Which trains worked the Beer Line?

Q: I am modeling the Milwaukee Road’s Beer Line in HO scale. Which trains worked the Beer Line, and what were the train numbers they used? I can’t find any information on the internet. They didn’t just call them “Midnight Beer Train” or “Elevator Job,” did they? — Jerry Lane

A: The Beer Line is near and dear to my heart, not just because I live in Milwaukee, but also because Model Railroader’s HO scale Beer Line was the first MR project layout I got to work on. (That series was published in the January 2009 through May 2009 issues.)

The transfer runs that shuffled cars between the Beer Line and the Milwaukee Road’s main yards downtown might have had train numbers assigned to them, but if they did, they’ve been lost to history. I can’t find any mention of these trains on any of the employee timetables in our library. It’s likely that they ran as extras, rather than being listed on a timetable, even though they made the same run at the same time every day.

However, I can confidently say that the numerous switch jobs that did the actual work on the Beer Line were not numbered. The Chestnut Street Branch, as the Beer Line was formally called, was all considered within yard limits. No timetable governs movements within yard limits, so no train numbers were needed.

A number of smaller yards were dotted along the branch, most named for their nearest major street: Port Yard, Rock Yard, Gibson Yard, Humboldt Yard, Commerce Street Yard, and Chestnut Street Yard at the end of the line. Each of these yards ran multiple switch jobs that served the industries in their vicinity, with names like the North Milwaukee District Job, the Gibson Job, the “C” House Job, the Elevator Job, and the Freight House Job (those last three out of Humboldt Yard). These local switch jobs each served only a particular group of industries, so they stayed out of each other’s way. After pulling their industries, they would return to their home yards and assemble the consists for the next outgoing Beer Trains to haul back downtown.

In the steam era, the Beer Trains arrived behind Milwaukee Road class L2 2-8-2 Mikados equipped with front footboards (to facilitate switching) in place of pilots. The switch jobs were handled by class I5A 0-6-0s and class C2 2-8-0 Consolidations. After dieselization, the switch jobs were powered by an end-cab switcher (like a Fairbanks-Morse H10-44, Alco H1000, or EMD NW2) or two, depending on how many cars they usually had to handle. The Beer Train transfer runs were usually powered by a pair of GP9s, Alco RS3s, or F-M H16-44s. Later, EMD SW1200s and MP15ACs took over the switch jobs, and pairs of weary EMD F units were relegated to the transfer jobs.

Though the Chestnut Street Branch was only six miles long, it was the busiest branch line on the Milwaukee Road. Each Beer Train typically handled 60 to 100 cars. Despite the line’s nickname, Schlitz was the only brewery actually situated on the tracks. In fact, it had two complexes: the main cluster of breweries, bottling plants, warehouses, and elevators near the end of the line, and an older, smaller elevator and warehouse complex near Rock Yard. Pabst Brewing had a grain elevator near the Schlitz complex, but it trucked grain from there to its brewery several blocks away, then trucked finished beer back to Pabst Shipping Center No. 30 for loading into train cars. Blatz had no structures along the Beer Line but shipped its products from the Juneau Avenue team tracks and the Lincoln Warehouse at the very end of the branch, as did other small offline breweries. (This did not include Miller Brewing’s complex, which was also served by the Milwaukee Road but was situated closer to downtown, not on the Beer Line.)

But beer wasn’t the Beer Line’s only business. There were close to 100 rail-served industries on the branch line. The American Motors body plant (also known as AMC, formerly the Seaman Body Division of Nash Motors) was the biggest non-brewery source of traffic on the branch. Although it was dwarfed by the multi-building Schlitz complex, the huge Continental Can Co. plant was the largest single structure on the Beer Line, receiving rolls of sheet metal and shipping boxcars of finished cans. Union Refrigerator Transit Lines (URTX) had a large shop facility near Port Yard to repair and service the company’s reefer fleet. The Commerce Street power plant received many hopper-loads of coal, as did the Schlitz complex’s powerhouse and several small coal dealers. Tanneries, metal fabricators, food distributors, warehouses, and lumber yards were other common industries along the line.

Since the Beer Line was a big and busy branch line, I’m sure you had to pick and choose which industries and spurs to model on your layout. Your industries might be selectively compressed or omitted altogether. So you would be within your rights to group your industries in the Schlitz Job, the Steel Job, the Nash Job, and whatever else makes sense for your modeled industries.

For more information about which trains worked the Beer Line and the branch’s history and operations, look online for The Milwaukee Road’s Beer Line by Art Harnack, published by the Milwaukee Road Historical Association.

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