|
The Chicago and North Western Transportation Company was a Class I railroad in the Midwest United States. It was also known as the North Western. The railroad operated more than of track as of the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states before retrenchment in the late 1970s. Until 1972, when the company was sold to its employees, it was named the Chicago and North Western Railway. The C&NW became one of the longest railroads in the US as a result of mergers with other railroads, such as the Chicago Great Western Railway, Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway and others. By 1995, track sales and abandonment had reduced the total mileage back to about 5,000. The majority of the abandoned and sold lines were lightly trafficked branches in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Large line sales, such as those that resulted in the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad further helped reduce the railroad to a mainline core with several regional feeders and branches.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Chicago & North Western 1385 )〕 The company was purchased by Union Pacific Railroad in April 1995 and ceased to exist. ==History== The Chicago and North Western Railway was chartered on June 7, 1859. It had purchased the assets of the bankrupt Chicago, St. Paul and Fond du Lac Railroad five days earlier. On February 15, 1865, it officially merged with the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, which had been chartered on January 16, 1836. Since the Galena & Chicago Union started operating in December 1848, and the Fond du Lac railroad started in March, 1855, the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad is considered to be the origin of the North Western railroad system. The Winona and St. Peter Railroad was added to the network in 1867. The North Western had owned a majority of the stock of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway (Omaha Road) since 1882. On January 1, 1957 it leased the company, and merged it into the North Western in 1972. The Omaha Road's main line ran from an interchange with the North Western at Elroy, Wisconsin, to the Twin Cities, down to Sioux City, Iowa, and then finally to Omaha, Nebraska. The North Western picked up several important short railroads during its later years. It finalized acquisition of the Litchfield and Madison Railway on January 1, 1958. The Litchfield and Madison railroad was a bridge road from East St. Louis to Litchfield, Illinois. On July 30, 1968, the North Western acquired two former interurbans – the Des Moines and Central Iowa Railway (DM&CI), and the Fort Dodge, Des Moines and Southern Railway (FDDM&S). The DM&CI gave access to the Firestone plant in Des Moines, Iowa, and the FDDM&S provided access to gypsum mills in Fort Dodge, Iowa. On November 1, 1960, the North Western acquired the rail properties of the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway. In spite of its name, it ran only from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Peoria, Illinois. This acquisition provided traffic and modern rolling stock, and eliminated competition. On July 1, 1968 the Chicago Great Western Railway was merged into the North Western. This railroad went from Chicago to Oelwein, Iowa. From there lines went to the Twin Cities, Omaha, Nebraska, and Kansas City, Missouri. A connection from Hayfield, Minnesota, to Clarion, Iowa, provided a Twin Cities to Omaha main line. The Chicago Great Western duplicated the North Western's routes from Chicago to the Twin Cities and Omaha, but went the long way. This merger provided access to Kansas City and further eliminated competition. After abandoning a plan to merge with the Milwaukee Road in 1970, Benjamin W. Heineman, who had headed the CNW and parent Northwest Industries since 1956, arranged the sale of the railroad to its employees in 1972. The words "Employee Owned" were part of the company logo in the ensuing period. After the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (Rock Island) stopped operating on March 31, 1980, the North Western won a bidding war with the Soo Line Railroad for purchase of the roughly "Spine Line" from the Twin Cities to Kansas City, Missouri, via Des Moines, Iowa. The North Western's bid of $93 million was approved on June 20, 1983, by the ICC. The line was well-engineered, but because of deferred maintenance on the part of the bankrupt Rock Island, a major rehabilitation was undertaken in 1984. The North Western then began to abandon the Oelwein to Kansas City section of its former Chicago Great Western trackage, which duplicated Spine Line service. In April, 1995, the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company was merged into the Union Pacific Railroad. Chicago and North Western locomotives continued to operate in their own paint schemes for several years after the merger. As of 2011, two locomotives remain on the UP with CNW logos and reporting marks, GE Dash 9-44CW locomotives #8646 and #8701. Union Pacific has decided to leave these 2 locomotives in their current condition until either of them suffers a serious mechanical problem, in which they will be overhauled and repainted at Jenks Shop in North Little