Chicago and North Western Transportation
The Chicago and North Western Transportation Company (CNWT), until 1972 Chicago and North Western Railway ( C&NW ), colloquially also North Western , was an American railroad company based in Chicago . It was founded in 1859 and existed until it was taken over by the Union Pacific on March 17, 1995. Its route network stretched from Chicago over the Midwest to Wyoming .
history
The Chicago and North Western Railway was established on June 7, 1859. Five days earlier she had bought the bankruptcy estate of the bankrupt Chicago, St. Paul and Fond du Lac Railroad , which had been building railroads since March 1855. On February 15, 1865, the C&NW officially took over the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad , which was founded on January 16, 1836. The latter began railway construction west of Chicago in December 1848. It was thus the first railroad to begin opening up the Midwest.
Since 1882, North Western owned the majority of shares in the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway ( Omaha Road ). On January 1, 1957, she leased the company and finally took it over in 1972. The main route of the Omaha Road ran from a C & NW junction in Elroy ( Wisconsin ) to the "Twin Cities" ( Minneapolis - St. Paul ) and from there via Sioux City to Omaha .
In April 1956, Ben W. Heineman became the company's chairman. He modernized the company and increased CNW's profits. In addition to taking over smaller railroad companies such as the Litchfield and Madison Railroad , the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad , he also began a takeover battle for the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad against the Union Pacific Railroad .
Following the general trend in the railway sector, the holding company Northwest Industries was founded in 1968 . This created the basis for investing in other, more profitable branches of the economy without being subject to the supervision of the Interstate Commerce Commission , as a cartel office for the rail sector.
On July 1, 1968, the takeover of the Chicago Great Western Railroad with a route network of 2,400 km took place. The main route of this company ran from Chicago to Oelwein in Iowa , where it was divided into branches to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Omaha and Kansas City, Missouri . With a connection from Hayfield to Clarion, Iowa , there was also a main line between the Twin Cities and Omaha. Through the takeover, North Western gained access to Kansas City for the first time and also eased the pressure of competition. A planned merger with Milwaukee Road in 1970, however, did not materialize.
After various attempts had failed to enlarge the railway company, in particular through a merger, and thus make it more profitable, the management decided to sell the railway company. After a sale to other railway companies had failed, the company decided to sell the Chicago and North Western Railway to the employees. For this purpose the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company was founded, which took over the business of the Chicago and North Western Railway in 1972 completely. The previous railway company only existed on paper. From then on, the addition "employee owned" was introduced on the company's logo.
When the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad was liquidated on March 31, 1980 , the North Western took over 1,300 kilometers of route. The routes taken over also included the "Spine Line", a well-developed, but heavily neglected connection from the Twin Cities via Des Moines to Kansas City (Missouri). After a takeover war with SOO Line Railroad , she was awarded the contract for the route by the ICC on June 20, 1983 . As a result of the takeover, North Western laid the former Chicago Great Western route sections from Oelwein to Minneapolis-St. Paul and Kansas City silent.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, the company was relatively successful in countering the decline in the rail sector. This was mainly due to an extensive route closure program and the focus on the Omaha-Chicago connection. In order to do justice to the increasing competition in the deregulated rail sector from the beginning of the 1980s with the passage of the Staggers Rail Act , the company decided to set up a holding company as the parent company, the CNW Corporation . This was primarily intended to facilitate diversification.
Since the late 1980s , the Chicago and North Western Railway has been takeover candidates several times. In 1989 the company was taken over by a consortium of Blackstone Capital Partners LP, Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette from Union Pacific Railroad and the management of CNW as part of a buyout . As part of this takeover, the new holding company Chicago and North Western Holdings Corporation was established. This prevented a hostile takeover by Japonica Partners . In the early 1990s, the company was listed on the stock exchange before being completely taken over by Union Pacific on March 17, 1995.
The Northwestern was also involved in suburban traffic from Chicago. There it is the first railway to use the so-called Gallery double-decker cars, which are the standard vehicle in Chicago today. From 1984 the C&NW operated suburban traffic on behalf of and on account of the local transport authority MTA, which organizes Chicago suburb traffic under the name METRA . The previously yellow-green vehicles were repainted using the METRA scheme. This fact is indicated on the affected wagon with a corresponding logo of the railway company. The Union Pacific took over this contract with the merger.
See also: List of North American Railroad Companies
literature
- Grant, H. Roger. The North Western - A history of the Chicago & North Western Railway system . Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb, IL 1996. ISBN 0-87580-214-1 .
- Grant, H. Roger. The Corn Belt Route - A history of the Chicago Great Western Railroad Company . Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb, IL 1984. ISBN 0-87580-095-5 .
- The Trains staff (November, 1990). Timeline. Trains, pp. 21-47.
- Handy Railroad Atlas of the United States . Rand McNally & Co. 1973, p. 53.
