Milwaukee Road Thru Marion Iowa - Trains Magazine

Los Angeles Rams Guy

the truth of the matter is that the MILW was SUPPOSED to have received the majority of UP traffic at Council Bluffs and its President at the time (John P. Kiley) was badly misled by UP

If this was really the "truth" there would specific documentation of this or a contract.  The C&NW was smart enough to figure out they weren't getting a lot out of running these trains and the UP was dissatisfied with their operation over the C&NW.  In the mid-1950s, long distance passenger trains were still considered something that was desirable, so it would logical that UP would embellish the benefits of taking on the extra traffic because they had to get the trains to Chicago somehow (CB&Q denied the request to handle the streamliners over its route, for example.)  Prior to getting the "Cities" trains, the only reserved-coach train on the Milwaukee Road was the Olympian Hiawatha; the addition of the Cities trains required that the Milwaukee add 15 more reservation clerks to handle the business in and out of Chicago.  Another huge added expense.

This type of passenger-related expenditure on the part of the Milwaukee was not unique.  In the 1920s, it built the Gallatin Gateway Inn as its gateway to Yellowstone Park: off the main line and pretty much out on the prairie, this one-quarter of a million dollar expenditure was hardly what anyone (else) would consider a "gateway" to anywhere.  The Milwaukee paid to put in automatic block signals on its branch line between Plummer, Idaho, and Manito, Washington and on the UP from Manito through Spokane to Marengo Washington to afford its passenger trains the safety of ABS.  But the Milwaukee's main line didn't run through Spokane - it bypassed it to the south on a route (Plummer to Marengo via Malden) that remained dark territory right up until the route was abandoned in 1980.  (The Milwaukee's passenger train service through Spokane ended in 1961 and the Milwaukee was never allowed to use the Spokane-Marengo segment for freight, just passenger service; all freight in and out of Spokane needed to use the onerous 1.7 climb out of the Spokane river valley toward Manito.)

The route across Iowa is just another example of the Milwaukee Road having delusions of adequacy in competing with other railroads, not accepting of their own route inferiority.

Los Angeles Rams Guy

the fact of the matter is that the MILW's Iowa Division mainline was an important piece of infrastructure to the state of Iowa and its untimely demise should never have been allowed to happen.   

Fact?  If it was a fact, it would be in service today, as is the Rock Island route across the state.  Strong routes survive and even as weak as the Rock Island was, they had numerous routes important enough that someone thought them worthwhile to save, retain, and upgrade.  With the ex-Burlington and ex-C&NW routes serving as the primary routes for the West's primary Class I railroads across Iowa, and the ex-CRI&P and ex-IC routes serving major (by Iowa standards) cities like Davenport, Iowa City, Des Moines, Dubuque, Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Fort Dodge, and Sioux City, the Milwaukee's route to nowhere-that-someone-else-didn't-serve-better could hardly be considered "important."  And definitely not important enough to save.