The C&NW abandoned the former CGW in segments on the Chicago-Oelwein route. The first portion to be abandoned was the stretch from Stockton, IL westward through Winston Tunnel down the CB&Q connection at Galena Junction. That would have been in 1972 or so. The C&NW Historical Society had an issue that dealt with Winston Tunnel a few years ago and they stated that the last train through the tunnel was on October 31, 1971. At that time a local ran out of Stockton over to get a couple of cars off the CB&Q/BN interchange track at Galena Junction and returned to Stockton.
The next portion to go was likely the Byron-Stockton segment. I don't know exactly when that was taken up, but I think it was around 1974/75 or so.
The Sycamore to Ingleton portion was next--it came up about 1976. The Sycamore-Byron portion was still intact up until 1980 and in use as a means to deliver construction materials to the Com-Ed Byron, IL nuclear plant. That portion was taken up late in 1981. I have a trader slide of a westbound wayfreight coming into Byron, IL from 1971 that was powered by GP7 121 and had four or five boxcars and a caboose--that would have been when the C&NW owned the line of course, but things looked about the same as it would have been in 1968.
For the Sycamore-Byron portion the C&NW would have come up from Dekalb to get onto that segment of the ex-CGW. They would have served Anaconda Wire (probably gondolas and maybe some coiled steel cars). There were grain elevators at nearly every town too--some of them probably still had service during this time. There was one at Sycamore, another just west of town at a spot called Five Points, Clare, Esmond, Lindenwood, Holcomb, Stillman Valley and Byron were probably all still active. Maybe some of these towns got an occasional car-load of lumber too, but most of the traffic was agricultural in nature.
I don't know how often the C&NW would have come up to serve the line, but I'd imagine that they only ran 3 times a weeks at most during the mid-1970s. From shots that I've seen taken by others, the trains were only powered by one or two GP7s/9s and were likely no more than 20 cars.
You might find some more detailed answers if you post this question on the CGW yahoogroup--there are a bunch of knowledgeable fans of the "Corn Belt Route" on there.
Lance
Shortly after the CNW/CGW merger in 1968, the CNW abandoned much of the CGW Chicago line trackage in Illinois and operated the Oelwein to Dubuque portion as a branch line during the 1970's later abandoning it in 1981. Does anyone have any knowledge about operations on this line during the 70's? For example:
The major industries served?
Types of commodities?
Length of trains and how often they ran?
What prompt the CNW the abandon this line? etc...
Thanks,
Jeff
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