I did not have time to visit the Milwaukee Road-related displays at the Mower County Fairgrounds in Austin, MN, yesterday, but I did visit the old Milwaukee Depot still located along the old I&M division trackage in town.

I posted my pictures of it in this blog post:

http://www.bubblews.com/news/2979351-the-milwaukee-road-depot-in-austin-minnesota

Tony -

Thanks for posting the photos of the "other" Milwaukee Road artifacts in Austin, Minnesota that still survive. I have often thought it surprising that the very last use of Milwaukee Road steam was an old "battle axe" of a Ten-Wheeler that was run on the railroad in 1956 (in weed scalding service) and again in 1957 (substituting one time for a unavailable motor car on a regular passenger run). That last use of the 4-6-0 must have given the Milwaukee's upper management apoplexy when they found out about it, because they quickly retired the old girl. To the lines credit, they preserved her in Austin. I wonder if #1004 was the oldest locomotive to make a last regularly scheduled steam run on a Class 1 railroad?

Les

That is a good question, Les. Perhaps that honor does indeed belong to the Milwaukee Road.