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Milwaukee Road F7 Hudson Hiawatha

Gorgeous, isn't it.  You're looking at a F7 Hudson Hiawatha on the right and an Atlantic Hiawatha on the left.  Yes, the Milwaukee Road rocket is steaming up for a rapid flight across Wisconsin to your destination in Minneapolis/St. Paul.  Aaaa'll aboard!

Hiawatha History  

The steam driven Hiawatha was the signature passenger train for the CM&SP Milwaukee Road during the 1930s. Later in their life (post diesel), they were downgraded to freight and local passenger service. No remaining Hiawathas exist.

The Hiawatha was more an image and brand name than a particular engine.  A streamlining shroud stamped it as a the Milwaukee Road's high speed passenger train.  

In the late 1930's there was a huge amount of regional attention paid to this engine series and the '400' series of the Chicago and Northwestern. The C&NW '400' was a streamlined Pacific. The '400' was so called because it could do the 400 miles between Chicago and Minneapolis in 400 minutes, an average of 60 miles per hour, including stops.  A photo of the C&NW's streamlined Pacific is on the Davy's Hiawatha home page.

The competition between these two engines for the fastest passenger service to and from Minneapolis is what constantly led to upgrades in the motive power behind the Hiawatha brand and image.

The Hiawatha name and equipment was applied to at least four different steam engine designs.

This is a 4-6-0 Hiawatha

A 4-4-2 Atlantic dressed up as a Hiawatha

A 4-6-2 Pacific in Hiawatha colors

The F7 4-6-4 Hudson Hiawatha

The engine that epitomizes the size, power, and grace of the Hiawatha is the F7 Hudson Hiawatha that was the last steam powered version of the Hiawatha family.  With its 84 inch drivers, it was capable of propelling a passenger train well in excess of 100 miles per hour -- and regularly did so in rural areas of Wisconsin on its trips to and from Minneapolis.  The following quote is taken from the book North American Hudsons by Lloyd E. Stagner, 

By 1940, the Chicago-St. Paul schedule was reduced to 6 hours, 15 minutes, at an average speed of 65.6 mph for the 410-mile trip. Train No.6 was allowed 58 minutes for the 78.3 miles from Sparta to Portage, Wis., at an average speed of 81 mph. There is an early authentic record of one F-7 averaging 120 mph over a five-mile stretch of a 19-mile run at which speeds exceeded 100 mph for the entire distance.

 

Most experts agree that the Hiawatha was the fastest Hudson, if not the fastest steam engine used in regular passenger service in the US.  Much of the Hiawatha's speed advantage was due to the combination of  its 84 inch drivers, 300 pounds boiler pressure, and 96.5 square feet of grate area.

Hiawatha at full throttle!

Of course, the conversion to diesel power led to the demise of the steam powered Hiawathas.  Later in their life they were downgraded to local passenger and freight service.  The dents and scratches on No 102 in this photograph, no doubt, are a result of encounters with various livestock and internal combustion engine propelled vehicles that appeared in its path at inappropriate times, speeds, and distances.

In the 1950s, all fell to the scrapper's torch.  Today, all that remains of their legacy is photographs, promotional items like this postcard, and a legend that few people under the age of 40 have even heard.

Oh, the legacy exists in one other place -- the mind and heart of the model railroader.  Hiawathas have been produced in brass.  And Rivarossi markets a HO version.  But for those of us with limited budgets, projects like Davy's are the only way we're likely to own a G scale version.

Hiawatha Resources

Web Resources

Books 

Note: to search for out of print books from used bookstores around the country, try Bibliofind.com or abebooks.com.

(c) 2007 Iron Horse 1:29