Abandoned wreckers

John T · **Joined:** Sun Sep 14, 2014 5:05 pm **Posts:** 1267

Does anyone know anything about these two abandoned wreckers?

Milwaukee Road #? Rockford, IL
http://www.pbase.com/trailryder/image/76679923

Burlington Northern #D-152 Prairie du Chien, WI
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=1229514

M Secco · **Joined:** Sun May 12, 2013 2:46 pm **Posts:** 245

The Milwaukee Road wrecker at Rockford I believe was a 150 or 160 ton Bucyrus . I think she was cut up were she sat. I went there one day some years ago to see exactly what year and model she was cause I needed a boom for another model Bucyrus 160 -17 1/2. All I found was a large grease and oil stain on the ground along with some journal pads. I don't remember her number.

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6471

The two ICRR tenders coupled to the Milwaukee Road derrick were also scrapped. They were from two 2600 class Mountains; numbers 2612 and 2614 if I remember correctly.

Les

John T · **Joined:** Sun Sep 14, 2014 5:05 pm **Posts:** 1267

The Milwaukee had four Bucyrus wreckers that I know of.

#X-8 100 tons sold to unknown individual
#X-13 100 tons unknown
#X-16 150 tons scrapped at Tacoma, WA
#X-18 250 tons scrapped after 01-65

The X-8 seems the most likely match for the crane at Rockford as it was stationed at Bensenville, IL. Can anyone clear this up?

John T · **Joined:** Sun Sep 14, 2014 5:05 pm **Posts:** 1267

Well it looks like I was wrong! According to this from the owner of the equipment at Rockford, IL.

All I can say is that it was a failed dream of mine, my fathers and his dad. We felt we could rescue what we could from the scrappers of the -80's. The yellow crane is number X16 used on the PCE at one time. The rest of the cars I don't know much about. Monticello IL railroad museum did recieve our NW2 which is now operational, and a 4-6-0 steam that was not Milw. Some other things went to Mendota, IL a Milw branch line car a Non Milw dining car. A Soo line crane (not the yellow one) went to Indiana. However the fate of the tenders which are IC and the baggage cars is undecided. The owner wants the stuff off his property and the City of Rockford removed the rails across Chesnut street long ago, effectively cutting us off from shipping by rail not that most of what is left could be shipped by rail anyway..... It is quite sad but we just cannot finanicially tackle any of it any more on a personal basis, long ago we tried for a rail museum in the city of Rockford but the city just didn't want a part of it. It saddens me deeply that we can not save everything we wanted to. I'm happy for the stuff we did save but cannot get over what we can't. One of my biggest heart breaks is a sleeping car called "Othello" the body will most likely be scrapped but the trucks went to a museum to restore a similiar Non Milw heavyweight passenger car... I cannot find any information on "Othello" there are 2 other sleeping cars that get all the glory. The trucks had a date of 1911 on them and the car was turned into a MOW car and was gutted. I know this thread is a couple years old but I wanted to shed a little light on the subject. I can't believe our cars were a subject on the net.... I guess you never know what you will find...

Todd

According to him the Milwaukee wrecker was the X16 which I have scrapped at Tacoma. We live and learn.

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6471

John T wrote:

Well it looks like I was wrong! According to this from the owner of the equipment at Rockford, IL.

All I can say is that it was a failed dream of mine, my fathers and his dad. We felt we could rescue what we could from the scrappers of the -80's. The yellow crane is number X16 used on the PCE at one time. The rest of the cars I don't know much about. Monticello IL railroad museum did recieve our NW2 which is now operational, and a 4-6-0 steam that was not Milw. Some other things went to Mendota, IL a Milw branch line car a Non Milw dining car. A Soo line crane (not the yellow one) went to Indiana. However the fate of the tenders which are IC and the baggage cars is undecided. The owner wants the stuff off his property and the City of Rockford removed the rails across Chesnut street long ago, effectively cutting us off from shipping by rail not that most of what is left could be shipped by rail anyway.

Todd

According to him the Milwaukee wrecker was the X16 which I have scrapped at Tacoma. We live and learn.

