[milwaukee-electric] Re: This and that

[Scott Greig]

--- On Thu, 11/19/09, Matthew Austin <msa_vianney at hotmail.com> wrote:
From: Matthew Austin <msa_vianney at hotmail.com>
Subject: [milwaukee-electric] This and that
To: "Milwaukee list Milwaukee list" <milwaukee-electric at lists.dementia.org>
Date: Thursday, November 19, 2009, 4:30 PM

Thanks gents,

Don, I'm intrigued about the 1141 trip. I'm guessing that someone ran a trip using this car after operations closed without permission? I'd be fascinated to hear what happened, almost sixty years ago.

Don can tell the story better than I...basically, a local fan had some out-of-town railfan friends coming to town to catch a ride on Speedrail; unfortunately, the line had shut down by the time they arrived.  Not to be deterred, they went down to 10th/12th Street to look at the idled cars...one of them tried the door on 1141, at the west end of the line, and found it to be open.  They climbed aboard to look around the inside of the car...one of the group found a brake handle aboard the car, another put the pole up and found the wire (and compressor) live, and another twiddled with the controller for fun and managed to throw the reverse drum into forward position.  When the pump shut off, one of the out-of-town fans suggested they try moving the car; the local fan was reluctant, but was goaded into it by everyone else.  "Moving" it a few feet turned into moving it a little more, then some more...then they were heading west down the freight track!  By
 the time they reached the end of track at 27th Street the reality of getting caught had settled in to everyone, and when the car came to a halt the group bailed and left it there.

Thanks for the Sheboygan pics. I'm impressed to see that at least one interurban terminal building still exists. To have the PSB and at least one other terminal building is pretty good, sixty-odd years after closure. Are any car barns still standing?

Fiebrantz, Fond du Lac and Kinnickinnic Car Stations are still standing and in use, however I believe original building survive only at the first two.

Just curious, how long did the limited operations at Cold Springs last? Into the Sixties I'm guessing?

About 1965, I think.  

An interesting detail of this service is that the last car shown as retired from TMER&T's books was wrecker W-1, in 1961 or 62.  Dump motor D-15 and crane D-16 were in use to the end, and I have never found an official asset retirement date for them.
                          
_________________________________________________________________
For more of what happens online Head to the Daily Blob on Windows Live
http://windowslive.ninemsn.com.au/blog.aspx