The Chicago Great Western Railway was a Class I railroad that linked

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origin ...

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest c ...

, and

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more th ...

. It was founded by Alpheus Beede Stickney in 1885 as a regional line between St. Paul and the

Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

state line called the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad. Through mergers and new construction, the railroad, named Chicago Great Western after 1892, quickly became a multi-state carrier. One of the last Class I railroads to be built, it competed against several other more well-established railroads in the same territory, and developed a corporate culture of innovation and efficiency to survive. Nicknamed the Corn Belt Route because of its operating area in the

midwestern United States The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

, the railroad was sometimes called the Lucky Strike Road, due to the similarity in design between the herald of the CGW and the logo used for Lucky Strike cigarettes. In 1968 it merged with the

Chicago and North Western Railway The Chicago and North Western was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than of track at the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states bef ...

(CNW), which abandoned most of the CGW's trackage.

History

Predecessor railroads

1903 Poor's Chicago Great Western Railway

In 1835, the Chicago, St. Charles & Mississippi Airline railroad was chartered with the intent of building a railroad west out of Chicago. The railroad never began construction, and its rights to build were transferred in 1854 to a new company, the Minnesota & North Western (M&NW), which eventually began construction in 1884 of a line south from St. Paul, Minnesota to Dubuque, Iowa.Middleton, et al., page 234 In 1887, the Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas City Railroad acquired the M&NW, and by the end of the decade, under the leadership of St. Paul businessman A.B. Stickney, it had established routes west to Omaha, Nebraska, south to St. Joseph, Missouri, and east to Chicago, Illinois, via the Winston Tunnel near Dubuque. In 1892, the railroad was reorganized as the Chicago Great Western.

Early 20th century

In 1907, the

panic of 1907 The Panic of 1907, also known as the 1907 Bankers' Panic or Knickerbocker Crisis, was a financial crisis that took place in the United States over a three-week period starting in mid-October, when the New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50% fro ...

caused Stickney to lose control of the railroad, and ownership passed to financier J. P. Morgan.Middleton, et al., page 235 In 1910, the CGW introduced four McKeen Motor Car Company self-propelled railcars, its first rolling stock powered by internal combustion engines. In the same year, the railroad also purchased ten large 2-6-6-2s from the

Baldwin Locomotive Works The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, in the early 20th century. The company was for decades ...

. Two years later, the railroad acquired an experimental battery powered motorcar from the Federal Storage Battery Car Company. In 1916, the railroad began standardizing on

2-8-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and two trailing w ...

steam locomotives, which served through the 1920. In 1923 CGW purchased from the soon to be dominant company EMC, two of EMD's first gasoline-powered cars. During the 1920s, as ownership changed again to the Bremo Corporation, a group of investors led by Patrick Joyce, an executive at the Standard Steel Car Company, the railroad expanded its use of self-propelled vehicles. At the end of the decade, 36

2-10-4 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, a locomotive has two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a Bissel truck, ten coupled driving wheels on five axles, and four trailing wheels on two axles, usually in a b ...

steam locomotives were purchased from Baldwin and the Lima Locomotive Works.

Mid 20th century

During the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, the railroad trimmed operations by closing facilities and abandoning trackage. It purchased its first diesel-electric locomotive, an yard switcher from Westinghouse, in 1934. In 1935, the CGW began trial operations of trailer on flatcar trains, which were expanded the following year into regular service, initially between Chicago and St. Paul, but rapidly expanding across the system by 1940. In 1941, it was reorganized in bankruptcy, and late in the decade a group of investors, organized as the Kansas City Group, purchased the CGW. In 1946, a demonstrator EMD F3 diesel locomotive set operated on the CGW, immediately prompting the company to purchase a wide variety of diesels, and by 1950 the railroad had converted completely to diesel motive power. In 1949, William N. Deramus III assumed the presidency, and began a program of rebuilding infrastructure and increasing efficiency, both by consolidating operations such as dispatching and accounting and by lengthening trains. In 1957, Deramus left the company, and Edward Reidy assumed the presidency.

