[9] In 1957, Deramus left the company, and Edward Reidy assumed the presidency.[9]. Finally, a trackage rights agreement was secured with Union Pacific later that November to cross its Missouri River bridge and reach Omaha Union Station. The Chicago main line contained one notable infrastructure project, the 2,493-foot Winston Tunnel. CGW - Des Moines River Bridge (Polk County, Iowa) Built Ca. Along with business partner and investor William Marshall the two purchased the company's 10,000 shares outstanding believing it could be turned into a successful operation. The railroad struggled financially all its life but hung on as an independent until the 1960s. While the Chicago Great Western's immediate heritage begins during the 1880's the company's earliest roots date back to the Chicago, St. Charles & Mississippi Air Line Railroad (CStC&MAL) organized in 1850 to link Chicago with the Mississippi River. 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. Lionel 2133770 - Legacy GP30 Diesel Locomotive "Chicago Great Western" # 201 - Custom Run for MrMuffin'sTrains. Watch; CHICAGO GREAT WESTERN 1165A FINE PORTRAIT 120 NEGATIVE. photographer or collection - unknown. However, considering the relatively late time period in which he began it is rather incredible Stickney accomplished what he did. $4.00. It began with the takeover of the Mason City & Fort Dodge in March of 1901, sold by close friend James J. Hill. Chicago Great Western - Image Gallery; 0. The Chicago Great Western Railway Is Born. Roger Puta photo. Late afternoon shadows on CGW at Hayfield, MN on November 28, 1963. Author's collection. Many were pulled up in the 1970's and 1980's although others were removed long before that. The venerable Chicago Great Western Railway operated across the upper Midwest serving Chicago, the Twin Cities, and Kansas City. The bankruptcy was short-lived, however, and assets of the CStP&KC were acquired (initially via lease, the CStP&KC was later dissolved in 1893) by the newly formed Chicago Great Western Railway on July 1st of that same year with Stickney remaining in control. The 20th century got off to a rocky start as the CGW entered receivership once more during 1908; an aging Stickney, despite being named a co-receiver of the bankrupt property, quietly resigned on December 21st, electing instead to allow others to run the railroad which he had built. Wes Barris's SteamLocomotive.com is simply the best web resource in the study of steam locomotives. The railroad had already opened its only branch in Illinois to DeKalb, a 6-mile spur running via Sycamore completed in October of 1895 via subsidiary DeKalb & Great Western Railway. The D&NW began construction on July 29, 1885 with the first eight miles opening to Durango by year's end. One notable event which took place was moving the primary shops from South St. Paul to Oelwein, Iowa. The focus then rested squarely on freight where the railroad became famous for its propensity to operate extremely long, 200-car consists. Finally, while all of this was ongoing his entire enterprise was renamed the Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas City Railroad in December of 1887 to better reflect the company's future intentions. This is a presentation I gave at the 2019 St. Louis RPM meet and at the 2019 Chicagoland RPM meet. It proved an expensive and contentious operational problem throughout its history. Alas, in 2013 the site closed by thankfully Don Strack rescued the data and transferred it over to his UtahRails.net site (another fine resource). Given its size and the intensely competitive markets in which it operated the modern CGW was a respectable system boasting a stretch of double-tracked territory extending out of Chicago, hosting one of the earliest trailer-on-flatcar (TOFC) services in 1936, and completely dieselizing its motive power fleet by 1949. Time left 2d 21h left. Stickney got involved. [1] 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. Time left 6d 9h left. According to Mr. Grant this was actually a long-held practice on CGW to increase efficiency and reduce operating costs, dating back to October, 1894 when it had tested an 84-car consist between St. Paul and Oelwein. Having a great deal of experience in both managing and building railroads, particularly within the hotly contested Midwestern market, Stickney realized for his venture to sustain long term success it must link the largest cities. This town was situated exactly in the center of the Great Western system, making it an ideal location for such facilities. Today, there are tens of thousands of miles scattered throughout the country. The CGW list was created to discuss the Chicago