Cheyenne and Northern Railway

The Cheyenne and Northern Railway was an American railroad in the state of Wyoming, incorporated in 1886 to carry a line north from Cheyenne toward northern Wyoming and Montana. It was built as a locally created company, an arrangement suggested by cattleman Thomas Sturgis, so that the Union Pacific could absorb it later without stirring up local dislike of the larger railroad. Over about a year and a half it laid 125 miles of track to Wendover on the North Platte River, and then construction stopped when its investors lost interest in pushing further north. Union Pacific took over the line in 1887 and extended it slightly to Orin, where it met the Wyoming Central line. The company was folded into the Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf Railway in 1890, and its route later became part of the Colorado and Southern Railway.