[milwaukee-electric] Re: 9th street

[Don L. Leistikow]

Gary S and list;   Accessable, yes.  Acutally wide open along the GE
building extension (formerly the TMER&L, later Motor Transport Company,
used the two story extension to the east of the tall then GE Building.                                             

General Electric owned the building, when Speedrail operated through
there.              

When TMER&L dropped the 'Less than Car Load' freight service, 'Motor',
for short, continued to operate the trucking arm of TMER&L, as a
separate emtot;u.  I think that it was after WW 2, that 'Motor' actually
moved out to a new Terminal on Bluemound Road which was the old route
crossing the valley, adjacent to the new Wisconsin Avenue concrete
structure that spanned the Menomonee River Valley.      

Genersl Electric did have an Apparatus Service Shop on the main floor at
940 W.St.Paul avenue.  It was fully equiped for the rebuilding of
electric motors and transformers...of any size or manufacture. So, when
Speedrail quit, I got a job at the GE Apparatus Service Shop.. I was
going to use only the initials of the name above but, thought better of
it.  In addition, GE operated a Warehouse with new inventory of Motors
and Transformers at 900 W. St.Paul... first floor of the two story arm
east of the tall Building at 940.  The sedond floor was given over to
the Shop where motor coils were formed for rebuilding motors.  Of ote is
that the Shop was two stroies tall, clearance for overhead cranes.  And
the shop even had an indoor rail track where large motors or
transformers could be unloaded from  flat cars.  That was inside the
north wall of the tall 940 building.                                  

With "Motor" gone, there was little activity along the two story
structure at the 900 addrsss, venturing into the yard was easy. The old
open track space behind the buildings and under the deck, was now used
for employee private parking.                                                                            
As the last employee of Speedrail, Bill Schwerin, was holding the fort
at the top of the hill at the 10th street end of the property, I was
brown bagging my lunch and joining Bill for that half hour.               

Bill recounted that some interest in the Speedrail Property was shown as
visitors came out to see the line, using a remaining four wheeled
Speeder (motor car).  Of course, scrap dealers were present and even the
North Shore line, made an appearance.  Odd though, the speeder worked
just fine for the NSL folks but, just would not work when Scrappers came
along.                                              

One noon, I was coiming up the two track ramp to lunch with Bill and
discovered two children with newspaper and matches inside one of the
lightweight duplexes.  Of course, their intention was to light a fire.
I scolded them bravely and admonished them that secret cameras were
watchng them and that they could be identified and sent to jail, if they
did any damage or start a fire.                                                       

Sometimes, timing is everything.               

Don L. Leistikow