Milwaukee Road Shops

From 1879 to 1985, the Milwaukee Road Shops occupied this site as an enormous complex that made rail cars and locomotives for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad. The Shops included carpentry, metal forging, machine assembly, welding, and painting facilities. Originally located near 6th and Florida streets, the railroad created sixty acres of land by moving the Menomonee River and filling in the Valley wetlands from 27th Street all the way to 44th Street. The Shops eventually spanned 160 acres, where workers built and maintained the engines and cars for the Milwaukee Road. In 1907, workers built 10 locomotives per month and 28 freight cars per day, and by 1937 the Shops had made 668 locomotives and nearly 67,000 freight cars. In 1922, the complex was the third largest railroad and rail car complex in the United States. Between 1941 and 1950, workers constructed more than 20,000 freight cars, 165 cabooses, and 220 passenger cars. The Shops were best known for producing cars for Hiawatha trains between 1934 and 1948. As trucks and airplanes became the primary transport for people and freight, rail use declined, the Shops closed in 1985, and today only two smokestacks remain.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin · United States