Time Runs Out for “America s Resourceful Railroad”

Never-ending financial problems, speedy new interstate highways and jets killed Milwaukee's passenger service to the Pacific Coast by 1961. Stiff freight competition and corporate mismanagement put an end to railroad service altogether in late 1979.

On March 17, 1980 the last whistle sounded from the last train through the Bitterroots. It was a Milwaukee work train slowly rumbling out of Idaho manned by a small crew hauling away company property.

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The American Railroader’s Trusted Timekeeper

A train on a track at the wrong time could mean delay or disaster. Every engineer and conductor carried special railroad watches that were extra rugged and accurate. The Hamilton Watch Company called itself “the Railroad Timekeeper of America” and specialize din the manufacture of robust watches for railroaders.

The company boasted, “No railroad changes can affect the Hamilton’s timekeeping qualities.” Little did they realize the advances in transportation and technology that would dramatically change timekeeping and railroads.

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What Time Is It?

Railroads needed a system of standard times to run trains safely and promptly. In 1883, the railroads adopted the practical standard time zone boundaries we have today, 25 years before the federal government officially adopted the system.

The time boundary along the Bitterroot Mountains was actually at Avery, the railroads division point between the Rocky Mountain and Idaho Divisions.