i was looking at some old pics from kansas city & came across some of the CGW Chicago & Great Western i was wondering what ever happened to them & did ICG or C&NW buy them out
& did they have a yd in KCMO
The Chicago and North Western took over the CGW during 1968. This expanded the C&NW to Kansas City for the first time, and this route was replaced in the early 1980s when the C&NW gained the Rock Island spine line. Most of the CGW was abandoned in the early 1980s after Staggers came in.
The CGW route to KC from Des Moines went down to Leavenworth, KS and then ran on trackage rights to KC on Missouri Pacific. The C&NW yard in KCMO during 1983 was bounded by KC Jct on the north, the south wye switch at Santa Fe Street on the south and by Madison Ave on the east.
Much of the CGW had already been abandoned prior to Staggers. By the mid-1970's, the Chicago-Oelwein line had been abandoned west of Byron and east of Sycamore, connected to the rest of the C&NW by a glorified industrial spur between DeKalb and Sycamore. As far as C&NW was concerned, the entrance into Kansas City was the only real asset that Great Western had, the rest of it was redundant trackage.
The Oelwein shops turned out to be useful to North Western, performing the in-house upgrading programs for the GP7/9's
The old CGW yard in Kansas City was called Ohio Street yard- it actually was closed in 1983 shortly after the Spine Line was fully open for operation.
After the merger CNW did rid itself of some of the CGW system almost right away like the Dubuque-Chicago segments mentioned (Save the St. Charles industrial lead on the old main). But the St. Paul- KC line and a good portion of the lines in Iowa were not so quick to be abandoned. Most Iowa and Minnesota branches met the scrapper pretty quickly (Winona and Rochester branches etc.)- but main lines did find use with CNW for a while after the merger. Council Bluffs-Harlan went fairly quickly after the merger too- with the segement from McClelland-CB sold to the Rock Island, used now by IAIS. Harlan-Carroll was in until almost 1982, Carroll-Somers was abandoned piecemeal over the course of the 70s. Somers-Clarion is still in today and in regular service (via Fort Dodge). Clarion-Waverly was in until the early 80s, Waverly-Oelwein was in until 1985, and Oelwein-Dubuque 1981. The line north from Clarion to Mason City is still in, but railbanked. North of Mason City it was complex, CGW to Manly was abandoned- but only after the CNW got the Spine Line, north of there to Hayfield was pieced off in the late 70s and early 80s.
St. Paul to Roseport is still in and active as an industrial park branch for UP, south of there the line was slowly abandoned in the early 80s (1980-81) to Dodge Center (mainly due to Nerstrand hill north of Dodge Center.) The line south from Dodge Center to Oelwein lasted until 1982, and Oelwein-Marshalltown was in until at least 1985- some small pieces remain such as Oelwein-Waterloo. Marshalltown-Bondurant went around the same time as the previous segment- but Bondurant-Des Moines is still in account an elevator at the north end. Terminal trackage remains in Des Moines, but south to St. Joseph was removed in the same time period as the Waterloo-Marshalltown segement.
The old CGW isn't as complete as it was when it became a part of CNW July 1, 1968, but many small pieces remain that are part of UP's vast network of lines.