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In the early 80s when the Milwaukee Road (MILW) was going through bankruptcy, the Grand Trunk Western (GTW) was financing better track and doing more run through service with the MILW which in turn helped the Milwaukee improve in a way. I believe the only place they met was Chicago and personally it could’ve worked since they weren’t really all that parallel and they could’ve connected via IHB and BRC trackage.

But of course the SOO Line and CNW got scared and outbid the GTW even though they had parallel routes to the Milwaukee. Obviously the SOO Line emerged the victor where some of their old parallel trackage got sold to Wisconsin Central Ltd. and later CN (ironically the owner of GTW) ended up buying it up in 2001.

Now for the purpose of this post:

How would you feel about a GTW-MILW combination? Reply with your thoughts! I’m eager to hear others opinions about this!

(My point of view on this is pretty good and I like the idea of this “merger” btw)

Interesting idea

Here's a fun read:
http://www.trainweb.org/milwaukee/article.html

Ive got a paper railroad I need to post that I created based on this

Yes--- have been familiar with that article for at least 15 years now. Should be MANDATORY reading for anyone that thinks MILW was not trying. Their OWNERS did not care about them. That says it all. My heart goes out to all the older MILW employees that went through this .They tried--- their COMPANY. DID. NOT!!

Not to turn this into a Milwaukee thread but here's another nice article on a potential future for the railroad albeit more on the pessimistic side.

http://www.trainweb.org/milwaukeemyths/

Find yourself a copy of "The Nation Pays Again" by Thomas Ploss. Everything you will ever need to know about the demise of The Milwaukee Road. The Todd Jones article mentioned above by Erroneous Monk is excellent, but if you want a more complete sizing up of that catastrophe, you'll get it with Ploss.

Man o' War

Man o' War wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 04, 2024 6:22 pm

Find yourself a copy of "The Nation Pays Again" by Thomas Ploss. Everything you will ever need to know about the demise of The Milwaukee Road. The Todd Jones article mentioned above by Erroneous Monk is excellent, but if you want a more complete sizing up of that catastrophe, you'll get it with Ploss.

Man o' War

Wow, that's an expensive paperback!

https://www.amazon.com/Nation-Pays-Agai ... B0006EFKUA

J T wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 05, 2024 7:07 am

Man o' War wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 04, 2024 6:22 pm

Find yourself a copy of "The Nation Pays Again" by Thomas Ploss. Everything you will ever need to know about the demise of The Milwaukee Road. The Todd Jones article mentioned above by Erroneous Monk is excellent, but if you want a more complete sizing up of that catastrophe, you'll get it with Ploss.

Man o' War

Wow, that's an expensive paperback!

https://www.amazon.com/Nation-Pays-Agai ... B0006EFKUA

Makes sense though. Why in the world would you want the hardcover for $235 when you can get a used paperback for 5K ?

Truthfully, I think that's going to be a hard sell...

Man o' War

Man o' War wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 05, 2024 6:32 pm

Makes sense though. Why in the world would you want the hardcover for $235 when you can get a used paperback for 5K ?

Truthfully, I think that's going to be a hard sell...

Man o' War

Its that inflation I tell ya!

Every once in a while during the joint GTW-MLW joint operating agreement or whatever it was called, I would see a MLW locomotive on a GTW train into Detroit or at Flat Rock. Not too often, though. For a while it looked like GTW was going to get it.

One of the main reasons Grand Trunk Corp (with encouragement from parent CN) was so intent on acquiring the Milwaukee Road was to have their own route from Winnipeg to Chicago, bridging the gap between the DWP and the GTW. They finally got it 15 years later with the purchase of the Wisconsin Central.

J T wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 05, 2024 7:07 am

Man o' War wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 04, 2024 6:22 pm

Find yourself a copy of "The Nation Pays Again" by Thomas Ploss. Everything you will ever need to know about the demise of The Milwaukee Road. The Todd Jones article mentioned above by Erroneous Monk is excellent, but if you want a more complete sizing up of that catastrophe, you'll get it with Ploss.

Man o' War

Wow, that's an expensive paperback!

https://www.amazon.com/Nation-Pays-Agai ... B0006EFKUA

Does that come with a whole locomotive aswell?