Where has the luxury gone?

For the last week I have been continuing my work on research for articles I need to write. I have been learning so much about the Road. Last week I read a lot about the Hiawatha's and they truly are spectacular. I would have loved to experience these trains first hand. However, in a small way I have. During my research I learned that Amtrak took over some of the routes/railroads that were run by the Hiawatha. I have taken the Amtrak several times before, especially recently to and from school. So I began thinking about the way it was and the way it is and brought the question to mind, what's happened to the luxury? Amtrak offers a lot of great services and amenities. However, the Hiawatha had impressive speed, but even more impressive was the luxury it offered passengers. Amtrak does offer coach, business, and dinning cars (and probably sleeper cars on longer rides). Which are all great and have pretty good room to feel comfortable, but on a packed train with college kids for 5 1/2 hours can still get a bit crowded. The first photo is what is offered for my ride. Thinking of how it is I just can't get the image of how it was out of my head. The Hiawatha's offered the best of the best for an enjoyable travel. I loved the beaver-tail, skytop lounge, Superdome, large bathrooms with private lounges, and diner cars that served prim rib. A girl can only dream for luxury to resurface like that. However, travelers seem to be more interested with speed, while companies want higher passenger quantity. Maybe I'm wrong and travelers enjoy how it is and feel it's more luxurious. I personally wouldn't ,ind having a couch or recliner with a great window view to make the ride more enjoyable. Also last week I was given a little behind the scenes tour of the library. I saw a second workroom where a lot more of the Milwaukee Road history is stored. I'm just amazed at the amount of stuff that is here, the workroom had 2 floors! Then I saw where the city of Milwaukee Archives was, which also stores some drawings from the Road due to no storage room. This week I'm reading all about electrification and I'm sure I'll learn a lot!

Welcome...

This blog is being created to share my experience and what I've learned while interning with the Milwaukee Road Archives at the Milwaukee Public Library this summer. I am a senior at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL. I am a speech communications major specializing in public relations and minoring in marketing. I was given the opportunity to be a PR intern for the summer and help reopen the Milwaukee Road Archives, which is planned for January 2010. I am only in my 3rd week and will work until August. So far I have helped with the railraod drawings, which I am told there is about 35,000 (WOW!). For those who haven't had a chance to take a look at some they are truely interesting. Most of the drawings are from the late 1800's and early 1900's. Some are the original drawings while other have had to be reprinted due to their condition. It is also interesting to see blueprints of the trains and depots and then see them in true form, its amazing how accurate the drawings and real thing is. A lot of these drawings have been handeled by Nicole Johnson, a contract archivist and graduate student at UWM. She began the project in January and has gotten so far in such a short time and she really has done such a great job. The Milwaukee Road Archives also has wonderful volunteers and employees working hard on the re-organization. I am lucky to have a small amount of knowledge about The Milwaukee Road prior to my internship. I was given this opportunity due to my grandparents, Tom and Carolyn Helms (thanks!). They were once in charge of creating the MRHA calendars and are very active members of the MRHA. My grandpa was once vice president and now is preservation charmain. My grandma is the current secretary for the MHRA. Not only am I learning about The Milwaukee Road and MRHA, but also about what my family has done. I recently learned about my great grandparents work with The Milwaukee Road, my great grandmother was a secretary for about 11 years while my great grandpa was an engineer for about 43 years. For the rest of the summer I will be writing 4 articles to be published, press releases, a poster and brochure for Milwaukee Road Archives for conventions, and various small projects. Currently I am doing research to start writing my articles. I'm looking at books, calendars, and The Milwaukee Railroader to gain ideas and lots of extra knowledge. If anyone has an interesting story or idea's they would like to see in an articles I would love to hear it. For those who don't know the Milwaukee Road Archives is in need for volunteers and donations, without either the reopening date of January 2010 is unlikely. If you would like to donate time or money that would be great! You may contact Virginia Schwartz at the Milwaukee Public Library if interested. I hope the next couple months will be as interesting for others as is for me.