Milwaukee, October 15 and 16

Chuggington is a hit at the Milwaukee event	Entering to win the trips	Visitors come for the night-time event
Author and rail advocate Robert Tabern displays his work	The Operation Lifesaver event partners	The Trains Magazine event partners

We were graced with pleasantly sunny autumn weather on both Saturday and Sunday. People of all ages came down to the modern Milwaukee Intermodal Station to celebrate 40 years of Amtrak as America’s Railroad.

The youngest Amtrak fans thoroughly enjoyed the Chuggington Depot; playing with toy trains of their favorite Chuggington character and making their mark on the giant birthday card. I met retired Amtrak employees who shared stories from year’s past, as well as a considerable number of teenage Amtrak fans who were extremely knowledgeable about our routes and equipment. I couldn’t help but wonder how many might someday be a coworker.

Some visitors traveled to Milwaukee from surrounding areas aboard our Hiawatha Service, being delivered right to the heart of the celebration. I can’t think of a better way to arrive at an Amtrak celebration! Other folks had never been on a train before but wanted to see what it was all about. Entering our 40th Anniversary Sweepstakes gave all entrants the chance to win a round trip for two aboard their choice of a number of different Amtrak services including the Empire Builder, a Chicago to Seattle and Portland train that stops in Milwaukee daily.

In addition to booths for the National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP), Operation Lifesaver, and Amtrak, TRAINS magazine, local author and rail advocate Robert Tabern, and Walthers were on hand.

Walthers not only had preproduction samples of our Heritage P42s on display, but also preproduction samples of some of our Phase IVb painted single level cars and Phase III painted Exhibit Train cars, which should start shipping to those with preorders next month. If you haven’t reserved your models yet, do so before they’re gone at https://store.amtrak.com

Milwaukee certainly displayed a lot of support for Amtrak. Extremely dedicated fans even came out both nights to take photos of the Exhibit Train under the lights. It was a great way to bid farewell to the Midwest as we continue our tour onward to the west coast.

Exhibit Train by night in Milwaukee	Inside the locomotive	Young and old on the Exhibit Train

--PK