Great Western Railway. In hindsight, any of those choices would likely have been better than its ultimate choice, the Chicago & North Western. Chicago Great Western - Image Gallery. There were many such projects launched around this time in an effort to reach Chicago, such as early components of the C&NW, Milwaukee Road, and Burlington. The line would not actually reach downtown Chicago but the nearby suburb of Forest Home (Forest Park) and then utilize trackage rights over what later became the Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal (B&OCT). What the railroad lacked in size it In Stock. From there, another new segment would branch from the existing M&NW at Hayfield and run in a southeasterly direction. He connected it to Oelwein and then pushed southward into Kansas City reaching as far as St. Joseph in May of 1888. Add to Cart. $6.95. With the operator providing a roll-by inspection, Chicago Great Western F3A #111-C leads a long freight train westbound past the quaint little depot at Elmhurst, Illinois station on August 14, 1962. In 1854, the Legislature of the Territory of Minnesota had chartered the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad (M&NW) to be built between Lake Superior, Minneapolis and Dubuque, Iowa. Chicago Great Western 34 in St. Paul, MN on June 9, 1964. It largely kept to itself with a focus towards customer service and modernity to maintain an efficient, profitable business. The 1,500-mile carrier was a David among Goliath's surrounding by roads nearly or over 10,000 route miles in length. Board Names Group to Discuss Merger", "Railway Head Tells of The Stiff Competition", the Unofficial Chicago Great Western page, the Unofficial Chicago Great Western site, Chicago & North Western Historical Society, Omaha Rail and Commerce Historic District, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chicago_Great_Western_Railway&oldid=1000001645, Railroads in the Chicago Switching District, Former Class I railroads in the United States, Predecessors of the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 13 January 2021, at 01:14. It largely kept to itself with a focus towards customer service and modernity to maintain an efficient, profitable business. - The Chicago Great Western depot at Leavenworth, Kansas, is wedged between the CGW-Missouri Pacific connecting track and the Missouri River. All content copyright American-Rails.com (unless otherwise noted). On Sale Today $239.98 . The company also took steps to reduce operating costs associated with depots by demolishing these structures for ugly but utilitarian cinder-block buildings. B. Stickney,[2] it had established routes west to Omaha, Nebraska, south to St. Joseph, Missouri, and east to Chicago, Illinois, via the Winston Tunnel near Dubuque. The Chicago Great Western Railway logo. One of the last Class I railroads to be built, it competed against several other more w… She was a Baldwin DS44-1000 built in July 1949. The Chicago Great Western Railway is an 13 year old layout that is a work in progress. [5], During the Great Depression, the railroad trimmed operations by closing facilities and abandoning trackage. if you bid on this photograph, you are bidding on a b&w photographic image, not a digital reproduction. Roger Puta photo. What became one of the great Midwestern railroads would not have happened without the vision and hard work of Alpheus Beede (A.B.) Regular Price: $329.99 . Title: Chicago and North Western Railway Historical Society Records, 1847+ ID: RHC/RC/051 Extent: 9.25 Linear Feet Arrangement: Only the H. Roger Grant book research series is available at the Regional History Center. It is difficult to truly articulate just how much material can be found at this website. [8] 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. After only a year the 50-mile line was completed in early 1888 and opened for service on February 9th. Now heading his own company, Stickney's project quickly took off as he began track surveys for a 110-mile line from St. Paul to Mona, Iowa where a connection would be established with the Cedar Falls & Minnesota (leased by the Illinois Central). $ 379.95. more than made up for in customer service. He later found top positions at Canadian Pacific and another Midwestern granger, the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway ("The Peoria Gateway"), before going off on his own with the Minnesota & Northwestern. A parade of covered wagons led by F3A #107-A pull their freight train through Elmhurst, Illinois on June 26, 1966. Its final bankruptcy ended on February 19, 1941 when it became the Chicago Great Western Railway once more. The Chicago Great Western