Chicago & North Western 4-4-2 1316, a high-wheeled class D from the first decade of the 20th century — is at Glen Ellyn, Ill., with a train for Chicago in February 1944. It’s 5 degrees below zero, making for a lively display of condensing steam. Robert Nicholls photo
Chicago & North Western class D 4-4-2 395 and 4-6-2 647 head west through a cut at Wales, Wis., with an excursion train on a triangular Chicago–Milwaukee–Madison–Chicago routing in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo
Northern No. 3008, photographed in 1929, illustrates the 4-8-4 H class as delivered, with spoked drivers and banjo frame at the rear. A. W. Johnson photo
A late-running train No. 6, heavy with mail and express, speeds eastward near DeKalb, Ill., in 1949. The engine is H-1 4-8-4 No. 3014. Classic Trains collection
The E3 introduced the slanted nose used through the E6. This is Chicago & North Western No. 5002. EMD photo
C&NW Sunday local 223, with its RDCs (9935, 9934, and 9933), arrives at Milwaukee on Feb. 7, 1954. Jim Scribbins photo
Late-model Fairbanks-Morse H16-66 No. 1902 displays its as-built paint scheme. C&NW served the FM plant in Beloit, Wis. Fairbanks-Morse photo
The C&NW bought 22 EMD GP30s in 1963. Many went to the Fox River Valley upon its 1989 startup. EMD photo
The second unit in this Chicago & North Western consist is an Alco RS2 converted to a slug (note the blanked cab windows). C&NW concentrated its Alco power in South Dakota and Minnesota in later years earning the Rapid City main the nickname “Alco Line.” J. David Ingles photos
Fans rejoice as 4-6-0 No. 1385 eases into Port Washington on one of its many trips in the 1980s. J. David Ingles photo, Brian M. Schmidt collection
Chicago & North Western kept a fleet of F units in executive train service, appropriately numbered in the 400 series. Here, No. 402 brings the Circus World train through St. Francis on Milwaukee’s south side in July 1989.
GE C44-9W No. 8646 passes light through Rochelle, Ill., in 2012 to pick up a train at Union Pacific’s Global III yard west of town. Brian M. Schmidt photo
In the steam age, most Chicago & North Western locomotives burned coal, but those assigned to divisions west of the Missouri River were oil burners; in addition, the four Pacifics rebuilt for the 400s were converted to oil. One group of light Pacifics was fitted with special grates for burning lignite, a low-grade coal.
Until 1907 the North Western usually did not assign continuous blocks of numbers to groups of locomotives but reused numbers of locomotives that had been retired or scrapped. Photographs show that the 91 Atlantics of the D class, for example, carried random numbers between 152 and 1317. Such a practice confuses historians and can’t have made the job of the motive power superintendent any easier.
May 10, 1956, saw C&NW’s last steam-powered commuter train. A few small steam locomotives remained in service through the summer of 1956, but by fall dieselization was complete.
The Chicago & North Western dieselized with a wide variety of first-generation locomotives, but continued to rebuild older steam locomotives through 1949. Dieselization was complete in 1956. In the 1960s the C&NW began acquiring new second- and third-generation EMDs and GEs along with a fleet of rebuilt locomotives of its own as well as many acquired secondhand.
Into the 1950s, the C&NW had owned a majority of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha (the Omaha Road). The Omaha Road largely operated as a separate company until 1957, including its own locomotives (albeit in a shared paint scheme but with CMO sublettering), but in 1957 the C&NW leased the CStPM&O, ending its independence. The North Western officially merged the Omaha Road in 1972. The North Western merged several other railroads, acquiring their locomotive fleets, including the Litchfield & Madison (1958), Minneapolis & St. Louis (1960), and Chicago Great Western (1968). The C&NW itself lost its identity when it was purchased by (and became part of) Union Pacific in 1995.
The C&NW’s diesel fleet features complicated numbering, with many numbers used multiple times as locomotives left the roster and were replaced by others (including locomotives bought new or acquired used or through mergers). This wasn’t helped as many early diesels were numbered in sequence as they were acquired, leading to multiple number groups of the same model type separated by other types.
