Milwaukee Road Boxcabs Electrics, Class EF-1 and EP-1

The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific, commonly known as simply the Milwaukee Road, is best remembered for its Hiawatha passenger trains and electrified main line known as the Pacific Extension. The fact that the great railroad is no longer with us is not as disheartening as knowing how and why its end came about. Its loyal and hardworking employees through the end were sadly cheated by upper management, which made a series of dumbfounding decisions beginning in the 1970s that ultimately ended in the railroad being sold to a rival in 1985.

With its web of branch lines in the Midwest and several other railroads fighting for the same amount of traffic that could no longer support so many railroads, the Milwaukee Road found itself in a hopeless situation on the eastern half of its system (and it was unable, along with the other railroads, to abandon most of these unprofitable lines because government regulations did not allow for such until the 1980 introduction of the Staggers Act which deregulated the entire industry).

However, all was not lost for the Milwaukee. Its savior, for the time being, was its Pacific Extension. Even as the company’s management began to make increasingly idiotic decisions during the 1970s (such as scrapping the electrification just as the oil embargo hit) and defer maintenance across the entire system, their main line to the Pacific Northwest continued to earn the company a healthy profit.

Sadly, the company’s fate was sealed when, in another short lapse of vision, management decided to shutdown its electrification in 1974 just as oil prices skyrocketed (a study done at the time found that if left in place the electrified lines would have saved, in 1970’s dollars, $64 million annually). Then, in the late 1970s to scrap the entire system west of Miles City, Montana, some 1,100 miles of track! While the results of this and other abandonment projects on the eastern side of the system worked in cutting costs the now much smaller railroad, which no longer competed for the lucrative traffic entering the Port of Seattle (which today is booming), made for a prime merger target and in 1985 the Soo Line Railroad purchased the company. With the purchase thus closed the book on one of our country’s most interesting and dynamic railroads.

A disturbing side note in the Milwaukee’s decline is the report that some Burlington Northern officials knew the railroad was going to file for bankruptcy even before its own people did. Was corruption and/or conspiracy involved? That is impossible to verify, of course, but with what transpired to the Milwaukee Road in the 1970s (nothing the railroad did in the 1970s made sense from a basic business standpoint) it certainly makes one wonder.

The Milwaukee Road boxcabs built by General Electric and American Locomotive Company (Alco) were, in terms of electric locomotive technology, somewhat simple designs. They featured a 2-B-B+B-B-2 wheel arrangement with two, semi-permanently coupled units making up the locomotive (technically each unit was known as an “A” and ran as an A-A set). Rated at over 6,800 hp the Milwaukee wound up with 84 total “A” units operating as 42 pairs with 30 geared for freight service (known as EF-1s by the railroad) and 12 geared for passenger service (known as EP-1s by the railroad).

It is said that after the Milwaukee put these first electrics to work passenger service costs were reduced by over 50%!While the Milwaukee’s original electrics were fairly basic designs they did employ one innovative feature for their time, smaller motors (mounted over each driving axle) that turned at higher speeds (the Milwaukee Road boxcabs also used reduction gears which did not require the use of side rods).

The Milwaukee Road boxcabs carried on being used in freight and passenger service until the early 1950s when they were mostly replaced by the new “Little Joe” electrics from GE (a botched order for the Soviet Union that could not be delivered because of the Cold War situation), which had arrived in 1950. Still, even after their displacement several of the boxcabs remained in daily use until the end of electrified operations in June of 1974. Today, at least one of the Milwaukee Road boxcabs remains preserved, E50, at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, Minnesota.

It is interesting to note that just after the Milwaukee Road shutdown its electrification the oil embargo hit causing oil prices to shoot through the roof and resulted in the railroad not only spending millions on fuel but also new locomotives to replace the electrics. In any event, today electrics no longer conquer St. Paul Pass on the Rocky Mountain Division and all is quiet over the famous Pacific Extension except for the sound of Mother Nature and the occasional hiker along a number of rail/trails. However, the sprinting Indian logo lives on with the Milwaukee Road Historical Association and Amtrak continues to operate a passenger train named after the famous Indian.

For more reading on the Milwaukee Road and you might want to consider The Milwaukee Road from Tom Murray. Of course, being that the Milwaukee is a legend in the ranks of fallen flags, hundreds of publications (many quite good) have been written about it over the years detailing various subjects. However, this book is a superb publication and will at least give you a general overview and history of the CMStP&P (and it is filled with many, excellent, historical and colorful photographs) at which point you can decide if you are interested in further books of study on the railroad. Even if you are a historian and/or fan of the Milwaukee and have not seen this book I'm sure you will enjoy it!

And, for more reading about the Milwaukee Road boxcabs and other electrics the railroad operated consider Electric Locomotives from Brian Solomon. Not only does the book give a nice overview about the Milwaukee Road's electrified operations it also covers American electric locomotive technology in general. If you're interested in perhaps purchasing these books please visit The Railroad Diamond by clicking the tab in the menu to your left marked "TRD Store".