him about the weathering, but when he saw the finished model alongside a picture, he was estatic.
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montanan
Whiskey Merchant
I am not aware of any major upgrades to the electrical systems prior to de-electrification. I checked with some relatives and they also were not aware. The Milwaukee always had a decent program of maintenence for their overhead. All of the power stations were still functioning well, even thought they were built in the teens, but upgraded over the years. What was not maintained well, especially at the end was the track. Increased transit time was really hurting them because so many sections had slow order rules in effect due to poor track. Customers were moving freight to the GN and NP when possible. Another nail in the coffin. tThe biggest problem they had at the end was the management. The passed up offortunities, such as buying the Chicago Northwestern for instance. In the early 70's, they were really strapped for cash and this was one reason for selling the Copper. Again, here they screwed up again. At one point the price of copper soared and it was estimated that the copper was worth about $10 million but they didn't act soon enough and only got $5 million.
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montanan
Whiskey Merchant
Just heard from my cousin and he found a good article about this subject. Here's a website if you want to check it out. This pretty well backs up what my relatives have told me.
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/classic/MILWdata5.html
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/classic/MILWdata5.html
