[milwaukee-electric] Re: Name of the Milwaukee Train Station During 1969

[Gary Schnabl]

On 3/16/2011 1:05 PM, Don L. Leistikow wrote:
> Joel A and list;   You're on track............
>
> Back a bit further, the Union Station was so known as that as, the Soo
> Line passenger train did enter it up to 1938.
>
> I've yet to see a photo of a Soo Line train in that Station.   Anyone?
> ..................
>
> As for the TMER&L's Public Service Building, back in the period before
> 1940, the Cudahy-South Milwaukee trains came in on track two.  Company
> owned and operated Wisconsin Motor Bus lInes (a TM sub-corporation) did
> enter on track one.
>
> Motor Coach Age Nov-Dec 1981 issue says that TMER&T entered into an
> agreement with Northland Greyhound, to allow NGL to begin to use the
> PSB, in the Spring of 1940.  WMBL was already sharing the PSB with
> Midland Coach Lines and Interstate Stages.
>
> On August 3, 1941, the truncated Route 3 Cudahy suburban line, operated
> with the ten articulated trains 1031-32~1049-50, was abandoned.  A new
> Route 66 replaced this service which, strangely did not enter the PSB
> but, loaded at the sidewalk on the NW corner of 3rd&  Michigan.
>
> PSB Track two, then became additional space for Motor Coach loading.
> Rapid Transit cars continued to use tracks 3, 4, 5 and 6, for loading.
> A wall separated the Terminal from the service area, tracks 7 thru 11
> which comprised the little known fact that it was Centrail Car Station,
> fully equipped for monthly inspections and light maintenance.
>
> The last Master Superintendent was William 'Bill' 'Schwerin of Cedarburg
> and past employee on the Milwaukee Northern, then transfered to TMER&L
> when the former MN Cedarburg Shop was closed.  He stayed on board and
> ended his career with Speedrail.  He was the last employee, who came to
> work at a small office in a Container Car M (?) behind the Office
> building at 940 W. St.Paul Avenue.
>
> This location was just east of the elevated track that that spanned
> Hibernia Street between 10th and 12th streets.
>
> There is a separate story about Abel&  Bach Luggage Company, if anyone's
> interested.
>
>
> Don L.
This 1950s or 1960s aerial photo just barely shows the luggage company, 
the subway entrance, and some visible remnants of the PROW between 7th 
and 8th Streets in the right-bottom corner. Can anybody peg the year of 
the photo better than the description on the retro Milwaukee website?

Just what exactly did the subway consist of: its plans, what actually 
was built, and what became of it and when? I once saw a very grainy 
photo of it in a Milwaukee Journal article around 1940 or so. Are there 
better photos available?

http://www.retrocom.com/retromilw/Mke-Downtown50s.jpg

I'll bite on the Abel & Bach story... Was that the company that the 
interurban people complained about when they refused to relocate for the 
subway? If it was, it appears as if they survived longer than the 
interurban. So, not moving would have been a good "move" (pun 
intended...) for them.

Back during 1965, I lived right next door to the Oakland carbarn for 
three months, then moved to the corner of Park and Murray, where the 
streetcar turned the corner around. When the streetcar stopped running, 
did the trackless trolley replacement run along the former streetcar 
tracks at that corner? Somehow, a trackless trolley might have been a 
tight fit for that residential corner. I remember taking that streetcar 
from Oakland and Capitol Drive after transferring from the #62 bus when 
going to the Boys' Club on Franklin Place and Brady, starting when eight 
years old in 1951.

One last item: Had the interurban still been around in 1965, I would 
have used it in order to commute to/from WAUK and Park and Murray, when 
I was its chief engineer at age 22. It would have been a 6000 to 7000 
foot hike back and forth from its closest stop--a leisurely 20-minute hike.

Gary

-- 

Gary Schnabl
Southwest Detroit, two miles NORTH! of Canada--Windsor, that is...