A steam-powered train engine that once served on the “Milwaukee Road” railroad connecting Milwaukee to Chicago and Minnesota chugged its way on down the line earlier this month for the first time in several years, and it completed its first trip with paying customers this weekend with a jaunt from the Twin Cities to Chicago for the National Restaurant Association Show. Built in 1944, the locomotive has been restored by a group, Railroading Heritage of Midwest America, and hitched to refurbished passenger cars that date to the 1940s and 1950s.
The Milwaukee Road 261, seen below testing out its legs on May 11 and 12, is based in Shoreview, Minn., and can be chartered for luxurious private excursions.
The last time the 261 saw this much action was in 2008 when it was used in the Johnny Depp-plays-John Dillinger film Public Enemies. (The same movie shot some scenes in downtown Oshkosh, Wis.)
