Parts of some Milwaukee Road woodchip cars, rebuilt from old rib-sided boxcars, still lives on today—donating their car sides long ago for an unique retaining wall built alongside the St. Maries River Railroad yard at St. Maries, Idaho, as seen on September 27, 2021. At the eastern end of the wall, the last car side and its supporting timbers are giving way to gravity and time. Reusing retired cars built in the railroad’s own shop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Road sure lived up to its slogan of “America’s Resourceful Railroad.” The town of St. Maries was a crew change point on the non-electrified “gap” on Milwaukee Road’s Pacific Extension main line, between the electrified districts of Harlowton to Avery and Othello to Tacoma.