Merger

As early as 1946, the first proposal was advanced to merge the Great Western with other railroads, this time with the

Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad The Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago to southern Illinois, St. Louis, and Evansville. Founded in 1877, it grew aggressively and stayed relatively strong throughout the Great Depression and two ...

and the

Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railway was a Class I railroad company in the United States, with its last headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Established in 1865 under the name Union Pacific Railway, Southern Branch, it came to serve an extensive ra ...

. Upon the failure of a later merger opportunity with the

Soo Line Railroad The Soo Line Railroad is the primary United States railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway , one of seven U.S. Class I railroads, controlled through the Soo Line Corporation. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sa ...

in 1963, the board of the Great Western grew increasingly anxious about its continued viability in a consolidating railroad market. Testifying in 1965, before the Interstate Commerce Commission in Chicago, President Reidy stated

that although it was operating in the black it would not able to continue: The simple fact is that there is just too much transportation available between the principal cities we serve. The Great Western cannot long survive as an independent carrier under these conditions.

The CGW, therefore, was open to a merger with the

(CNW), first proposed in 1964. After a 4-year period of opposition by other competing railroads, on July 1, 1968, the Chicago Great Western merged with Chicago and North Western. At the time of the merger, the CGW operated a system, over which it transported 2,452 million ton-miles of freight in 1967, largely food and agricultural products, lumber, and chemicals, for $28.7 million of revenue. After taking control of the CGW, the CNW abandoned most of the former CGW trackage.

Trail Conversion

A 20 mile section of the railroad right of way from Des Moines, IA south to Martensdale, IA was turned in the Great Western Trail. In addition, a section of track was converted to trail usage also known as the Great Western, running intermittently between Villa Park, Illinois and Sycamore, Illinois.

Passenger operations

The Chicago Great Western was not known for its passenger trains, although it did operate several named trains, mostly running between Chicago and the Twin Cities. Despite the railroad's small size and meager passenger fleet, it looked for ways to more efficiently move passengers, such as employing all-electric (battery powered) and gas-electric motorcars on light branch lines, which were cheaper to operate than traditional steam or diesel-powered trains. Notable passenger trains from its major terminals included: * ''Blue Bird'' (Minneapolis/St. Paul–Rochester) * ''Great Western Limited'' (Chicago–Minneapolis/St. Paul) * ''Rochester Special'' (Minneapolis/St. Paul–Rochester) * ''Red Bird'' (Minneapolis/St. Paul–Rochester) * ''Legionnaire'' (Chicago–Minneapolis/St. Paul) * ''

Minnesotan The ''Minnesotan'' was an overnight passenger train run by the Chicago Great Western Railway, using the CGW's trackage between Grand Central Station in Chicago, Illinois, and Saint Paul Union Depot in Saint Paul, Minnesota, via Hayfield, Minnes ...

'' (Chicago–Minneapolis/St. Paul) * ''Mills Cities Limited'' (Kansas City–Minneapolis/St. Paul) * '' Nebraska Limited'' (Minneapolis/St. Paul-Omaha) * ''Omaha Express'' (Minneapolis/St. Paul-Omaha) * ''Twin City Express'' (Omaha-Minneapolis/St. Paul) * ''Twin City Limited'' (Omaha-Minneapolis/St. Paul) * ''Maple Leaf Route'' (Minneapolis/St. Paul, Rochester, Stewartville, Racine, Spring Valley MN etc. to Chicago IL) On September 30, 1965, the railroad ended passenger operations when the overnight trains between the Twin Cities and Omaha arrived at their respective endpoints.Fiore 2006, p. 68

Notes

References

* * *

External links

Hub City Heritage Corporation
Oelwein Railroad Museum * There are two sites named ''the Unofficial Chicago Great Western page'': *
the Unofficial Chicago Great Western page
*
the Unofficial Chicago Great Western site

Chicago & North Western Historical Society
(includes predecessor roads) {{DEFAULTSORT:Chicago Great Western Railway American companies established in 1892 American companies disestablished in 1968 Railway companies established in 1892 Railway companies disestablished in 1968 Defunct Illinois railroads Defunct Iowa railroads Defunct Kansas railroads Defunct Minnesota railroads Defunct Nebraska railroads Railroads in the Chicago metropolitan area Former Class I railroads in the United States Predecessors of the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company Defunct Missouri railroads 1892 establishments in Illinois 1968 disestablishments in Illinois 1968 mergers and acquisitions