This locomotive saw the light of day as number 40 on the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad and still exists today after changing owners several times. It was built in 1857 by Breese, Kneeland & Company in Jersey City, New Jersey, christened the “Spring Green” and is the only surviving engine from this manufacturer today. The latter existed from 1853 to 1873 and was one of two manufacturers that operated simultaneously under the name New York Locomotive Works. The railway company was initially renamed the Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien Railway Company in 1861 and became the property of the Milwaukee & St Paul Railroad in 1867. This made the locomotive number 111 of the company known from 1874 as the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad.

In 1889 the locomotive came to the southern United States, where it received the number 1, which it still bears today. Its new owner was the Arizona & Southeastern Railroad Company, which later operated as the El Paso & Southwestern Railroad. The network stretched between Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas across the border into Mexico. The locomotive was converted from wood to coal firing and received its current appearance with a long, narrow chimney and extended smokebox. It was used, among other things, to supply mines and was retired in 1903.

Just six years after the end of its service, the number 1 was optically brought back into shape and set up in the middle of downtown El Paso. In 1939 it was even allowed to play a role in the western movie “Let Freedom Ring”. In 1960 it was donated to the University of Texas at El Paso. From this time comes the anecdote that students often rang the bell of the locomotive at night and therefore the clapper had to be removed. Declared a national treasure in 1999, the locomotive was restored for over a million dollars over the following years. Since 2003 it can be found in the Railroad and Transportation Museum in El Paso.

The Class A2 designated the first Atlantics on the Milwaukee Road to have a Vauclain-type compound engine. This means that there was a high and a low pressure cylinder on each side, which were connected to a common crosshead. The trailing axle had special inside bearings developed by J.H. DeVoy that were part of a large single casting.

Nine A2 and 15 A2a were built by Baldwin in 1901 and 1902 respectively. The five A2b had drivers whose diameter had been increased to 85 inches. While these were built in the railroad's own workshops in Milwaukee, the twelve A2cs were built again at Baldwin. These were all scrapped between 1927 and 1930.

An exception were two locomotives that were built in 1907. These had what was known in the USA as a “balanced compound” drive, which had separate inside and outside cylinders. These locomotives were rebuilt in 1938 to class A-4a with simple expansion and remained in service until 1951.

The first Hudsons of the Milwaukee Road were built by Baldwin between 1929 and 1931. While the first 14 locomotives were designated as class F6 and their running boards were broken above the air tank, the last eight were designated as F6a and had straight running boards. They were delivered with driving wheels with a diameter of 79 inches, which later increased to 80 inches due to thicker tires. The coffin feed water heater was apparently integrated into the smokebox for aesthetic reasons.

The boiler had a large firebox, which resulted in a load on the trailing bogie of around 53 tons. The express trains they hauled usually consisted of nine to ten cars, but often eleven to 14 cars and were occasionally even longer. With these trains, the 918-mile round trip between Minneapolis and Harlowton could be completed ten times in 30 days without any servicing stops. A lighter train covered a flat section of 65.6 miles at an average of 92.3 mph. 

The first Mikados on the Milwaukee Road consisted of 20 saturated class L1 locomotives built by the company's own shops in Milwaukee in 1909. They already had a combustion chamber and drivers with a diameter of 63 inches. From 1912 onwards the L2 class followed, 40 of which were built in their own shops. Another 115 came from ALCO-Brooks and 25 from ALCO-Schenectady. Baldwin delivered 100 of the L2-a and L2-b classes from 1920 and 1922, respectively, which had a longer combustion chamber and, in the case of the L2-b, a larger superheater. The first ones were decommissioned in the 1930s after they were replaced by more powerful freight locomotives. Basically, a large proportion survived into the fifties, including ten L1s that were later given a superheater. 

Although the Milwaukee Road had already procured its first few Pacifics in 1893, the Atlantics had still to pull the fastest trains for the time being. However, when they got problems with trains of ten to 14 cars, the 70 class F3 Pacifics were ordered from ALCO in 1910. They were initially operated with saturated steam and were retrofitted with superheaters from 1920 onwards. The diameter of the cylinders was increased from 23 to 23.5 inches, and for six of them even to 24 inches.