A couple of comments. Warren Lathom donated the Milwaukee Road NW2 and the 4-6-0 to the Monticello Railway Museum. The NW2 has been beautifully restored by MRM. The Ten-Wheeler was built as Mississippi Eastern #303, worked for the Lancaster & Chester as their #32, then to the Hampton & Branchville as #32 and eventually rescued by Dick Jensen from a scrap yard before it was sold to William Lathom who moved it to Rockford, Illinois. There were two nearly identical cranes at Rockford; the yellow Milwaukee Road dieselized version and Belt Railway of Chicago #190 which was still steam powered. Warren donated BRC 190 to HVRM but we had trouble finding a way to get it moved economically and in the meantime, Warren received an offer to purchase it and we told him to go ahead. The crane is now painted for the Monon and is at the Monon Connection Museum in Indiana. BRC 190 was coupled to a Soo Line flat when it was in Rockford, and that may be why Todd thought that it was a Soo Line crane. I am not sure that Todd's note is a recent one as I have heard that all of the equipment remaining at Rockford has been scrapped, including the two IC 2600 class tenders. Warren at one time was trying to move them to another siding in the area, but I don't believe that was ever accomplished. There were some other "goodies" at Rockford, including a Milwaukee Road flanger X900290 and a Milwaukee snowplow 900225, both made from former steam locomotive tenders. I believe that the diner moved to the museum in Mendota, Illinois is a former Southern Pacific car.

Les

John T · **Joined:** Sun Sep 14, 2014 5:05 pm **Posts:** 1267

The quote from Todd Lathom was posted in 2003 here:

http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/67209.aspx

The Milwaukee wrecker and tenders were there in 2008 and gone by March 2011. These photos were taken in 2006:

http://www.pbase.com/trailryder/derelicts

Rainier Rails · **Posted:** Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:25 pm

Todd Lathom wrote:

One of my biggest heart breaks is a sleeping car called "Othello" the body will most likely be scrapped but the trucks went to a museum to restore a similiar Non Milw heavyweight passenger car... I cannot find any information on "Othello"

Hmm...

There is one Pullman-owned sleeper listed in the CCR database with the name Othello: a Plan #2410F 12S-1DR sleeper built in 1917 in Lot #4503, later tourist #2229 and sold to SOU in 1947. However, seeing as how Todd Lathom specifically mentioned the sleeper which received the trucks was a non-MILW car, I've concluded that the Othello in Rockford was not the car sold to SOU, but rather a MILW-owned, Pullman-built sleeper. The Milwaukee Road (and the GN) both had a history of owned sleepers (in the case of MILW the cars were built by Pullman and the GN cars were built by Barney & Smith). MILW also named their sleepers after towns and cities on their system: Othello, WA, was a division point and the east end of the electrification over the Cascades (Snoqualmie Pass). Previously in the "Surviving Pullman" thread, I had linked to an earlier thread which discussed the equipment in Rockville: http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5109

2 posts from that thread concerning the Othello:

Peter Nicholson wrote:

I have been in the car - it is a kitbashed Pullman converted to MofW service with a new end fabricated at Milwaukee Shops using the 1934-pattern streamlined coach design.

Thomas Manz wrote:

This appears to be most of an old 10-1-(-) sleeping car, and a short piece of a lightweight, open-platform branch line combine. The combos were built at the Milwaukee shops (in Milwaukee) in the mid-1930s. This bizarre mating must have been done in the 50s/60s, when combines for mixed trains were no longer in demand.

Unfortunately, the only MILW document I have is the June 1930 Description of Passenger Equipment, which does not list any of the company-owned sleepers, so I don't know what the original configuration of the Othello was (10-1-2 or 10-1-1) or what Pullman Lot or Plan it was built in/to (or how many of these cars were ordered and owned by the MILW).

pwkrueger · **Joined:** Fri Feb 26, 2010 11:46 pm **Posts:** 72

The Othello was a 10-1-2 sleeper built for the CM&StP by Pullman in 1911.

Paul

Paul Krueger
Secretary
Cascade Rail Foundation
"Remembering the Milwaukee Road in Washington"
http://www.milwelectric.org

Rainier Rails · **Posted:** Sun Jan 25, 2015 7:22 pm

Thanks, Paul, for the info! Do you know what Lot it was built in or how many 10-1-2 sleepers MILW ordered?

pwkrueger · **Joined:** Fri Feb 26, 2010 11:46 pm **Posts:** 72

Ted, I think there were 18 of them. I don't know the lot number.

Here is the list from the diagram book:

Paul

Paul Krueger
Secretary
Cascade Rail Foundation
"Remembering the Milwaukee Road in Washington"
http://www.milwelectric.org

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