Milwaukee Road in Idaho: A Guide to Site and Location

Stan Johnson has authored over a dozen books including three on the Milwaukee Railroad: The Milwaukee Road In Idaho: A Guide to Sites and Locations (Museum of North Idaho), The Milwaukee Road Olympian, A Ride to Remember (Museum of North Idaho), and The Milwaukee Road Revisited (University of Idaho Press). He is a retired academic psychologist, University Dean, and currently resides in Bremerton, Washington. He has been, among other things, an elevator operator, a maker of corsages in a hotel florist shoppe, and a newspaper reporter. But most of all he is a man who knows, loves and likes to write about railroads, especially the Milwaukee Road. This is understandable since he was born and raised in a Milwaukee Railroad family. His long-time stepfather (since he was 3) was a Conductor on the Milwaukee and served that railroad for 53 years. During the author’s youth up through his young adulthood he traveled on trains extensively having made, among others, an estimated "three or four dozen" cross-country trips from the west coast to Chicago on the Milwaukee’s Olympian or Columbian. His traveler’s belt is notched from rides on other railroad’s trains as well—the Santa Fe Chief, the Zephyr, the Ak-Sar-Ben, the North Coast Limited, the Crescent, the Montrealer, the Ann Rutledge, and "even Amtrak," he says with what could be either a smile or a smirk. He is knowledgeable about the technical details of railroading and familiar with many of the insider’s bits of interesting knowledge about what railroading is really like—especially on The Milwaukee Road. His books have been cited for technical accuracy and a wealth of warm understanding about the people who worked and rode on the trains of yesteryear. Because of this, his files are a storehouse of donated personal tales and anecdotes gleaned from conversations with old "hoggers", baggagemen, conductors, brakemen, station agents and even an ex hobo or two. Many of these find their way into his writing and a comment he frequently hears is, "I read your book with interest and enjoyed it very much. Then I read it again and enjoyed it even more, and then I read it again…" His latest book, The Milwaukee Road Olympian: A Ride to Remember, is a tour de force of personal memories and details about one of America’s greatest luxury trains from pre WWII days. As a teenager, Johnson was permitted by his parents to make a solo trip from Kansas City to Chicago and then, aboard the Olympian, on to Tacoma. This latest book relates the story of that trip in great detail—seen through the eyes of a 13 year old boy who loved trains and railroaders, and written sixty years later by a 70 year old man who has lost none of that love.Johnson, Stanley is the author of 'Milwaukee Road in Idaho: A Guide to Site and Location' with ISBN 9780972335607 and ISBN 0972335609.