CHICAGO AND NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY, popularly known as eThe North Western Line,* a system operated by a company of the same name in Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Minnesota, North Da kota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
The Company was organized 6 June 1859 to take over the property of the Chi cago, Saint Paul and Fond du Lac Railroad Company, sold under a fcrreclosure of 2 June 1859. The Chicago, Saint Paul and Fond du Lac Railroad Company had been organized 31 March 1855, to consolidate the Rock River Val ley Union Railroad Company with the Illinois and Wisconsin Railroad Company, the latter chartered 12 Feb. 1857 to build a railroad north to the Illinois State line, and to consolidate with any railroad in Wisconsin. The Rock River Valley Union Railroad Company, so named 9 Feb. 1850, was previously the Madison and Beloit Railroad, chartered by the legislature of Wisconsin 19 Aug. 1848; it was leased in 1854 by the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad Company which had been incorporated by the State of Illinois, 16 Jan. 1836, to construct a railroad from Chicago to Galena, and lateral lines as they might deem advisable to unite with those of any other railroad company. The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad Company began to build their road in 1847, and their Chicago to Freeport section is the earliest built portion of what now constitutes thereat Chi cago and North Western System. The Chi cago, Saint Paul and Fond du Lac Railroad Company, involved in the great financial panic of 1857, became bankrupt in 1859, and its re organization as the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company was authorized by the legis latures of Illinois and Wisconsin.
Operation, Equipment, extensions and by the acquisition of other railroads, chief of these undertakings being the grand consolida tion with the Galena and Chicago Union Rail road Company (1864), the Madison Extension (1871), the Menomonee Extension (1882), the Elroy Route (1875), the Fort Pierre Extension (1882), the acquisition of the Iowa lines (1884), the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad Company (1903), of the Manitowoc, Green Bay and Northwestern Railway (1909), the Milwaukee, Sparta and Northwestern Rail way (1912), and the Saint Louis, Peoria and Northwestern Railway (1913), the Chicago and North Western Railway Company was operating, 30 June 1915, 8,107.82 miles of railroad. Of this it owned 7,946.12 miles, leased 82.93 miles and had 76.78 miles of trackage rights on branches of the Union Pacific Railroad, the Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha and other railroads. Of the total mileage 2,170.03 are located in Wisconsin, 1,633.14 in Iowa, 1,102.05 in Nebraska, 1,063.15 in South 824.53 in Illinois, 519.88 in Michigan, 650.30 in Minnesota, 130.46 in Wyoming and 14.28 in North Dakota. In addition to the above the company had in operation 1,106.32 miles of second, third and fourth main tracks, and 3,406.53 miles of sidings and yard tracks, making a total mileage of all tracks both owned and operated of 12,620.77. The operating divi sions of the system are: Wisconsin Division, 348.46 miles; Northern Wisconsin Division, 332.72 miles; -Galena Division, 414.81 miles; Southern Illinois Division 202.17 miles; East Iowa Division, 346.66 miles; West Iowa Divi sion, 222.80 miles; Iowa and Minnesota Divi sion, 335.99 miles; Northern Iowa Division, 383.57 miles; Sioux City Division, 456.70 miles;
Madison Division, 696.01 miles; Lake Shore Division, 381.35 miles; Ashland Division, 673.73 miles; Peninsula Division, 464.44 miles; Minnesota Division, 499.:.: miles; Dakota Divi sion, 841.85 miles; Eastern Division, 897.41 miles; Black Hills Division, 609.27 miles. In addition the Chicago and North Western Rail way Company owns a majority of the capital stock of the Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway Company, and has con tracts and agreements with other railroad com panies as follows: With the Chicago, Bur lington and Quincy, securing to that company the joint use of the bridge over the Mississippi River at Clinton, Iowa, at an annual rental of $20,000; with the same company and the Chi cago, Rock Island and Pacific, giving them joint use with this company of certain sidings in Council Bluffs, Iowa; with the Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha, providing for joint running arrangements between Chicago and Saint Paul, and divisions of earnings upon a pro rata per mile, with the Chicago Great Western Railroad; granting that company the joint use of certain tracks and buildings in Zumbrota, Minn., with the Union Pacific Rail road Company, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, the Oregon Short Line Railroad Com pany and the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company, providing for the establishment of a through route between Chicago and the Pacific Coast, and with the Chicago, Saint Paul, Minne apolis and Omaha Railroad, and Northern Pacific Railroad companies, providing for the establishment of a through route between Chi cago and Northwest Pacific Coast points in Oregon and Washington.
The rolling stock on 30 June 1915 com prised 1,840 locomotives, 1,959 passenger cars, 68,242 freight cars, and 3,626 work cars, including 4 rotary snow plows. The total operating revenues for the year were $80,779, 675, comprising freight, $51,923,860; passenger, $20,528,443; other transportation, $6,694,249; incidental, $1,633,121. The operating expenses amounted to 69.78 per cent of the operating revenues or $56,371,573, leaving a net revenue from railway operations of $24,408,102. This, less railway tax accruals, 5.59 per cent of operating revenue amounting to $4,516,943, and uncollectable railway revenues, $7,254, left a railway operating income of $19,883,904. A non-operating income from rentals, dividends, funded and unfunded securities, etc., of $2 999, made a gross income of $22,683,904.Cth deductions from gross income, rental payments, interest on funded debt, etc., $10,769,855, and the disposition of net income in sinking funds $204,053, and dividends 8 per cent on preferred stock and 7 per cent on common stock — total appropriations, $11,103,668— the balance income for the year was $810,380. Of the operating expenses for the current fiscal year, $32,920,365 or 58.40 per cent was paid employees for labor. The outstanding funded debt which had been decreased during the year by $4,298,000 was, on 30 June 1915, $210,581,000. The Company's authorized capital stock is $200,000, 00 of which the following had been issued to 30 June 1915: Common stock aid scrip held by the public, $130,117,028; common stock and scrip owned by the company, $2,338,502; preferred stock and scrip held by the public, $22,395,120; preferred stock and scrip owned by the compny, $3,834; total capital stock and scrip, $154,854,485.