CGW grade west from Winona?

[Boyd]

I have been reading an article on the CNW line from Winona to Rapid city in the winter 96 NWL magazine. Can the roadbed be seen from any roads? When did they take up this line? Did it go through the tiny town of High Forest which is west of Stewartville? 

[Modelcar]

Just a thought....If you care to trace or follow just where it is, check one of the satellite image programs to find and observe just where it is located and then if you seek to find it first hand you will know it's whereabouts.

[Anonymous]

Boyd

I have been reading an article on the CNW line from Winona to Rapid city in the winter 96 NWL magazine. Can the roadbed be seen from any roads? When did they take up this line? Did it go through the tiny town of High Forest which is west of Stewartville? 

Your title indicates CGW but your question mentions CNW.  The CNW line is of course the DME now (a.k.a. CP).  The Chicago Great Western did pass-through Stewartville heading south out of Rochester (Red Wing-Rochester-McIntyre).  The CGW line to Winona split from the Rochester-McIntyre line at Simpson (Simpson-Plank Jct-Utica-Winona).

Here's a map:

http://www.trainweb.org/cgw/map-bin/1955_tt_map.html

[gopherstate]

If I remember correctly from my days working on the DM&E, you can see the grade very clearly between Dover and Utica.  It is right next to the C&NW right of way, but I can't remember if its on the north or south side.  Back in the early 1990's the right of way was still very evident through the town of Utica heading north toward Altura.  I believe the Altura portion was removed in 1962 and the rest of the line in the 1930's, perhaps even earlier.  CGW then exercised trackage rights on the parallel CNW.  The CGW route west out of Winona was renowned for being difficult, dangerous and expensive to operate.  The CGW did not go through High Forest, the branch from Rochester and main line from Winona headed south from Simpson toward Le Roy.

[Boyd]

If you drive on 14 east of Rochester you can see a 2nd roadbed next to the current one in some areas south of 14. But I think that is the original roadbed and not a CGW roadbed. 

Can anyone copy and paste that link of the RR map but enlarge the area of Southeastern Minnesota? 

[jrbernier]

Boyd,

  The old CGW roadbed is between the DM&E tracks and Hwy 14 between Utica & St Charles. The two lines crossed out by the Winona County Fair Grounds(west side of St Charles) and the CGW was then just to the south of the DM&E tracks. You can still see the roadbed just north of I-90 and east of Hwy 63 in the Simpson-Stewartvillle area.  There never was any rail line in the High Forest area.

Jim

[gopherstate]

At one time during the mid 1990's, the idea was kicked around at the DM&E to use part of the old CGW roadbed to construct a new passing siding.  This idea never went anywhere, but would have been interesting if it had.

[Anonymous]

Boyd, I am not very familiar with how the CGW passed through that area, but I know they absorbed the Winona & Southwestern Railroad.  There is quite a bit of that old W&SW roadbed still intact in what remains rather wild country.  There are many cuts and fills, with some cuts through solid rock.  It is private property, but if you could get permission, it would be interesting to explore it.  The site of the two Bear Creek Trestles is fairly intact (at least it was ten years ago.)  Check out the winter 2000, Volume 27, Number 1 issue of North Western Lines for an extensive article on the W&SW.