Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy Railroad - (en)
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (AAR reporting marks CBQ) was
a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly
referred to as the Burlington or as the Q, the railroad served a large
area, including extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois,
Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Its primary
connections included Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Kansas City
and Denver. Because of this extensive tracking in the midwest and mountain
states the Q used the slogans "Everywhere West," "Way of
the Zephyrs," and "The Way West."
History
The earliest forefather of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, the Aurora
Branch Railroad, was chartered by act of the Illinois General Assembly on
October 2, 1848. The citizens of Aurora and Batavia, Illinois, did this
out of concern for Galena and Chicago Union Railroad bypassing their towns
in favor of West Chicago on its route, which, at the time, was the only
line running west from Chicago. The Aurora Branch was henceforth built
from Aurora, through Batavia, to Turner Junction in what is now West
Chicago. Using a leased locomotive and cars, old strap rail, and minimal,
if any, grading, the AB eventually began running passenger and freight
trains from Aurora to Chicago by running its trains from Aurora to Turner
and then using one of the G&CU's two tracks east from there to
Chicago. 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.
In 1862, the line from Aurora to Chicago, built through the fledgling
towns of Naperville, Downers Grove, Hinsdale, Berwyn, and the west side of
Chicago, was opened and passenger and freight service began. Regular
commuter train service started in 1863 and remains operational to this
day, making it the oldest surviving regular passenger service in Chicago.
Both the original Chicago line, and to a much lesser extent, the old
Aurora Branch right of way, are still in regular use today by the Q's
descendant BNSF Railway.
With a steady acquisition of locomotives, cars, equipment, and trackage,
the Burlington Route was able to enter the trade markets in 1862. As of
that year, that railroad has been the only Class I U.S. railroad to
constantly pay dividends and never run into debt or default on a loan.
After extensive trackwork was planned,the Aurora Branch changed its name
to the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and shortly reached its two
other namesake cities, Burlington, Iowa and Quincy, Illinois. In 1868 the
CB&Q completed bridges over the Mississippi River both at Burlington,
Iowa and Quincy, Illinois giving the railroad through connections with the
Burlington and Missouri River Railroad (B&MR) in Iowa and the Hannibal
& St. Joseph Railroad (H&StJ) in Missouri. The first Railway Post
Office was inaugurated on the H&StJ to sort mail on the trains way
across Missouri, passing the mail to the Pony Express upon reaching the
Missouri River at St. Joseph, Missouri. The B&MR continued building
westward into Nebraska as a separate company, the Burlington &
Missouri River Rail Road in Nebraska, founded in 1869. During the summer
of 1870 it reached Lincoln, the newly designated capital of Nebraska and
by 1872 it reached Kearney, Nebraska. That same year the B&MR across
Iowa was absorbed by the CB&Q. By the time the Missouri River bridge
at Plattsmouth, Nebraska was completed the B&MR in Nebraska was well
on its way to the Mile High city of Denver, Colorado. That same year, the
Nebraska B&MR was purchased by the CB&Q which completed the line
to Denver by 1882, the first direct rail line from Chicago to Denver.
Burlington's rapid expansion after the Civil War was based upon sound
financial management, dominated by John Murray Forbes of Boston and
assisted by Charles Elliott Perkins. 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.
Ultimately, Perkins' believed the Burlington must be included into a
powerful transcontinental system. Though the Burlington reached as far
west as Denver, Colorado and Billings, Montana, it had failed to reach the
Pacific Coast during the cheaper building years of the 1880s and 1890s.
Though approached by E.H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad, Perkins'
felt the Burlington was a more natural fit with James J. Hill's Great
Northern Railway. With its river line to the Twin Cities, the Burlington
formed a natural connection between Hill's home town (and headquarters) of
St. Paul, Minnesota, and the all-important American railroad hub of
Chicago. Moreover, Hill was willing to meet Perkins' $200-a-share asking
price for the Burlington's stock. By 1900, Hill's Great Northern, in
conjunction with the Northern Pacific Railway, held nearly 100 percent of
the Burlington's stock.
In 1901 a rebuffed Harriman tried to gain an indirect influence over the
Burlington by launching a stock raid on the Northern Pacific. Though Hill
managed to fend off this attack on his nascent system, it led to the
creation of the Northern Securities Company, and later, the U.S. Supreme
Court's Northern Securities Decision.
With the First World War having the same effect on the Burlington as on
all other railroads, during the 1920s the Burlington Route had an
increasingly heavy amount of equipment flooding the yards. With the advent
of the Great Depression, the CB&Q held a good portion of this for
scrap. Despite the decrease of passengers, it was during this time that
the Q introduced the famed Zephyrs.
As early as 1897, the Q had been interested in alternatives to steam
power, namely, internal-combustion engines. The Aurora Shops had built a
clumsy and totally unreliable three-horsepower distillate motor in that
year, but it was hugely impractical (requiring a massive 6,000-pound
flywheel) and had issues with overheating (even with the best metals of
the day, its cylinder heads and liners would warp and melt in a matter of
minutes) and was therefore impractical. Diesel engines of that era were
obese, stationary monsters best suited for low-speed, continuous operation.
None of that would do in a railroad locomotive; however, there was no
diesel engine suitable for that purpose then.
Always innovating, the Q both purchased "doodlebug" gas-electric
combine cars from Electro-Motive Corporation and built their own, sending
them out to do the jobs of a steam locomotive and a single car. With good
success in that field, and after having purchased and tried a pair of
General Electric steeple-cab switchers powered by distillate engines, Q
president Ralph Budd requested of the Winton Engine Company a light,
powerful diesel engine that could stand the rigors of continuous,
unattended daily service. 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."
Ralph Budd, accused of gambling on diesel power, chirped that "I knew
that the GM people were going to see the program through to the very end.
Actually, I wasn't taking a gamble at all." The manifestation of this
gamble was the eight-cylinder Winton 8-201A diesel, a creature no larger
than a small Dumpster, that powered the Burlington Zephyr on its record
run and opened the door for developing the long line of diesel engines
that has powered Electro-Motive locomotives for the past seventy years.
After the Second World War, the CB&Q was inundated by the overworked
steam locomotives existent in a fleet that was already beginning to
dieselize. Having expanded its dieselization program rapidly, steam power
was slowly put out to pasture, and on September 28, 1959, the last
steam-powered commuter train from Chicago rolled to a stop in Downers
Grove, marking the end of the steam era on the CB&Q.
As the financial situation of American railroading continued to decline
through the 1960s, the Burlington merged with the Great Northern Railway,
Northern Pacific and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle railroads on March
2, 1970 to form the Burlington Northern Railroad, a merger once dreamed of
by Great Northern founder James J. Hill.
