The Milwaukee Road Rocky Mountain Division Electrification, by Don L Hunter, 2014, UPGRADED VERSION

This is the new and improved version of the program. The two segments are now one, so you can see the entire program without it stopping. This is upgraded to an MP4 format. There was some copyrighted music in the original version that YouTube wanted edited out, so you'll notice some blank moments. When Donald Hunter mustered out of the army at the end of WWII, he was given a travel voucher to return to his home on the west coast. The Milwaukee Road was the only railroad that would honor the voucher, and for the rest of his life he felt grateful to the Milwaukee. It was the railroad that took him home from the war. A dozen years later, Hunter developed an interest in making audio recordings of the last operating steam locomotives in Oregon, and Washington plus last of the Big Boys in Wyoming. A dozen years after that, Richard Steinheimer urged him to record the unique sounds of Milwaukee’s Little Joes and Boxcabs. Hunter was intrigued. With his stereo Ampex real to real recorder hooked up in the family car plus a bulky portable recorder for in cab recordings, his Nikon, and yellow boxes of Kodachrome ISO 25, Hunter visited the electrified Rocky Mountain Division and the Pacific Coast Division several times between 1965 and 1973. He was just in time; the wire came down in 1974. Milwaukee’s friendly crews invited Hunter to ride the cabs of Little Joes and Boxcabs during their runs through the rugged Rockies. Contrary to the accepted procedure, one engineer didn’t turn his traction motors’ cooling blowers on so Hunter could record the clatter of electrical contacts and the whine of gears without the blowers’ noise. Hunter was primarily interested in recording the sounds of railroads. His photography was secondary, and he took photos only when he could leave his tape recorder for a few moments. These two programs reflect that. They give us the opportunity to experience the singular sounds of Little Joes and Boxmotors; the onscreen images are merely incidental. Donald Hunter and the Milwaukee are now gone forever. Let this be a lasting tribute to them both.