David P. Morgan’s Milwaukee, presented by Kevin P. Keefe

Tuesday, December 7, 2021
7:00 p.m. (U.S. Central Time), on Zoom
Registration closes on Monday, December 6 at 4:30 p.m. (CDT)

Now Available on YouTube

In a program centered around the late 1940s through the early 1960s, we take a tour of the Milwaukee area as famed Trains Magazine Editor David P. Morgan might have experienced it, from the early days of his career as a junior staff member to his prime years as editor-in-chief. We’ll start at Morgan’s place of employment — the celebrated Kalmbach building at 1027 N. Seventh Street — and work our way around town, witnessing freight and passenger action on the Milwaukee Road, the North Shore Line, the Chicago & North Western, as well as some operations of the Milwaukee Electric.

The presentation will include images from a number of iconic Milwaukee photographers of the era, including Wallace W. Abbey, Jim Scribbins, and W.A. Akin, Jr., as well as some often bittersweet before-and-after comparisons. It’s easy to see why Morgan, a Southerner by birth, fell in love with the city where he spent most of his life.

 

Kevin Keefe recently retired as vice-president-editorial for Kalmbach Publishing Co. and is a board member of the CRP&A. He served as editor of Trains from 1992 to 2000. As a student at Michigan State, he worked on Pere Marquette steam locomotive no. 1225, and he later authored a book about it.

This event is free.

 

One of Milwaukee Road’s Fairbanks-Morse switchers works the Beer Line branch beneath the Holton Street bridge. Wallace W. Abbey, The Center for Railroad Photography & Art, Abbey-01-148-10.

 

Virtual Oktoberfest: Milwaukee’s Beer Line

Tuesday, October 6, 2020
7:00-8:00 P.M. (U.S. Central), on Cisco Webex

Now Available on YouTube

Join author John Kelly for a virtual Oktoberfest! Crack open your favorite seasonal Octoberfest and join us for a lecture on the history of the Milwaukee Road’s beer line. 

Since statehood, beer has played an integral role in the growth of Wisconsin industry, while bringing Milwaukee national fame. What might be less obvious, but no less important, was the profound role that rail transportation played in this story. This lecture will look at the rise, fall, and rise again of Milwaukee’s beer industry through the eyes of the Milwaukee Road’s Beer Line.

Milwaukee Road switch engine at the Schlitz Brewery in the 1950s. Photograph by Wallace W. Abbey, collection of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art, Abbey-01-084-02.