The Dredgby Division: Hometown RR

Milwaukee Road, Milwaukee Wisconsin

Few cities its size have been dominated by 2 railroads in the way Chicago & Northwestern and the Milwaukee Road controlled commerce in Milwaukee. Each had a "belt line" around the city which became know as the "machine shop of the world" because of the intensity of its heavy manufacturing base and the quality of its transportation system.

The heart of the Milwaukee Road in its hometown was the vast complex of yards and shops in the Menomonee Valley. In 1922, these shops were the third largest railroad and car works in the United States and the largest owned by a railroad. In 1930, the Muskego Yard was redesigned to combine the operations of a number of smaller yards into a larger, more efficient operation.

The south side of town contained the Chicago & Milwaukee division, which would become the high-iron racetrack between these two great cities. In its early years, there was a great steel works and coke plant. In later years, these tracks were used to access the Port of Milwaukee.

The north side of town contained the 34th Street Corridor, a stretch of industrial tracks along the right of way to North Milwaukee. Here, the tracks diverged three ways: to Portage via Horicon (the "Old Line") to Green Bay and Michigan's Upper Peninsula (the "Champion Line") and to the Chestnut Street Line (the "Beer Line").

The Chestnut Street Line was the original starting point of one of the Milwaukee's earliest predecessors, the Milwaukee & LaCrosse. Relieved of its duties as a passenger terminal after consolidation, it became the transportation hub for 3 of Milwaukee's great shipping breweries. For more on this line, please refer to the Dredgby Division link.

On the south-west side, the Milwaukee served such major industry leaders as Allis Chalmers, International Harvester, and Ladish Malt. Chicago & Northwestern and the Milwaukee Road shared the Menomonee Belt on the southwest side of the city.

The history of Milwaukee and the State of Wisconsin would be very different today without the contributions made by its hometown railroad. For more than 100 years, the Milwaukee Road was the backbone that Wisconsin's prosperity was built on.

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