What would be the best sound choice?

I might be wrong, but I think that MTH did a Milwaukee Rd DL-109 (actually a DL-107 on the Road) in Proto 2.  If that's the case, contact the factory and ask for th correct sounds for the Milwaukee Alco.  They can send them to you for installation in your engine. 

Paul Fischer

I found a Milwaukee DL-109 Proto2 in one of their back catalog searches but it said "not produced"

Sorry, Kerrigan, I didn't know that they never made the darn thing.  Just recall seeing it in a catalog.  Years before I had taken my Proto 1 Milw DL109 to the old Train America and had them install TMCC.  Somehow they kept the original MTH sounds in the engine so it does have the correct sounds, but just doesn't do all the stuff that Proto 2 engines are capable of.  I regularly use that engine on the layout but always on secondary trains, not Hiawathas or other named trains.  It was used that way on the Milwaukee Road, also, because it was not a favorite with the railroad or with the men.

Incidentally, MTH made an unpowered "B" unit to go with the "A".  Not correct! The Milwaukee never had an Alco cab engine "B" unit.  In the case of the DL109, they had two "A" units, occasionally run back to back in the early years, numbered 14A and 14B.  MTH never bothered much about being prototypical, so they just went ahead and produced a "B" unit, anyway.

Paul Fischer

Is this for Model 20-2222-1?

Funny coincidence, I just got done converting an AA pair of Milwaukee road DL-109's to Proto-2. As Paul noted above, MTH cataloged the Milwaukee engines with Proto-2 but didn't actually make them. I had a pair of Proto-1 A units with the correct numbers (14A and 14B) and I had previously rewired the trailing unit so it started backwards. Recently I managed to pick up a New Haven AB set with Proto-2 at a cheap price. I swapped the bodies and pilots between the leading A units, then gutted the New Haven B unit and put the slave board, motors, and trucks in the trailing A unit. I had to swap some couplers around to get a long one on the pilot of the trailing A unit, but that was no big deal. Now I have a correct Milwaukee Road AA set connected by a tether, so I don't have to bother building a lashup on the DCS remote. The only fly in the ointment is the PSA's; I'm stuck with the New Haven ones. My net cost will depend on how much I can get for the leftovers, which at the moment consist of a New Haven Proto-1 A unit with a dummy B. If I can find a Proto-1 slave board I can reinstall the motors in the B unit; I've got an ad on the WTB board but no luck so far. 

By the way, Paul, the reason TAS was able to keep your Milwaukee Road sounds was that they installed a UCUB II and used the original sound chip. Unfortunately that option is no longer available. 

I ran the converted Alcos yesterday at the museum for a couple of hours and they ran flawlessly. Here's a shot of them pulling a set of Weaver ribside cars, with a small spectator looking on. 

Bob:  Those do look very nice!  With my single A unit, even though converted to TMCC, I really run it pretty rarely.  I'm going to have to keep my eyes open for another A unit at York this spring.  that makes an impressive set.

Paul Fischer

Be sure to check the road number so you get a pair. MTH made the A units in both 14A and 14B. Your single A unit would be prototypical to pull a few heavyweight cars on a minor passenger run, which is what the Milwaukee did with the originals when they decided the big Alcos weren't reliable enough for the Hiawatha. 

Bob:  You're right about the Milwaukee's attitude about Alcos after those two units went into service.  I have a nice shot of "Old Maude" which is what the Road used to call them, one unit in the 1950 orange, maroon and black paint scheme pulling four cars East past the Milwaukee Gas Light Company's collapsible storage tanks, sown in the valley.  Train probably didn't even have a name. 

My E-6 pair, (Lionel) were much more favored by the road, often calling them "famous fifteen", were why the road ordered 10 more EMD sets in 1947, this time E-7's.

But your set looked so nice that I thought it might be worth while to pick up the "other half".  Anything Milwaukee Road, (and C&NW).

Paul Fischer

Did the Milwaukee run to many of the same places as the C&NW?  My wife is from Milwaukee and she said she seems to remember the railyards in the area having a lot of C&NW power around from time to time.

Did they have competing passenger runs?

The short answer is yes, the two railroads were major competitors serving many of the same cities. The Hiawatha competed directly with a C&NW train called the "400" (the number of rail miles between Chicago and St. Paul).

The C&NW used to haul Union Pacific passenger trains between Omaha and Chicago, but in the early 1950's the UP got fed up with the North Western's poor service and switched the contract to the Milwaukee. Part of the deal was that the Milwaukee Road equipment used on the UP runs had to be painted to match the UP trains, which is why the Milwaukee repainted most of its passenger equipment from Hiawatha maroon and orange to UP yellow. 

Does the C&NW DL set have "now arriving, Chicago and Northwestern Train xyz ..." or is it more generic ...?