The MILW Sumas Branch was one of those "detached lines" the MILW bought in 1918 from the Bellingham Bay and British Columbia Railway. For many years cars from
Sumas Branch/Bellingham went via barge to Seattle. Then in the mid-60's MILW interchanged traffic to the GN at Everett to haul to Bellingham. Then with the BN Merger
in 1970 MILW got trackage rights on the BN Tacoma to Bellingham to run their own one train a day. Not the direct BN route of course. So I'm almost 18yrs old and havent
seen seen a single "GE unit" yet. The GN/BN ran a daily diet of F-Units/GP9's a few GP30's and GP35's because the BN Interbay Pool of units had to be OK to run into
Canada and it dint change much for a long time. So the night MILW freight from Tacoma got into Bellingham about daylight. The MILW road power sat at the Bellingham
roundhouse all day while the pair of SD9's did the Sumas Turn like they have since I was born/end of steam engines. I mean I wanted to see some GE Uboats someday
up close and my wish was granted. 50yrs ago the MILW sent almost every model of U-boat they had from Tacoma to Bellingham. U25B U28B U30B U33C U36C all the
"U's" they had on the roster. Later in time like late 70's they sent the big power up the rickety branch line to Sumas. That dint work out so good. Much more to add to
Really like your Milwaukee Road pictures, I see those and wonder if those fellows had any idea how the clock was ticking and they were all going to be out of a job in a few years. I wonder what becomes of a guy who's 40-something and all he's done is work for the Milwaukee for 20 years or so and then it's gone. When I see pictures of the western end of the Erie and I know how they ran a lot of trains right up until the last day, I think the same thing. Thanks for sharing.
we had some ex-Milwaukee Road employees hire out about the same time I did in the later 70s.. they were all capable hands. they railroaded a lot like we did & fit right in.. most of them hired out for MRL when it was created so they could go back home to The Big Sky state..
Those are some pretty cool pics, Krink. The shop where I grew up working on some of my dad's projects had several locomotives in the "future projects that probably aren't going to happen" line, including a Milwaukee GE something or other. It was 4 axle, I want to say it was a 55xx series unit. It never ran and was eventually cut up around 1987-88. I know that there were some pics posted a couple years ago in one of my Facebook groups. I'll bet you saw that same unit when you were the same age as I was when I saw it.
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