Milwaukee Road 261 returns to action (with video)

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Milwaukee Road locomotive No. 261 is back on the road after a two-year absence from mainline operation.

The S-3 Class Northern 4-8-4, built in 1944 by the American Locomotive Co. at Schenectady, N.Y., was in action Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 2-3, on the Twin Cities & Western Railroad between Chanhassen and Bongards, Minn., a portion of the former route of the Milwaukee’s Olympian Hiawatha streamliner. The “Gourmet Express” excursions saw passengers treated to a meal while enjoying wine or cocktails and viewing fall colors.

The trip also featured former Wisconsin & Southern E9 No. 32A, built for the Milwaukee and now wearing a paint scheme based on the railroad’s earlier maroon-and-orange schemes. Originally,  the locomotive wore Union Pacific yellow [see “Minnesota group unveils repainted Milwaukee Road E9,” Trains News Wire, May 12, 2021].

Saturday’s trip ran in a heavy rain, while Sunday’s was on a clear fall day.

Steve Sandburg, president of the Friends of the 261 — the group that preserves, restores, and operates the locomotives and a fleet of passenger cars — spoke with Trains News Wire during Sunday’s trip aboard the observation car Milwaukee.

“Two weeks ago, 261 was in pieces,” Sandberg says. “Basically, steam engines are always in pieces. I made calls to Friends of the 261 volunteers, and they stepped up to the plate’’. He said members from North Carolina, New York, and other states came together to put the locomotive back in operation following an FRA hydrostatic testing and other inspections.

“It gives me a lot of hope. These guys know what they are doing, and they’ve been doing it for years,” Sandberg says of the quick response to the call to prepare the 261.

Sandberg says the Friends also funnel work to some smaller groups, such as the Strasburg Railroad in Pennsylvania. “They have employees who are capable of making safety valves and specialty components,” he says. “We do not want to lose that technology.

Sandberg said it takes 40 volunteer employees to make a trip happen, and lauded the efforts of the host Twin Cities & Western.

“This is a nice locally owned railroad which allows us the opportunity to get out and run on their track with No. 261, which has not been running in a couple years because of the COVID virus,” Sandberg says. “…The BNSF has been very helpful in allowing the 261 to move over its trackage to get out to the Twin Cities & Western.”

The E9, on the train’s east end, facilitated two run-bys for passengers. Only 12 years younger than 261, the diesel was built for the Milwaukee in April 1956 as its 202-A. It later became part of Amtrak’s locomotive fleet before being purchased by the Alaska Railroad. In 1986, it was purchased by Northern Rail Car Leasing, an early dinner train operator out of Oshkosh, Wis. On its website, the Friends group thanks shortline company Watco and the Wisconsin & Southern “for facilitating the acquisition of this locomotive for our non-profit organization.”