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C & M Division Photos

Sunset
Passin' the Farm
Cornfield Meet
The Diesel That  Did It
Springtime Freight

The C & M Division

The first railroad connection between Milwaukee and Chicago was via the Chicago & Northwestern and the Milwaukee & St Paul via Milton Junction, which added many miles to the trip.  As the great city of Chicago grew and became the hub of America's rail system, it was obvious that the Milwaukee would need its own, more direct connection.

The line was built in the 1870's and, because of the high cost of land acquisition, skirted the growing cities of Racine and Kenosha.  While this meant that the Milwaukee was significantly handicapped when competing for the passenger traffic from these communities, it allowed the Milwaukee to operate higher speed schedules.

Known as the C & M Division, this line represented mainline railroad action.  In 1934, the road ran a high-speed test between these two cities and set new world's sustained high speed record, reeling off the 53.53 mile stretch between Deerfield, Illinois and Lake, Wisconsin at 92 miles per hour.  This beat the current record held by a Great Western train in England  by almost 15 mph. 

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