Railway (reporting mark CGW) was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, and Kansas City. The Unofficial CGW web site. The full text of this article is available to Classic Trains Magazine subscribers only. [3] 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. Covers the Districts (Chicago, St. Paul, Clarion and Council Bluffs, and Des Moines), the Oelwein yards and shops, the Tripoli branch, and the snowplows. By February of 1887 the 97-mile line from Forest Home to South Freeport was finished although regular service did not commence until later that summer. It also began branching out to the east and west of its Twin Cities main line during the 1890's, a process which continued into the early 1900's. North Western Newsliner February 22, 2021 February 22, 2021 With the release of issue 2020:4 of North Western Lines, the first installment of 75 Years Ago – North Western Newsliner, has been added online, starting with the November and December 1945 issues of the employee magazine. The CGW, therefore, was open to a merger with the Chicago and North Western Railway (CNW), first proposed in 1964. 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 and the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad. Acquired from Chicago Great Western Railway 9/24/1902, and rehabilitated: 47.12 mi. 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,[3] the railroad expanded its use of self-propelled vehicles. 1900, closed to railroad traffic in 2001; purchased by the city in 2002 for future trail usage, demolished in 2013. The Great Western at first weathered the troubles but eventually slipped into bankruptcy once more on February 28, 1935. Chicago Great Western Photographic Roster. On October 20, 1886 a through route from Dubuque, along the Mississippi River, to St. Paul was completed and ready for service. $ 476.99 $ 529.99. However, in comparison to some roads, which spent more than a decade dealing with such proceedings, the CGW was back on its feet before World War II. Eventually renamed the Chicago Great Western, the little granger road evolved into a 1470 mile railroad connecting St. Paul, Chicago, Omaha and Kansas City with four lines radiating out of Oelwein, Iowa. Finally, an extension from Rochester headed east to Winona and south to another CGW connection at McIntire, Iowa before terminating at Osage. This project also ran into trouble although it may have experienced greater success had it not been for the financial Panic of 1857. Sold Out. As Stickney eyed a westward extension towards the important western gateway of Omaha, where interchange could be established with the transcontinental Union Pacific, his railroad ran into financial issues and entered receivership on January 16, 1892. While these first-generation models wore an attractive two-tone burgundy/red livery the railroad never bothered with the streamliner craze and instead focused all of its efforts on business development and customer service. Into 1886 work quickened while at the same time the M&NW began construction of its section. If you are researching anything EMD related please visit this page first. The small line was originally completed between its namesake cities on October 24, 1886 and once under Chicago Great Western control, Stickney pushed for Omaha. The CGW became part of the North Western in the 1960s. Before any construction could take place the road encountered financial troubles which allowed Stickney to become involved. Tichy Train Group Railroad Decal Set -- Chicago Great Western 40' Single-Door Boxcar (1952 Corn Belt Logo) Part #: 293-10100. [10] Upon the failure of a later merger opportunity with the Soo Line Railroad in 1963,[11] the board of the Great Western grew increasingly anxious about its continued viability in a consolidating railroad market. Images of passenger service on the "Corn Belt Route" Posted on December 22, 2016. It is interesting that despite Stickney early in the company's history the innovated and resourceful management practices he implemented forever endured. [3] 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. Interestingly, while the company weathered the crippling financial Panic of 1893 the troubled economic conditions warranted no further expansion at that time. The good times of the "Roarin '20's" would not last, however, as the Great Depression of October, 1929 hit the country, and railroad industry, quite hard. 10 talking about this. New Listing Negative - Chicago Great Western Railway EMD NW-2 Diesel Unit No. The dialogue may include any topic related to the CGW, predecessor roads, and disposition of locomotives, equipment, and plant on successor roads, e.g., cab …