REOPEN MILWAUKEE ELECTRIC'S COLD SPRING SHOPS. There are few manufacturers of passenger train equipment in the United States. Milwaukee's Super Steel has contracts with Japanese manufacturers Sumitomo and Nippon Sharyo, and those contracts apparently will not impair Super Steel being the possible final assembler of Wisconsin's Talgo trains. (Labor-protection legislation requires Passenger Rail authorities to purchase train equipment with some share of the value added in the United States. That usually means final assembly. It's a bit more work than opening an Athearn box.)

Now comes The Political Environment, reacting to Brookfield's request for a train stop on the Madison extension. "Next stop: light rail service to link these potential high-speed rail stations so travelers don't have to drive there." Fast-rewind to 1939, when The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Transit discontinued service west of Oconomowoc. Once upon a time, that service included coach-diner cars scratchbuilt at Cold Spring Shops, admittedly not exactly light rail vehicles.