The Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad name existed from 1856 to 1970, and the Burlington Route is one of the most recognized railroad heralds in the world. The G&CU required the Aurora Branch to turn over 70 percent of their revenue per ton-mile handled on that railroad; as a result, in the mid-1850s, surveys were ordered to determine the best route for a railroad line to Chicago.[3]. The former, acquired by the Forbes Group in 1854, was the first to complete an east-west route across Missouri, opening on February 15, 1859. and connecting lines. A fine folding map and timetable for the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad system, The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad… You will be hard pressed at finding a better online resource regarding diesel locomotives than Craig Rutherford's TheDieselShop.us. This issue, the lack of modernity and innovation, plagued the industry long after World War II. Just type in a town or city and click on the timeline of maps at the bottom of the page! During the road's height it spanned the Midwest and thanks to acquisitions like the Colorado & Southern and Fort Worth & Denver also reached Texas, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Colorado. Included in this lot is a vintage "Burlington Route - Map of the West". The Peoria & Oquawka was completed between Galesburg and East Burlington on March 17, 1855 which was subsequently followed by the Northern Cross opening between Quincy and Galesburg on January 31, 1856. Its biggest acquisition came on December 19, 1908 via the Colorado & Southern Railway. As Mike Schafer and Joe Welsh note in their book, "Streamliners: History Of A Railroad Icon," the railroad placed its order with the Budd Company on June 17, 1933 for a sleek, stainless-steel trainset which was 197-feet long and featured three cars (Railway Post Office, baggage-coach, and coach-parlor observation). Seller 99.7% positive. It maintained an impressive fleet of high-class trains in addition to hosting its allying roads' transcontinental services. The Burlington had long been a prosperous carrier throughout the 19th century and this continued into the 20th. The Burlington Northern Railroad (reporting mark BN) was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. The experiences of developing these engines can be summed up shortly by General Motors Research vice-president Charles Kettering: "I do not recall any trouble with the dip stick." At the end of the year, CB&Q operated 8,538 route-miles, C&S operated 708, and FW&D operated 1362 (these totals may or may not include the former Burlington-Rock Island Railroad). A proposed name for the merger was "The Great Northern, Pacific and Burlington lines". It took about a thousand people just 255 days to build the 114-mile Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad between Edgemont and Deadwood using primitive methods.It took more than 15 years to complete the George S. Mickelson Trail on the same railroad bed due to the need to develop plans, reach consensus and obtain funding. Perkins was a powerful administrator who eventually forged a system out of previously loosely held affiliates, virtually tripling Burlington's size during his presidency from 1881 to 1901. The Burlington was a leader in innovation; among its firsts were use of the printing telegraph (1910), train radio communications (1915), streamlined passenger diesel power (1934) and vista-dome coaches (1945). The former was renamed as the Peoria & Burlington Rail Road before merging with the CB&Q on June 24, 1864; the latter was also renamed, as the Quincy & Chicago, and had joined a few months earlier on April 28th. Its slogan, "Everywhere West," was quite befitting for this classic Midwestern granger. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad (CB&Q) is a transcontinental line, which has as its slogan, ‘Everywhere West’. Today, all of the Burlington's principal lines remain in operation under successor BNSF Railway. By the spring of 1850 grading was underway as crews worked their way south from Turner Junction and on August 22nd tracks had reached Batavia. ", to "Correct map of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Rail Road and its principal connecting lines.". Beyond the great Lone Star State few other major expansions occurred (one notable addition was a new extension connecting the C&S at Orin Junction with the CB&Q's original trackage into Montana at Fromberg, which opened on October 18, 1914). Despite the decrease of passengers, it was during this time that the railroad introduced the famed Zephyrs. The Aurora Branch was built from Aurora, through Batavia, to Turner Junction in what is now West Chicago. With its river line to the Twin Cities, the Burlington Route formed a natural connection between Hill's home town (and headquarters) of St. Paul, Minnesota, and the railroad hub of Chicago. The Burlington Zephyr, the first American diesel-electric powered streamlined passenger train, made its noted "dawn-to-dusk" run from Denver, Colorado, to Chicago, Illinois, on May 26, 1934. As the financial fortunes of Western Pacific waned the train was discontinued in 1970 while the Rio Grande operated its segment as the Rio Grande Zephyr for several years following. Alas, in 2013 the site closed by thankfully Don Strack rescued the data and transferred it over to his UtahRails.net site (another fine resource). See more ideas about burlington, railroad, old trains. The finely managed company was one of the few to never experience a bankruptcy throughout its corporate history. Though approached by E. H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad, Perkins felt his railroad was a more natural fit with James J. Hill's Great Northern Railway. That same year, the Nebraska B&MR was purchased by the CB&Q, which completed the line to Denver by 1882.