I just want to make sure that I got this correct - back in the heyday there were 5 roads with main lines between Chicago and Omaha - C&NW, CB&Q, IC, CGW, and MILW. Am I missing any?
CRI&P, the Rock Island?
Good catch! They sure did!
It was a bit roundabout, but the Wabash did offer service via Decatur, IL, Brunswick, MO, and Shenandoah, IA. Growing up in Iowa, I remember reading there were seven lines connecting to the Union Pacific at Council Bluffs/Omaha.
Now which was the fastest and shortest route? I’m guessing C&NW, followed by the Rock Island, followed by CB&Q?
Wabash reached Council Bluffs, today is a hiking trail. Chicago Great Western reached Council Bluffs, today part gone, part BNSF branch. Missouri Pacific (Chicago & Eastern Illinois) reached South Omaha (transfer runs to Council Bluffs?), today is UP’s Fall City Subdivision. Fastest depends…freight or passenger? I’ll guess CB&Q was fastest freight due to alignment across south Iowa, relatively flat compared to the middle/northern Iowa routes. Passenger, I suspect Milwaukee Road and Chicago North Western close, both jointly operating with UP.
In my memory, through passenger service (without change of trains) was CB&Q, CNW, CNStP&P, CRI&P, IC only. When did the C&GW end passenger service on its route? Did it last until it was absorbed by the CNW? Of the five I listed as having service, I think the IC quit first. When? Did the MP-C&EI route ever have through passenger service? Or the Wabash?
Note that in the “Golden Age” the western connection at Omaha was not just the UP. The Rock continued to Denver and Colorado Springs and the Bulington actually went beyond Denver by ownership of the narrow gauge Denver South Park and Pacific. From Denver west there was of course the D&RGW-WP route to the West Coast, and for a time the Colorado Midland from Colorado Springs to Grand Junction.
CGW passenger service:
My oldest Official Guide is September, 1951. By that time, one section of the CGW Chicago-Omaha main (Oelwein to Clarion), was already listed as freight-only.
CGW’s last scheduled varnish was the Twin Cities-to-Omaha run, which survived until 1965.
EDIT: According to Grant’s Corn Belt Route, the last run on the Oelwein-Clarion leg was a McKeen motor car in 1950. I still don’t know when CGW’s last through passenger train ran between Chicago and Omaha.
[8D] The IC RR was the first to drop Omaha passenger service in 1939. they realized they could not compete with the other roads. I rode the CGW from Omaha to Eagle Grove Iowa, Thier service ended in September 30 1965. A side mote to this post was that all of the trains from Chicago used the the Mail Transferdock in Council Bluffs. Sacks were transfered or cars set out and then taken to Omaha to connect with Union Pacific trains 5 and 7, which were dedicated mail trains. The same was true for eastbound trains they also stopped ant transfered mai and mail cars to Chicago and points east Larry
When the IC dropped their passenger service on the Iowa Division to Omaha, were they still going with passengers to Sioux City? I ask because I can almost swear I saw a pic sometime this year in Classic Trains captioned with the IC “Iowan” passing over the CB&Q Main in Chicago, and I’m pretty sure it was dated in the 1940s… although I don’t remember the exact place that picture was.
[C):-)] Yep thats right the section from the Iowan was cut off at Fort Dodge I think. The IC Had at one time two passeger trains to Sioux City The Iowan and the Hawleye was service to and from Chicago. The Land of Corn I think lasted until Amtrak but I could be wring It was from Chicagp to Waterloo and I think later cut back to Dueguce sorry I cant spell today LOL
The remnant of the CGW still in use is used by the Iowa Interstate RR. The Rock Island did a line change in western Iowa in the early 1950s. Part of this change was using rights over the CGW for about a dozen or so miles. The original RI main line was close to the Milwaukee Road line as far as Neola, IA where it crossed.
The Milwaukee Road line is the one that is now a BNSF branch line. When the MILW originally abandoned service in 1980, a shipper’s group ended up buying the line and BN, then BNSF operated it. A few years ago BNSF bought the line outright from them.
Jeff
Of all the Chicago-Omaha lines, the CGW had the weakest offering. Through Chicago-Omaha service existed from the early 1900’s. For a while those trains were even named: Chicago Limited, Chicago Express, Omaha Special, Omaha Express. Even though CGW’s listings in the Official Guide seemed substantial, CGW in reality was offering a bare-bones service on its lines, compared to the multiple frequencies the other roads were offering. On the Omaha service, the overnight train left Chicago with cars which were destined to Omaha, Minneapolis and Kansas City. Oelwein, Iowa was CGW’s hub, with lines radiating to Omaha, Kansas City, Chicago and Minneapolis. There, trains converged from CGW’s external endpoints and cars were reshuffled into the appropriate trains for their final destinations. Through Chicago-Omaha cars ended by the end of WWI and Chicago-Omaha connecting service was gone by 1925. By that time, the Omaha service was uncompetitive: leaving Chicago at 10:15pm and arriving Omaha 3:30 the next afternoon!
Was this a through train for just through car service? What time period did this service exist?
The C&EI only had trackage in Illinois and Indiana.
And the MPran to St.Louis and not to Chicago
It certainly would have been roundabout, but my Guides of 1893, 1916, and 1930 do not show any service of the Wabash into Omaha except to/from St. Louis. In 1916, it would have been possible to take the Wabash between Chicago and Omaha, but several train changes were necessary.
I don’t think the Wabash ever seriously entered the Chicago-Omaha passenger market. But in the late 19th Century, the Iowa Pool acted as a sort of cartel, dividing up the Chicago-Council Bluffs freight among the six lines-CRI&P, C&NW, CB&Q, IC, CMStP&P, and CGW–to be delivered to the UP. Jay Gould, in an attempt to break the Iowa Pool, got contol of the Wabash and even built/acquired a rickety line across far southern Iowa. He didn’t succeed, but Wabash still offered CHI-OMA freight service via Moberly, just as the Rock Island offered CHI-MSP service via West Liberty.
In Council Bluffs, the UP still has in it’s terminal a yard called the Pool Yard. I heard the yardmaster today tell a incoming local to put some of it’s cars to Rock #00 and the balance to Q #00. I can’t remember the actual track numbers.
Jeff
I love hearing about how old names live on.
Within the confines of the Calgary Yard limits there is an industrial lead located near the former station of Titian. Switch crews still use that location when talking to the tower, even though the station ceased to exist sometime in the early sixties.
And I love to hear when crews calling or talking about the Yardmaster refer to “CG”, the old telegraph call sign for the Calgary station.
Bruce