Having grown up in Missoula during the last three years of the MILW electrics' operation, and with a brother and brother-in-law working on the railroad, I know that there were three scheduled freights a day each way on the line, plus extras and a M-F local operated east and west from Missoula. There were not enough electrics to cover all the runs, and by 1973 about half the trains had only diesels (GP40s or SD40-2s, generally).


My brother was an engineer out of Alberton for a year, and he said the Joes were the greatest pullers he ever ran (combined 30-plus years with MILW, CNW, UP), though their long trucks did a number on the rails in tight curves. He never ran the old boxcab motors, but he said the few that remained when he was there were on their last legs and very worn out.