Nostalgia & History > a forgotten moment on Milwaukee lines west

I don't look at my colection of Sperry cars often. I had to file one the other day and had not thought for years about this time in Sept 1970 when my brother and I were hiking along the big loop on the Idaho side of the Milwaukee, I think it wes around Adair.
Got the SRS 124 heading down on one side of the loop, and then popping out of the tunnel where we were. We were hoping for something electric when we saw a red board, but am glad we got to see it there.

I checked to see if I had any other shots of this car, and sure enough, had shot it the next year at Mount, UT on the SLC - Provo line. The crew was tending to some mechinacal issue. These 100 series are real classics, old even when I saw them in the 70's.

Keith A  (ft)
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/16 13:49 by FT.

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Great photos.  Originally a St. Louis Car/EMC Doodlebug built in 1925 for the Lehigh Valley.  Thanks for posting!

I imagine in the later years of the MILW, that car probably over heated recording all of the defects on their track. In fact, it may be doing just that in the last picture, based on the smoke coming from the rear end.

i hated the new style Sperry rail detector trucks ... like moving from a mansion to a closet ... gomme a Sperry car anyday ... nice photos ... our regional car for the NEC is 149 ... ties up in Philly every winter ...

irhoghead Wrote:
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> I imagine in the later years of the MILW, that car
> probably over heated recording all of the defects
> on their track. In fact, it may be doing just that
> in the last picture, based on the smoke coming
> from the rear end.

Reminds me of an encounter at a PC grade crossing in upstate NY, just before the end, when PC had cut back on maintenance for years. 

My my buddy Jim  and I are standing at a grade crossing when a Sperry car comes by. Passing pedestrian asks us what that thing is, and my buddy identifies it as a "track detector". The lady looks around at the muddy ballast, ties pumping up and down, and says " I wonder if they have detected any track?"  Jim and I made jokes about that one for years afterward.