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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by Murphy Siding [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by cnw8835 [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by Murphy Siding I know some posters live in the Chicago area, and a lot of us live in the area once served by CNW ( the midwest/upper plains). I was hoping some would share their thoughts on the CNW. Starting with: How did the CNW work their way into the Powder River Basin? I would have thought that BN would have fought to the end to keep out competition there. I lived in Gillette in the early 1980's. Every train then had Cascade Green locomotives. At some point, CNW (with help of UP I presume) got in there, and I missed that part. Can anybody explain? Thanks [/quote] Do you mean C&NW in Gillette proper, because C&NW never got there. At first C&NW's rights ended at Coal Creek Jct and then extended north to Caballo Jct still about 20 miles south of Gillette. Also the farther north on the joint line the fewer C&NW trains there would be since C&NW only entered and exited from the south end. I don't know if that is what you were looking for but there it is. [/quote] I didn't know that the CNW(now UP) didn't go all the way up to Gillette. I moved away in 1984, and have only been back once. So apparantly the CNW only served the mines in the southern end of Campbell County? [/quote] C&NW origanally only served the mines up to Coal Creek which branches off of the joint line at milepost 26.2 (from Donkey Creek, the north end of the line). C&NW ran its first train on August 15, 1984. Soon after that C&NW went to the ICC trying to get its trackage rights extended farther north so it could serve the northern 4 or so mines on the line. Cordero Mine had already built a 1.5 mile lead down to Coal Creek Jct so C&NW could have access the mine. The ICC gave C&NW permission to build a 10.8 mile line in 1985 to serve the remaining mines served only by BN but in 1986 BN relented and gave C&NW rights to continue farther north on the joint line for a price. C&NW had already surveyed a line and was ready to put out contracts when BN agreed to the deal. C&NW served no mines on the branch north out of Gillette off of the Alliance-Billings line. BNSF is still the only rail service to those 3 or 4 mines.
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