Frontiersmen Welcome Electric Train
Frontiersmen Welcome Electric Train
The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway is now electrified for a distance of 440 miles in Montana, over two mountain ranges from Harlowtown, Mont., to Avery, Idaho. Through Missoula near the western terminus of the electrified section, all regular freight and passenger trains are being drawn by electric locomotives and nearly all the extra trains are so handled also. A so-called “steamer” shows up once in a while, however, as the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul has not received all of its electric engines from the General Electric Company.
When the first passenger train drawn into Missoula over the Milwaukee arrived there was a good-sized crowd at the station. In that crowd were Granville Stuart, who discovered gold in Montana; E. S. Paxton (sic), famous throughout the country as an Indian artist, and formerly an Indian fighter; Major Catlin, one of the leaders in the Indian wars, and Judge F. H. Woody, who arrived in now Missoula in 1856. All of this quartet came into Montana with bull teams, and each marveled at the progress of the age when he saw the first electric locomotive slide out from Hellgate Canyon, pulling its long line of steel coaches.
The above article is from the ELECTRIC RAILWAY JOURNAL November 25, 1916