The story of my love for the Milwaukee Road began when I was a young child.  I would spend lots of time with my grandparents and hear stories about my grandmother's father who was employed by the Milwaukee Road at the Minneapolis Coach Yard. 



That's my great-grandpa standing on the rear of the original 1935 Hiawatha with a brush helping prep the train for its trip to Chicago.  These stories kindled my interest in the Milwaukee Road's passenger trains and I have been striving to learn all I can about them since I was 8 years old (I am 26 now). 

Jump ahead to the Fall 2009 . . . I was standing in a hobby store looking at an HO scale model of a Hiawatha car, when a gentleman standing across the table from me said "you know, the real thing is much more interesting than the model."  We got to talking and I found out that this guy had three Hiawatha coaches and a parlor-dining car.  I walked out of the store with a new model and an invitation to visit his collection of Hiawatha equipment.  Although I had been building a knowledge base about the Hiawatha equipment, I had yet to set foot in an actual Hiawatha car, I was very excited for what lay ahead.

Jump ahead to April 2010 . . . Throughout the winter of 2009-10 I had gotten to know the owner of the cars quite well and he approached me about getting into the hobby of owning passenger cars.  I was told that he had the perfect car in mind, 1948-built Pullman-Standard 10-6 Sleeping Car #4 "Lake Pepin," a car used on the Milwaukee's transcontinental Olympian Hiawatha and later on the Twin Cities to Chicago overnight train, the Pioneer Limited.  I told him that while I was interested in owning a passenger car, I wanted a real Milwaukee Road car and not a Pullman built Milwaukee car (the Milwaukee Road shops built most of its own equipment, but had Pullman build its sleeping cars).  In mid-April of 2010, I got a call from Bob and he said "Justin, I am going to St. Louis to pick up parts for my Rock Island coach, do you want to go?  We are going to stay at my shops so you can see my Milwaukee cars too if you want.  Oh and by the way the "Lake Pepin" is in St. Louis, so we can check her out too."  I wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to get inside my first Milwaukee passenger car so I said I wanted to go.   

We arrived at his collection on Friday April 16th and I got my first look at Parlor-Diner #182 "Union Grove."  The car was beautiful, but I only got a quick look before going to bed, we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow.  The next morning we left for St. Louis early and after a morning of driving we arrived, loaded up parts and that evening we got a look at "Lake Pepin."  Many Milwaukee Road cars get gutted over the years, but the bulk of the interior of this car was original.  The interior was beautiful and as soon as I saw the oval windows in one of the double bedrooms I started to melt.  I knew I was falling for the "Lake Pepin."

Jump ahead to 2011 . . . The car is still in St. Louis at this writing, but we hope to get the car moving in the next month or so.  Before the car can move, its brake valves need to be removed and cleaned and a COT&S (Clean, Oil, Test & Stencil) needs to be performed before the car can be moved. 

We are hoping to get the car to the collection in time for an event this summer.  With this car and other cars in Bob's collection, we will have a 7-car Hiawatha consist.

Stay tuned! 

Justin Nelson

3.18.11