While tripping merrily through the mail, Wes Leatherock was overheard
 DD> This run included a stretch from Sparta to Portage Wisconsin (78.3
 DD> miles) at 81 mph start to stop, and the 85 Miles from Milwaukee to
 DD> Chicago in 70 minutes.  To achive these times, considerable
 DD> stretches of the run were in excess of 100 mph. 
 WL> Isn't in this stretch where the much-photographed sign,
 WL> even in steam days, read "Slow to 90"?
It's possible, there were "slow order" curves posted at that.  The line
was upgraded in 1935 to allow 100 MPH on a 1 degree curve when the
first Steam powered "Hi" went into service. (and the locomotives were
"Atlantic" type 4-4-2's!)
I do have a picture of a sign along that stretch where it ran through
Fort McCoy, where the Army put up a sign at a grade crossing that
reads "Stop - Look - Trains Pass 100 MPH".
 WL> Of course, I remember riding the Kansas Cityan (on the
 WL> Santa Fe; diesel-powered from its inception) and timing it one
 WL> evening between Wichita, Kansas, and my hometown of Perry,
 WL> Oklahoma, at 105 mph.  The conductor said they had reached 112
 WL> when they were running late.
Checking my sources, the fastest "regular" speeds I can document for 
the Hi's were;
 Class A 4-4-2 (1935) with 6 streamlined cars.  112.5 MPH (on the
  "Inaugural" trip, in regular service they seldom exceeded 105)
  (Incidentally, there are published reports of Class A's pulling
   trains of up to TWENTY cars {remember, these were 4-4-2's!})
 Class F-7A 4-6-4 (1939), with 9 cars.  120 MPH
 E-6 A-A Diesels (1941), with 15 cars.  107.6 MPH
  (footnote, the E-6's had what EMD called "95mph gearing")
 WL> This was about the same time--late 1930s or early 1940s.
Today, on these very same tracks, Amtrak's "Empire Builder" is limited
to 65 MPH.
Don
... The light at the end of the tunnel is a train coming this way.
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