{"id":2374,"date":"2013-05-05T06:02:50","date_gmt":"2013-05-05T10:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=2374"},"modified":"2013-05-05T06:02:51","modified_gmt":"2013-05-05T10:02:51","slug":"chicago-north-westerns-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/chicago-north-westerns-last-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago & North Western\u2019s Last Year."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Images of the Midwestern Railroad Final Days.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"C&NW<\/a>
Historic Chicago & North Western herald on the side of a HyRail truck in Spring 1995.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s been nearly 18 years since Union Pacific absorbed the Chicago & North Western system. I was fortunate to have been in position to photograph C&NW in its final year of independence.<\/p>\n

C&NW\u2019s busiest route was its largely double-track Chicago-Council Bluffs mainline. Yet, long before C&NW was formally merged with UP, this route had functioned as an eastward extension of UP\u2019s east-west mainline. In the early 1990s, many trains operated with UP run-through locomotives.<\/p>\n

\"C&NW<\/a>
C&NW was famous for left-hand running. An eastward C&NW freight crosses the Burlington Northern diamonds at Rochelle, Illinois<\/a> on the morning of April 2, 1995. Nikon F3T with Nikkor f4 200mm lens, Kodachrome<\/a> 25 slide film.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"C&NW<\/a>
On April 23, 1995. a pair of C&NW General Electric DASH8-40Cs lead a westward freight on Arcadia Hill in western, Iowa. Nikon F3T with f1.8 105mm lens, Kodachrome 25 film.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I found C&NW\u2019s\u00a0 surviving secondary lines even more photogenic. Yet, these lines represented just a shadow of C&NW\u2019s once sprawling empire. Many routes had been fragmented or abandoned. Once busy secondary mainlines, served as little more than lightly served freight feeders. Several C&NW operations had been physically isolated from its core network, with the railroad relying on haulage arrangements in place of its own lines.<\/p>\n

\"C&NW<\/a>
A pair of C&NW GP7s work the Jefferson Junction local on the evening of April 19, 1995. Jefferson Junction, Wisconsin<\/a> was once the crossing of two important secondary routes, but by this late date it was effectively served as a branch from the Adams Cutoff via Clyman Junction. Nikon F3T with 35mm PC (shift) lens, Kodachrome 25 slide film.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"C&NW<\/a>
C&NW hoppers at Jefferson Junction Wisconsin on April 19, 1995 .<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

C&NW held onto its identity into its last days. Its historic herald was still proudly displayed on equipment and infrastructure. Vestiges of its former greatness survived as visual cues to an earlier era. So its final year, C&NW retained these threads of corporate continuity. While the appearance of C&NW continued for a while under Union Pacific operation, once it was part of the UP system, these threads were less meaningful.<\/p>\n

I made roughly a thousand C&NW images between June 1994 and May 1995 (UP\u2019s intended merger date in late April 1995 was ultimately postponed a few weeks, despite reports to the contrary). These are just a sampling of those efforts.<\/p>\n

\"C&NW<\/a><\/p>\n

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