Rock or retired, depending on how bad the failure is. In addition to this, many former C&NW units have received "patches" with a new road number and reporting mark to match their new owner's roster. Approximately 40 "patched" units remain on the Union Pacific and several others work under different owners. However, it is still possible to find untouched C&NW units in service. For instance CNW 1518, CNW 411, CNW 414 (METX 308), CNW 4160, and CNW 6847 are preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum, CNW 4153 now works at a grain elevator in Fremont, Nebraska, and several other GP7s, GP9s, and a few other C&NW locomotives are owned by various regionals, shortlines, or industries. Union Pacific continues to follow its new tradition of releasing "Heritage" units to represent the paint schemes of companies absorbed by UP. After completion of painting at the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad's Horicon, Wisconsin shop, UP 1995, an EMD SD70ACe locomotive painted in a "Heritage" C&NW paint scheme, was unveiled on July 15, 2006, at North Western Station in Chicago, Illinois. North Western Station now serves as UP's Metra terminus (although the station is officially designated the "Ogilvie Transportation Center", many locals still refer to the station as the "North Western Station", or as the "CNW Station"). The unit was then placed in dedicated service on former C&NW trackage, sometimes paired with the C&NW 8646 and 8701. ==Passenger train service== The CNW's most famous train, the ''Twin Cities 400'' from Chicago to Minneapolis/St. Paul, was introduced in 1935 to compete with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy's ''Zephyr''s and the Milwaukee Road's ''Hiawatha''s. This train was named because it traveled the between the cities in 400 minutes. CNW was the first system to start a high-speed Chicago-Twin Cities schedule because it used refurbished instead of new equipment, but in 1939, modernized the ''400'' with new E3A diesel locomotive pairs and streamlined cars. Other named trains the CNW operated included the ''Ashland Limited'', ''Duluth-Superior Limited'', and the ''North Western Limited''〔Chicago And North Western System (Table ). Rand McNally, March 14, 1948〕 CNW eventually renamed the first ''400'' to the ''Twin Cities 400'' as the CNW labeled almost all of its passenger trains with variations of the ''400'' moniker, including the ''Flambeau 400'', ''Rochester 400'', ''Valley "400"'', ''Shoreland "400"'', ''Dakota 400'' and the ''Kate Shelley 400''. CNW ceased running the ''Twin Cities 400'' in 1963, and all intercity passenger service on CNW ended with the formation of Amtrak in 1971. Amtrak bought a dozen of C&NW's bilevel railcars and were repainted into Phase III paint. They are not in use today. In conjunction with Union Pacific and Southern Pacific, the North Western operated some long distance passenger trains including the ''Overland Limited'', ''City of Los Angeles'', ''City of San Francisco'', ''City of Denver'', and the ''Challenger''. These services lasted from 1889 to 1955, after which the CNW route to Chicago was changed to the Milwaukee Road's on account of poor track conditions. Chicago and North Western also operated commuter train service in the Chicago area, where they developed what was perhaps the first cab car. A modified gallery car was built in 1960 with locomotive controls to allow push-pull operation. Today, it is preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum. The C&NW also pioneered the concept of Head End Power (HEP), generating 480 V electricity from the locomotive to power the air conditioning, lighting, and heating on the new bi-level cars. This eventually became the standard for all railroads in the United States. Three commuter lines radiated from North Western station, terminating in Geneva, IL; Harvard, IL; and Kenosha, WI. All three are still operated by Metra. At Crystal Lake Junction, some trains branched off to Williams Bay and Lake Geneva, WI. The West Line also had branches to Aurora, Freeport, and Crystal Lake. A fourth commuter line operated on the KD Line between Kenosha and Harvard until 1939. In 1974, responsibility for the commuter lines and equipment ownership was transferred to the newly formed Regional Transportation Authority, later branded in 1983 as Metra. A "purchase of service" contract was signed with the C&NW, by which the railroad would be paid to maintain the line and operate trains on behalf of the RTA. This arrangement continues with the Union Pacific today. All three C&NW commuter lines live on in the Metra system, with the Geneva line having been extended to Elburn, IL, however service on the branch to Williams Bay was gradually cut back over the years (also resulting in changes to the name of the branch). In 1965, service was abandoned between Williams Bay and Lake Geneva. In 1975, service ended between Lake Geneva and Richmond. In 1981, service between McHenry and Richmond ended. Rails and ties north of the Cargill plant in Ringwood were removed during the 1980s, and the right of way converted to a trail. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chicago and North Western Transportation Company」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|