And in Tacoma, the nexus of operations for the Coast Division--where you think with the shops and offices and yards that employees would most be wary of trespassers--well, I think quite a few employees were flattered that someone would take the time to show interest in what their railroad was doing. This became obvious one night, when an inquiry at the Tideflats diesel shop to the foreman about the possiblity of getting a surplus fiberglass Milwaukee Road locomotive herald for my collection met with more than a ‘yes’--he’d even supply a shop laborer to remove one from a GE parked in the deadline!

The railroad’s heart was the old freighthouse at 2501 East D. St. next to the Tacoma Eastern mainline, where the Tacoma Hill F’s rattled by with a cut of #901’s train on April 15, 1979. Not much to look at, but then, Milwaukee didn’t have much money to toss around extravagently. Up the stairs and down a narrow, always dark hallway were the operating department offices-- in the front, the superintendent’s office, at the back of the building, the engineering staff. On the left, halfway down the hall, was the Washington Division dispatching office, always open, always accessible.

While most fans liked to hang around the roundhouse, I preferred being with the dispatchers, for here one got the true picture of how this railroad was operated. Weekends were the best time to go, when the sole dispatcher--on this day, D. L. "Dan" Steinhoff--always had time on his hands to visit. He handled the railroad west of St. Maries; during the week, a second dispatcher worked days and afternoons, the two territories split east and west at Black River.

Not a single mile of the Milwaukee Road west of Miles City was dispatched by CTC until November 1977, when Union Pacific paid for a 26-mile US&S installation between Tacoma Jct. and Black River, trackage jointly owned with the Milwaukee. The rest of it was handled with timetable, train order, trainsheet and standard clock--as it had been since the railroad was constructed. When Dan got busy transmitting train orders, I busied myself reading the Chief Dispatcher’s weekend instructions ("DFW 4 GP40s enroute Tacoma--should clear out Kittitas; power stands for 200S2 Monday pm. . . . pick up eng. 1505 and caboose at Cedar Falls if you are going to dogcatch them, pickup south cars Black River which include two hot cars of sand, X379 X379. . . .add 3 GP40s Othello to 201C23, add 3000 tons and run a single Kittitas turn") or read old trainsheets hanging in the back of the room. I especially liked the dispatchers’ record of delays, which often began as a drama and ended as a comedy: "Eng 5507 on Cedar Falls-Cle Elum work train lost all oil on hill between Hyak and Cedar falls. . .account oil on rail, 200S12 only making 4 or 5 mph up hill. . . 1015pm, 200S12 is 2 miles east of Ragnar, cut away from train and is sanding hill. .. 1201am problem is not oil on rail--sanders were shut off".