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Riddle me this, /n/.
I live by the former Milwaukee Road north of Chicago.
In the 1930s, their trains were known for their high speed (the old-timers speak of an infamous sign that instructed trains to reduce their speed to a mere 100mph at a suburban junction). I have a timetable from 1958 that shows the speed limit for passenger trains was still 90mph. Sometime in the 1970s, after passenger operations were handed over to Amtrak, the speed was further reduced to 79mph. Today, that remains the top speed for their "Empire Builder" & "Hiawatha" trains.
What happened?
Were the signaling systems dismantled?
Has the track never been maintained at a pre-1960s standard?
Amtrak also shares much of the line with Canadian Pacific freight and Metra commuter trains, for what it's worth.
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>>1027626
79 mph is the magic number for territory without cab signals.
Just like 49 mph is the magic number for territory without signals.
Cab signals were likely removed because it's expensive, you need to have the properly equipped engines, and you're not moving nearly as many passengers at this point and the freight was running slower anyways.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QblkQ-J6zio
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>>1027626
The Milwaukee Road got asset-stripped to fuck (which is why it died) and this is a part of it. I'm sure some other anons can explain it better than me so I'll leave it here for now.
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>>1027637
FWIW, I believe this was during the "defer fucking everything until we can merge with the C&NW/BN" era, just before the scandal out west.
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>>1027626
Also the North Shore interurban was operating. Enjoy those local stops,folks!
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