CNW Freight and Commuter WB at River Forest

CNW 1575 leads a evening freight out of CNW's North Fond du Lac yard in March of 1973. Only the CNW could do a consist like this, a GP7, 2 rebuilt ex-Katy Baldwins, and a FM H16-66 Baby Trainmaste... (more)

Tom Golden photo.

CNW 1385 is seen bringing the circus train through Duval. Tom Golden photo.

The "Zito Yellow" was first introduced on the CNW 5500s in 1981. Due to the poor paint in Pantone 102C yellow, a lot of units faded or changed colors. The first two orders of C40s came i... (more)

A westbound hopper train approaches Nevada on the CNW double main line through Iowa. The train is less than 25 miles from the next crew change point at Boone, Iowa. The Zito yellow Dash 8 trailing... (more)

A loaded coal train just left the mainline at Nevada and now is a few miles into the travels up the Spineline. The train will pass under the mainline right behind me as they work to Mason City and... (more)

A pair of CNW Dash 8s rolls coal east for Chicago. The train is about 60 miles west of Clinton as they approach Mechanicsville. Note the westbound main still has stick rail in it. The CNW bought t... (more)

I got a few photos of this K-line stacker in the afternoon across Iowa in the early 90s. This must have been somewhat of a normal train in the CNW days. Here the stacker cuts the yard in half as t... (more)

Spent many days as a young man down at Beverly watching the CNW. The days of left-hand running and running like hell are long gone. Back in 1991, the sun came out for a couple of westbounds. Here ... (more)

Back in 1993, the Cedar River flooded out the CNW mainline around Cedar Rapids. Mainline trains ended up making the slow 8.6-mile trek through downtown Cedar Rapids for a few days on the once orig... (more)

How high is the water, Momma? Everybody fought high water in 1993. Crazy detours and disruptions were the name of the game in late spring. Here the Cedar River is up to the bridge as a westbou... (more)

There are a lot of whys on this one. I don't remember why the Iowa Northern ran the CNW business train northbound out of Cedar Rapids. The next question is why I didn't chase it or at least get on... (more)

A westbound hopper passes through Belle Plaine during a good Midwest snowstorm. Belle Plaine is located on the Clinton Sub 117 miles west of the Mississippi River at Clinton. Scanned negative ... (more)

Oelwein was nicknamed Hub City from the Chicago Great Western, which came to town in 1892. Around 1900 the railroad built major car and locomotive shops in Oelwein. Over 1,000 people were employed... (more)