[9]. It was jointly owned with the Rock Island and originally extended from Cleburne to Mexia before expanding to Houston in 1907, which also included a branch from Teague to Waxahachie. Ultimately, Perkins believed the Burlington Railroad must be included into a powerful transcontinental system. The Burlington was also quite close with the communities it served and highly visible in the public eye. The C&S had been created on December 19, 1898 to take over the bankrupt Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf Railway stretching from Orin Junction, Wyoming to the Texas/New Mexico border via Cheyenne, Denver, and Pueblo. A system map of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy as the railroad appeared circa 1950 operating an 11,000 mile network. Many were pulled up in the 1970's and 1980's although others were removed long before that. A Chicago, Burlington & Quincy company photo featuring new FT's ahead of a string of northbound tankers within the Wind River Canyon of northern Wyoming along the Bighorn River circa 1945. 1930s that railroads would continually need to find better ways of retaining and sustaining business if they were to survive in the modern age of highways and airliners. Greer. Most of this failed predecessor eventually became the Wabash except for a stretch of grading completed north of Quincy. Wes Barris's SteamLocomotive.com is simply the best web resource in the study of steam locomotives. Passenger service was markedly reduced, as people had shifted to using private automobiles for many trips. With an average speed of 78 mph it completed the 1,015-mile trip in just 14 hours, arriving in the Windy City at 7:10 PM later that evening. A settlement would have been much cheaper, but President Perkins was determined to assert ownership rights and destroy the union threat. The train, launched in 1949, traveled through some of the most spectacular scenery in the country. If you are researching active or abandoned corridors you might want to check out the United States Geological Survey's (USGS) Historical Topographic Map Explorer. From that year to date, the railroad and its successors have paid dividends continuously, and never run into debt or defaulted on a loan—the only Class I U.S. railroad for which this is true. In those days, such fledgling operations had extreme difficulty in just getting started, particularly in the case of a local system like the Aurora Branch. With the advent of the Great Depression, the CB&Q held a good portion of this for scrap. The neighboring towns it served would potentially render theirs obsolete. Inscription. The BN lasted only 25 years before merging with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Two other notables included the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad (chartered on February 16, 1847) and the Burlington & Missouri River Rail Road. The complete corporate history of the Burlington could encompass many books and the railroad has already been covered extensively over the years, including its narrow-gauge network in central Colorado. Ironically, its original intention here was not to build east to Chicago but rather west towards, "a point 15 miles north of La Salle...to connect with any railroad to built northward from that town.". Instead, its freight was diversified and included everything from coal (tapped from the Ohio River valley in southern Illinois) to manufactured goods. The transcontinental NP became more than just an interchange partner; the great "Empire Builder," James J. Hill, who was instrumental in finishing the Great Northern added the Northern Pacific to his portfolio in 1899, followed by the Burlington on May 21, 1901. Map of the Burlington Route. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, the official name of the Burlington Route, started from humble beginnings February 12, 1849 in Aurora, Illinois. Some railroads were seemingly destined to become strong, profitable operations. The only major strike in the line's history came in 1888, the Burlington railway strike of 1888. Because of this extensive trackage in the midwest and mountain states, the railroad used the advertising slogans "Everywhere West", "Way of the Zephyrs", and "The Way West". Work on the road proceeded quickly and, via lease, had reached Council Bluffs on January 3, 1870 by way of the St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Rail Road from Pacific Junction. The 1850's were a whirlwind decade that witnessed a great deal of expansion and the official creation of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. The railroad, however, was destined to be merged with its allying roads, a dream James Hill had envisioned since the early 20th century. The railroad pushed further west into Montana, completing a connection with the Northern Pacific at Huntley on October 28th that same year. As the financial situation of American railroading continued to decline through the 1960s, forcing restructuring across the country, the Burlington Railroad merged with the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle railroads on March 2, 1970 to form the Burlington Northern (26 years later, the BN and Santa Fe Railroads merged to become BNSF). With a steady acquisition of locomotives, cars, equipment, and trackage, the Burlington Route was able to enter the trade markets in 1862. Burlington Route Historical Society Database of BRHS Publications Use this keyword search engine to research and explore the rich history of the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad with BRHS' vast collection of publications that contain detail accounts of … Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996. In 1936, the company would become one of the founding members of the Trailways Transportation System, and still provides intercity service to this day as Burlington Trailways.[14][15]. Eventually, an entire fleet graced its rails with names like the Twin Cities Zephyr, Mark Twain Zephyr, Denver Zephyr, and Ozark State Zephyr. Author's collection. , the very same iron horse which had been honored as the first ever to operate out of Chicago on. Cover: Burlington Route USA map. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, or as the Q,[1][2] it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri,Nebraska, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and also in Texas through subsidiaries Colorado and Southern Railway, Fort Worth and Denver Railway, and Burlington-Rock Island Railroad. Using a leased locomotive and cars, the Aurora Branch ran passenger and freight trains from Aurora to Chicago via its own line from Aurora to Turner Junction and one of the G&CU's two tracks east from there to Chicago.