Chicago and North Western Railway

The Chicago and North Western Railway, usually shortened to the North Western or C&NW, was an American Class I railroad that served the Midwestern United States for roughly a century and a half. Chartered in 1859 after it bought the assets of the bankrupt Chicago, St. Paul and Fond du Lac Railroad, it absorbed the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, whose 1848 start made it the origin of the system, and later grew through a long run of acquisitions including the Chicago Great Western and the Minneapolis and St. Louis. Its network exceeded twelve thousand miles of track across seven states before late twentieth century retrenchment, after which branch sales and abandonments cut it back to a core main line with regional feeders. Employees bought the company in 1972, and Union Pacific acquired it in 1995 and folded it into its own system.