Re: Fate of the western part of the Milwaukee Road
I live in northern Idaho, USA, and if you ever find yourself on Interstate 90 at Lookout Pass (Idaho/Montana border), there is a paved bike trail (downhill all the way) that follows the route of the Milwaukee Road through the Bitterroot Mtns. Bikes can be rented and there is a shuttle bus that takes you back to the top. The bike trail goes through tunnels and over high trestles. I've done it twice and highly recommend it. Here is the link:
http://www.skilookout.com/hiaw/
Be sure to check out the pics. There are interpretive signs along the way and what I have learned from them, the western part of the Milwaukee Road was a bad idea for several reasons:
1. Both the Great Northern and Northern Pacific had easier water level routes in the Bitterroot/Cabinet/Purcell part of the Rockies (GN:Kootenai River, NP: Clark Fork River)
2. GN & NP went through Spokane, WA (a very important railroad town back in the day and still the largest city in the inland NW USA), whereas the MR did not.
3. The western part of the MR went through some very remote areas with limited local traffic revenue potential.
On the bike trail, you can still see the poles for the catenary although toward the end they went to diesel (ironically, just at the time of the oil crisis in the 1970s). So bad luck and bad choices contributed to the problems. But I can't answer your question simply because I believe the western part of the MR could never be competitive due primarily to geography, and so it was probably doomed from day 1. Others may disagree and I hope you will get additional responses.
. Thanks!