Nostalgia & History > BB: MILW boxcab action location help

MILW E47B/C on June 30, 1970 .... as usual, lots of wires! Could use some help with location.

by Bruce Black



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/18 13:40 by valmont.

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Looks just West of Deer Lodge, regardless, another great MLW shot.

Out



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/18 15:20 by callum_out.

Coupled to a caboose. Wearing green, but unlikely a freight would display signals for a second section. Perhaps it's a pusher? But, then why is the headlight on? And, why green?

-John

BTW, I saw two of these boxcabs today!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/18 15:59 by LarryDoyle.

I don't see any green flags or lights. And those headlights don't look like they're on "Bright".

PHall Wrote:
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> I don't see any green flags or lights. And those
> headlights don't look like they're on "Bright".


Upper corners at the roof line. The one on the photographers side sure looks green to me. The location on the box cabs, that is, the height above the rail, varied from unit to unit: at frame level, at window level, or at top corner. And sometimes was not the same on both sides of the same unit! Gotta love the Milwaukee.

I agree that the headlight may be on dim.

-John

Those "lights" are one generation removed from candles!

Out

callum_out Wrote:
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> Looks just West of Deer Lodge, regardless, another
> great MLW shot.
>
> Out

Rich, I think you went the wrong way. This looks to be east (south) of Deer Lodge in the general vicinity of Warm Springs. Location should be between the sidings at Finlen and Morel. I-90 and the NP would be out of the frame to the right. This is either a wb dead freight or #265 headed for Deer Lodge.

Hopefully "Rob_l" or "fbe" can confirm or deny. Been awhile since I was in that area...


Allen



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/18 17:14 by bradleymckay.

You notice I've got two edits on the original post? I went from West to East to West. It looks to be a WB drag in job,
note only two motors and I'm sure it's got a story attached.

Out

Westbound dead freight with a two-unit box motor for road power. I agree about the location, approaching Deer Lodge from the south, down around Sinclair. There are other photos of the two-unit E47 set taken in 1970 powering a WB dead freight with a four-unit box-motor (or was it a three-unit box motor?) head-end helper at Donald on Pipestone Pass.

As a four-unit set in 1969, E47 was transferred to the Rocky Mountain Division and repainted in the simplified orange-and-black scheme. Something happened in late 1969 or early 1970 that permanently disabled one of the middle units (E47D, I think) and damaged E47A. After E47A was repaired, it was sent back to the Coast Division in May, 1970, to replace the disabled E39B in the E39 set. So the last operable boxcab set on the Coast Division became E39ACD/E47A. And I think E47BC only ran as road power for RMD dead freights for one year (1970). If it saw any service after that, it was just on work trains.

Best regards,

Rob L.

The shot has elevation showing it was taken from a highway overpass. There are no highway overpasses west of Deer Lodge. The only overpass in the Deer Lodge valley is old US 10 east of Sinclair near Warm Springs. That would mean this is a westbound train in the afternoon. I am trying to identify Paul Bunyon's wife's profile on the horizon but the angle is not quite right for a good id.

My grandfather was a carpenter who lived in the Racetrack area. During the depression he worked for WPA and built forms for the bridge over the MILW. Later he became a carpenter in the Deer Lodge rip tracks repairing wooden cars and applying plywood liners in steel boxcars.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/18 11:02 by fbe.

rob_l Wrote:
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> As a four-unit set in 1969, E47 was transferred to
> the Rocky Mountain Division and repainted in the
> simplified orange-and-black scheme. Something
> happened in late 1969 or early 1970 that
> permanently disabled one of the middle units
> (E47D, I think) and damaged E47A.

For many years, probably 1951 on, the Harlowton switcher was the cab unit E57B. In 1970 the E47D was paired with E57B to form only two unit electric switch engine.

In 1972 another collision damaged unit E47D in Harlowton Yard. Chicago management ordered E47D be scrapped and replaced with E34C on Harlowton switcher. Shop crews in Deer Lodge knew better. So, they swapped number plates, scrapped what had been E34C and renumbered repaired E47D to E34C, which it remained until electric operation was shut down in 1974. These were the last boxcabs to run.

E57B, minus it's motors and electrical equipment, is one of 3 "surviving" Milw boxcabs.

-Larry Doyle

The second unit, E47C?, has windows but no pantograph. It was built with engineers controls but those were disable when the unit was converted to a B and the pan was removed. Disabled commonly meant the control handles were removed and cut out valves were cut out. Were the unit's controls reactivated so it could act as a lead unit or was this pair single ended only?

> The shot has elevation showing it was taken from a highway overpass. There are no
> highway overpasses west of Deer Lodge. The only overpass in the Deer Lodge valley
> is old US 10 east of Sinclair near Warm Springs. That would mean this is a westbound
> train in the afternoon.

I agree with Al on location. The overpass is still just south of Racetrack, just east (south) of Sinclair. http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=46.26748,-112.75285&z=19&t=H The grade is headed south, almost as the crow flies toward Morel, crossing the valley and away from the NP line. I would say the time was about noon because of the angle of the grade and the shadow.

steeplecab
Helena

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