Sometime in the middle to late '40's Fairbanks-Morse sent a demonstrator west over the electrified portion of the Milwaukee.

I am asking because my dad had a Conoco bulk plant in Montana at a division point on the Milwaukee and was contracted to provide them with grease, etc. for their shop facilities. He was told to have a full truckload of diesel available when the F-M demonstrator came through town. It was many hours late when it arrived and my dad recalled that it had become so cold outside he was afraid the truck-mounted pump wouldn't be able to pump the diesel into the locomotive.

I wonder if any record of this F-M demonstration run exists.

I'm sorry. I'm just trying to get this back to the top of the stack. When I get behind a couple huge threads, no one will see my post.

Scott

Milwaukee Road bought F-M's first diesel switcher, the H-10-44, although it would seem that F-M never fielded a demo-unit of that type. Internet research seems to point indirectly toward the "Erie-built" passenger units as the likely candidates. MILW did acquire a broad spectrum of F-M models/types as a result.

What little I can come up with for you from my diesel and MILW books is that FM had demonstrators for both the "Erie-Built" line (built 1945, became UP 650/650B/651) and the 2400-hp CPA-24-5 (built 1950 as 4801/4802, became New Haven 790/791). MILW had Erie-Builts and C-Liners but not CPA-24-5's, and had the former for its Olympian Hiawatha beginning in 1947. So the next mission is to determine whether this demo run occurred in 1945 (successful) or 1950 (unsuccessful). From what you're saying, I'd presume 1945. Was the division point Harlowton?

Milwaukee fans do have a technical & historical society with a now-glossy publication handled by White River Publishing (Mike Schafer of PTJ fame), so going to some MILW fan sources or forums might help you further.

Thank you so very much for the information!

Yes, I'm fairly certain it was the 1945 time frame. It was definitely winter time.

The division point was Deer Lodge.

I'll look to the sources provided.

Scott