No. 152 with retrofitted streamlining in November 1953 in Madison, Wisconsin

collection Taylor Rush

The locomotives were considered very powerful and well balanced. If necessary, they could reach up to 90 mph or 145 km/h. It wasn't until 1940 and 1941, when the Milwaukee Road was already using Hudsons, that three were rebuilt into the F3-as. The grate was widened and its area was significantly increased, but the direct heating surface of the firebox only grew slightly. Two of them were given streamlined fairing to pull the “Chippewa”.

The “James Toleman” was developed by Frederick Charles Winby to test the installation of a long firebox between uncoupled axles. Each axle had its own power plant, with the inner cylinders driving the first driving axle. Thus one could do without long coupling rods. The boiler was oval in cross-section to fit between it large wheels. After attending the Columbian Exposition, she was given to the Milwaukee Road for trials. However, it quickly became apparent that she repeatedly had too little steam and parts regularly broke. Even a lengthy visit by Winby to the USA could not solve the problems that had arisen.

In order to increase average speeds in the fight against other railroads, the Milwaukee Road had ALCO build four class A streamlined locomotives from 1935 onwards. In order to save weight, not only particularly light passenger cars were developed for the “Hiawatha”. Weight was also saved on the locomotives by choosing the 4-4-2 wheel arrangement, which was no longer used in the USA by this time.

By only having two driving axles, the moving masses could be reduced. Furthermore, the first driving axle was driven, which led to shorter connecting rods. Additionally, a boiler pressure of 300 psi (20.7 bars) was used, allowing smaller cylinders with lighter pistons to be used. Despite only two cylinders and the imperfect mass balancing, high speeds could be achieved with seven-foot drivers.

Shortly after its delivery in May 1935, number two reached a speed of 112.5 mph (181 km/h), which could be counted as a world record thanks to the dynamometer car that was present. There are also unconfirmed reports of speeds in excess of 120 mph. What is undisputed, however, is that they were able to travel at sustained speeds in excess of 100 mph with their light trains.

The 422 miles from Chicago to St. Paul were to be completed in six and a half hours with eleven stops. In fact, the trains completed this route in six and a quarter hours. Even after the introduction of the more powerful class F7 Hudsons, they continued to pull the Hiawatha. Between 1949 and 1951 they were replaced by diesel locomotives.

To replace the Pacifics on the Twin Cities Hiawatha, the Milwaukee Road introduced a new type of Hudson or Baltic locomotives in 1938. The six locomotives were built by ALCO-Schenectady, received the numbers 100 to 105 and were designated class F-7. Their streamlined casing was designed by Otto Kuhler.

They were similar to the Chicago & North Western's class E-4, but had differences in the boiler and the cylinder dimensions. Their boiler was similar in size with some 4-8-4s and might have generated a power of around 5,000 hp. With their 84-inch drivers, they regularly travelled longer distances with more than 100 mph. Speeds they actually reached amounted to 120 mph, with up to 125 mph over short distances being claimed.

No. 100

collection Taylor Rush

On the Hiawatha, they reduced the travel time for the 412 miles between Chicago and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to six and a half hours. There they had to do average speeds of more than 80 mph for an hour to keep up with the schedule. When the Twin Cities Hiawatha was dieselized, they were used on other Hiawatha trains. After a short career, they were scrapped between 1949 and 1951.

The history of the 4-8-4 at Milwaukee Road began in 1930 with the single number 9700, which later became the 250, and was supplied by Baldwin. Its power was guaranteed by a boiler with a combustion chamber, thermic syphons, arch tubes and a coffin feed water heater. Since the 4-6-4 class F6 was sufficient for the express trains of the time, it initially remained a one-off and was used in front of freight trains weighing up to 5,000 tons. It was only when the express trains became increasingly heavier that the 250 was used for this purpose.

It was not until 1938 that the Milwaukee Road manufactured the 251 in their own shops, which was a copy of the 250 and together with it formed the class S1. As early as 1937, Baldwin had started producing the 40 class S2 locomotives, which had some changes compared to the S1 and was more powerful, not least due to the boiler pressure of 285 psi. During the Second World War, ALCO built ten S3 which had a smaller boiler with only 250 psi and did not have much in common with the S1 and S2 in terms of design. Today only the two S3 numbered 261 and 265 still exist, the former of which is operational.