Chicago Missouri and Western?

Such an old thread, but the title caught my attention as a lifelong Chicagoan and a railfan. I had never heard of the Chicago, Missouri and Western.

Rich

Certainly didn’t last long. If you blinked, you would have missed it lol.

Still, it is a part of railroad history in Illinois. I am surprised that I knew nothing about it.

Rich

It was a very “under the radar” operation in comparison to the other Chicagoland railroad operations. Unless you lived in the southern part of the Chicagoland region, you wouldn’t have likely known about it.

I was lucky enough to be able to watch trains on the Peqot Sub. as well as the Chillicothe Sub. as a kid back then (literally out my back window). Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known about it.

I grew up on the southwest side of Chicago and then moved to the southwest suburbs as an adult. Even so, I never heard of it until I started reading this thread.

Rich

You definitely had to be close to the line to have a higher probability of knowing about it.

I lived in West Lawn along the GTW main line.

Rich

I see. I lived in Coal City, IL as a kid. It was quite a rural area back then (still is, to some extent). Great place to watch trains, no doubt. I had family that lived in the Western Suburbs. When we’d go visit them I would always see the mean green BN trains.

The CMW or as some of the crew’s called it the Completely Mechanically Wasted Railroad. I ran into several of them at a old reef fish keeping club I was a member of at the time. One of these guys was ex Rock Island and said if he had known just how bad it was going to be he would have kept working for State Farm. What saved the Alton line south of Joliet was one thing Amtrak. Amtrak wanted 110 mph trains in Illinois and Illinois was willing to pay for the needed improvement.

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That sounds about right. Amtrak last ran a train on the Pequot Sub. in 2008. That is quite impressive, considering that the double tracked section of the Pequot Sub. (the part that goes through Coal City) was basically down to one track and was not in the best of condition. For several years, the Pequot Sub. was basically abandoned in this section to Mazonia.

In recent years, new life has been put into the Pequot Sub. by the UP. And UP still has plans for an intermodal facility on the Pequot Sub. south of Coal City, IL. All of this is quite amazing when looking back at how things have evolved over the years.