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The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad 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 Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad began operation in the 1840s by running a single passenger lashup over recycled rails from Aurora to Chicago. However, within the next three years, the railroad was able to expand into the true namesake - holding trackage extending through the cities of Chicago, Burlington, Quincy, and Aurora. The CB&Q became well known as one of the finest "granger roads" or a railroad which served agricultural areas, often through smaller branch trackage. In 1849, the Burlington Route staged its last spike ceremony. Before that, they had been operating to whatever the current end of trackage was.

With a steady acquisition of locomotives, cars, equipment, and trackage, the Burlington Route was able to enter the trade markets in 1862. As of this year, that railroad has been the only Class I US railroad to constantly pay dividends and never run into debt or default on a loan.

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&St.J) in Missouri. The first Railway Post Office was inaugurated on the H&St.J 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 E. 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.

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.

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. The CB&Q began dieselization with the General Motors Electro-Motive-Division equipment, whose major manufacturing and assembly plant was in McCook, Illinois, convinently just south of the CB&Q triple track main-line at LaGrange, Illinois. By 1959, dieselization was complete with the last steam trains retiring from regular service over the Q.

As the financial situation of American railroading continued to decline through the 1960s, the Burlington merged with the Great Northern, Northern Pacific and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle railroads on March 2, 1970 to form the Burlington Northern Railroad.

The Burlington Zephyrs

The railroad operated a number of streamlined passenger trains known as the Zephyrs which were the most famous and largest fleet of streamliners in the United States. The Pioneer Zephyr, America's first diesel-electric powered streamlined passenger train, made its famous "Dawn-to-Dusk" run from Denver, Colorado to Chicago, Illinois on May 26, 1934. On November 11, 1934 the train was put into regularly scheduled service between Lincoln, Nebraska and Kansas City, Missouri. Although the distinctive, articulated stainless steel trainsets were well known, and the railroad adopted the "Way of the Zephyrs" slogan, they did not attract passengers back to the rails, and the last one stopped running with the advent of Amtrak.

The Zephyr service included

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad".

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