Hi,
I lived for a year in Schaumburg, IL at the Hyatt Place hotel there for about a year and used the West Line a lot about 10 years ago.
CP and it’s granger shortline use the line during non-peak METRA times during the day and seen them at night (I saw both ICE and MD&W power but no idea whose train it was). CP mostly uses it for the Kansas City trains but I would guess also some trains from the Twin Cities come down the Mississippi River line and then into Chicago vs using the via Milwaukee route. I wasn’t aware they had a line into Omaha though. The CP Chicago to KC line is in pretty good shape and was kept up pretty well under Milwaukee Road as well. Not sure how much traffic it carries but judging from the maintence level KC to Chicago probably brings in some serious cash.
Never saw any power outside CP Rail and it’s former or current subsidiaries on the line. Pool power was pretty rare. Unlike the Chicago, Milwaukee to Twin Cities line which regularly sees pool power.
They don’t have a line to Omaha. The Milwaukee abandoned it in 1980 west of Green Island, IA. Short segments around Marion IA and in central Iowa were operated by other railroads, but I believe those segments also are completely gone now. There is a larger portion from Council Bluffs to Bayard IA that originally was bought by a shipper’s group and operated by lease by the BN. It’s since been sold outright to BNSF.
It may all be operated under the CP banner, but on paper it’s still Soo Line and DM&E. There was an item sometime back about Soo and DM&E granting each other trackage rights at certain locations where they met. The reason given was to help facilitate interchange between the two lines. I believe that translates into letting DM&E people, who are paid less, do work that was being done by Soo people.
Jeff
A follow up to my question: I stopped by the highway bridge and scrambled down the hill and saw a UP SD70 something or other waiting for the Metra trains to clear out. Whether it was a CP train using a CP locomotive or a run through I don’t know.
They have run through power on Chicago to Twin Cities sometimes. Not unusual to see Norfolk Southern, or sometimes KCS units. UP is rather unusual on Chicago to Twin Cities same with CSX. The lack of CSX units surprises me as formerly Milwaukee Road used B&O power quite a bit in the 1970’s when they were power short. Also Southern Railway power in the 1970s (which is now NS).
The NS Power swapping I think is to compensate for the use of CP Power on Chicago to Detroit runs…just a hunch I have, no real proof. KCS, I am not sure what is going on there.
The Milwaukee West line no longer goes to Omaha. At Savanna IL it crosses the Mississippi River and then heads southwest to Kansas City and north towards La Crescent MN. At Marquette IA a branch does strike out west across the northern tier of IA counties through Mason City but ends at Sheldon IA and a connection with the UP former Omaha Road.
It’s too bad they never replaced the pontoon bridge at Prarie Du Chien. Always wonder if someday that might be a WisDOT / WSOR project. Milwaukee used to run a Passenger Train across that bridge to somewhere before they took the bridge out.
How far west does that line still go across Iowa from Marquette?
The line that crossed the bridge at PDC used to go to Rapid City. CP’s map shows they still go as far wast as Mason City. At least part of the line between there and Rapid City is operated by shortlines.
This map of transload facilities gives a view of the CP network including mainlines and what they consider branch lines. The Marquette Line does stretch to Sheldon Iowa but is considered a branch line west of Mason City.
https://www.cpr.ca/en/choose-rail-site/PublishingImages/transload-network-2020-lg.png
This map shows the CP network superimposed on a rail map of North Americal complete with every city or “station” on the CP network.
https://www.cpr.ca/en/choose-rail-site/Documents/cp-network-map-2020.pdf
A late 1950s timetable shows a dozen long distance passenger trains, nine time freights, and one way freight on the Milwaukee Road daily west of Elgin. Two more passengers and five more freights joined in west of Kittredge, where a line from Wisconsin connected. The line was high speed signaled double track across Illinois. Most, and maybe all, of the passenger trains, and a majority of the freight traffic, continued across Iowa to Council Bluffs to connect with Union Pacific.
Now, as I understand things, CP only runs one regular freight each way, a local turn, and an occasional extra west of Elgin, on single track. The former Milwaukee Road line across Iowa is mostly abandoned.
- Ed Kyle
It’ll become interesting and fun here once Mark Meyer and Michael Sol have read this post…
I looked on Google Maps, the former Milwaukee line ends at the Sheldon, IA Depot but there is a rail connection right there at the Depot in Sheldon, IA with a North-South UP branch line or former UP Branch Line. From Google Earth the connection looks in fair shape and used, not sure if it is used to get to a client in Sheldon or to reach cities beyond Sheldon, IA to the North.
The north/south UP line at Sheldon is the former Omaha Road main line. Still a secondary main line for UP.
Jeff
Michael Sol still around?
I miss him.
Ed
Yeppers! [banghead][sigh]
AND futuremodal, you could always count on him to to keep the ‘conversations’ moving right up to that level of pumping stomach acid, and there was another person, arund about that same time that would ‘help’ [ I cannot remember his handle, but, he was a fan of the Milw Rd’s PNW lines(?) ]…
They were some interesting times, and certainly, nowhere near our curent,‘plain vanilla’ FORUM ‘discussions’; those teneded to devolve into ad hominem batterings. Resulting in locked topics, and lots of PM traffic… I am not sure if they could be considered of as the good old days? [banghead] [sigh][banghead] [:-^]
Just drove from the Twin Cities to the Black Hills. The driving route from MSP to I-90 in Worthington parallels the former Omaha Road for much of the way. It is a very busy railroad.
Just had his latest thread contending with Mark Meyer locked over on Classic Trains – it will not surprise you that the topic was ‘should the Pacific Coast Extension have been abandoned’.
The man, his spirit, and his lore are very much still with us!
I was wondering if that was him. He also shows up in various places on Facebook from time to time.
I wonder what TRR stands for?
Having been on the receiving end of one of futuremodal’s tirades and parsing some of his other comments, I eventually came to the conclusion that what he really wanted was more variety in the trainwatching around Spokane.
What is it about the Pacific Coast Extension that causes rational thought to disappear??
Go see the giant, complex, bipolar electric at the St. Louis museum. Stand there for a minute and you might catch the bug! If not, go see the sleek Little Joe or the ancient beefy box cab in Union, Illinois or in Duluth. Same deal I think. Electric trains on a massive scale, “King of the Rails”, 1915 style! Powered by water, essentially, from the big dams in the region. Green before it was cool.
https://www.american-rails.com/images/CMSTPPE2SUNIONSTAT.jpg
- Ed Kyle