Milwaukee Road Heritage Center, Montevideo, MN

[DakotaLove39]

Hey folks. This week has been Fiesta Days in Montevideo, MN, and as such the town's MILW museum and model railroad club were wide open to be seen. I made a two-hour trip for this and I was not let down!

The model railroad club occupies a room about 25x15, and is sort of an HO scale folded dogbone with a branch line. The layout is DCC control and depicts the Montevideo, MN area in the 1950's dominated by the Milwaukee Road. I'm so used to a sea of BN Green and BNSF orange that seeing nothing but MILW gave me the biggest grin.

Unfortunately there was a larger group of people who came in behind me so I couldn't get many photos. It's a very cool, rural sort of layout. They currently only run it for show, but explained to me that they are interested in changing over to prototypical operation soon.

More photos of the club layout can be found on their website here https://www.montevideomrhc.org/ModelRailroad/index.html#

 

[DakotaLove39]

Now for the rest of the museum.. I'll let the photos do most of the talking.

 

[DakotaLove39]

'Big Stone's caboose, an International Bay Window specially built to pass through a rotary coal dumper at the Big Stone power plant. One of only two. Big Stone (BSPX) bought the cabooses but MILW was in charge of them. Note the signature MILW caboose trucks, the propane tank rack and corresponding roof handle for servicing the 3M Thermal Generator this caboose used to have.

 

[DakotaLove39]

EMD SW1, fully functional. Museum crew had it idling for us.


The remains of Creek cars Gold Creek and Arrow Creek. These were Skytop Sleeper-Lounge cars from the Olympian Hiawatha trains. After retirement they somehow ended up on a boat or ferry, and were used as dining compartments on it. Quite a sad state now, but I can't think of a better place for these components to call home.



MILW shops-built snowplow. I forget the unique name these had, but I am aware that they are built on steam locomotive tenders. One or two still exist which double as flangers, also. I believe there is one such plow elsewhere in MN.