page_title: Chicago and North Western Transportation Company
section_title: Operations
hierarchical_section_title: Chicago and North Western Transportation Company / Additional notes / Operations
caption_attribution_description: Photo of the North Western Railway's Wood Street freight facility, which was once known as the "potato yard". Potatoes came to this yard from all points in the United States to be bought, sold or traded by dealers and brokers. While it was called the "potato yard", other vegetables were also bought and traded there. The boxcars shown in the photo primarily contain potatoes.
context_page_description: The Chicago and North Western Transportation Company was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than 5,000 miles of track as of the turn of the 20th century, and over 12,000 miles of track in seven states before retrenchment in the late 1970s. Until 1972, when the employees purchased the company, it was named the Chicago and North Western Railway.
  The C&NW became one of the longest railroads in the United States as a result of mergers with other railroads, such as the Chicago Great Western Railway, Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway and others. By 1995, track sales and abandonment had reduced the total mileage to about 5,000. The majority of the abandoned and sold lines were lightly trafficked branches in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Large line sales, such as those that resulted in the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad, further helped reduce the railroad to a mainline core with several regional feeders and branches. Union Pacific purchased the company in April 1995 and integrated it with its own operation.
context_section_description: The CNW was known for running on the left-hand side when running on double track mainlines. In the United States, most railroads used the right-hand track along double-track mainlines, while left-hand running was more common in countries where British companies built the railroads. According to a display in the Lake Forest station, the reason for this was a combination of chance and inertia. When originally built as single-line trackage, the C&NW arbitrarily placed its stations on the left-hand side of the tracks (when headed inbound toward Chicago). Later, when a second track was added, it was placed on the side away from the stations so as not to force them to relocate. Since most passengers waiting at the stations were headed toward Chicago, the inbound track remained the one closest to the station platforms. The expense of reconfiguring signals and switches has prevented a conversion to right-hand operation ever since.
  The Chicago and North Western was known for its installation of Western Railroad Supply Company wigwag signals at many of its crossing in the 1920–1940s.  Almost every town on their route had at least the main crossing in town protected by them. The most common style were the Center Harp shorties. They were almost iconic to the CNW. Many of them, which were grandfathered in after the Federal Railroad Administration ruled them inadequate protection in 1949, survived until the 1970s and a few remain on lines in Wisconsin that have been sold off to other railroads.  Lack of available parts and upgrades to roads have replaced all but a few of them.
  The railroad operated what was once the largest "potato yard" or potato market, at its Chicago Wood Street yards.  Potatoes came to the yard from every point in the United States to be bought or traded by produce dealers and brokers.  While the facility came to be known as the "potato yard", it was also a site where other vegetables could be bought, sold or traded.
caption: The Wood Street "potato yard" in 1959 with boxcars filled with potatoes.
exif: {}