Burlington Route history begins with the Aurora Branch Railroad, chartered on Feb. 12, 1849, to build a line from Aurora, Ill., to a connection with the Galena & Chicago Union (forerunner of the Chicago & North Western) at Turner Junction (West Chicago). Service began with G&CU’s first locomotive, the Pioneer.
In 1852 the road was renamed the Chicago & Aurora Railroad and received authority to build to Mendota, Ill., where it would connect with the Illinois Central. On Feb. 14, 1855, it was again renamed, becoming the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.
That same year a railroad was opened between Galesburg and the east bank of the Mississippi opposite Burlington, Iowa; a year later a string of railroads, including the CB&Q, linked Chicago with Quincy, Ill., via Galesburg. A Galesburg-Peoria line was opened in 1857. By 1865 the CB&Q had acquired all these lines, built its own line from Aurora to Chicago, and had undergone several consolidations to become the corporation that would endure until the Burlington Northern merger in 1970.
Beyond the Mississippi
West of the Mississippi expansion proceeded on two fronts. The Hannibal & St. Joseph, chartered in 1847, began operation between its namesake cities in 1859. A short spur to a point opposite Quincy and a steamboat across the Mississippi created the first railroad from Chicago to the Missouri River. The Burlington & Missouri River Railroad began construction in 1855 at Burlington, Iowa, and followed an old Indian trail (later U. S. Route 34) straight across Iowa — slowly. Not until Nov. 26, 1869, did it reach the east bank of the Missouri River opposite Plattsmouth, Neb. (Chicago & North Western reached Council Bluffs in 1867 and the Rock Island got there on May 11, 1869.) By then CB&Q had bridged the Mississippi at Burlington and Quincy, both in 1868, and the Missouri in 1869 at Kansas City, as part of a line from Cameron, on the Hannibal & St. Joseph, to Kansas City.
The Burlington, in the form of the Burlington & Missouri River Rail Road In Nebraska, pushed beyond the Missouri River to Lincoln, Neb., in 1870. It acquired the Omaha & South Western for access to Omaha and built west from Lincoln to a junction with the Union Pacific at Kearney. The road began a colonization program to increase the population along its lines and to sell off the lands it had been granted. CB&Q provided financial backing for the two B&MR (Iowa and Nebraska) companies and directors for their boards. Meanwhile the CB&Q was acquiring branch lines in Illinois and upgrading its plant: double track, steel rail to replace iron, and iron bridges to replace wood.
Jay Gould acquired control of the Hannibal & St. Joseph in 1871, and friction began to develop among the railroads in the Burlington family over such matters as routing of connecting traffic to and from the Union Pacific. To begin unifying the system, CB&Q leased the B&MR in 1872 and merged it in 1875. Gould gained control of Union Pacific in 1875 and then in quick succession got the Kansas Pacific (Kansas City-Denver), the Wabash (and extended it to Council Bluffs), and the Missouri Pacific. Burlington’s Nebraska lines were surrounded by Gould lines, and the Wabash would be likely to get the largest share of eastbound traffic from the UP. In summer 1880 the CB&Q consolidated with the B&MR, acquired the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs, opened a bridge over the Missouri at Plattsmouth, and began an extension west to Denver, completed in May 1882.
In May 1883 the Q regained control of the Hannibal & St. Joseph and soon found itself with increased competition in the Chicago-Kansas City market: Milwaukee Road in 1887 and Santa Fe in 1888.
Extensions and potential merger
In 1882 the growth of the Pacific Northwest and the construction of the Northern Pacific and the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba (later the Great Northern) prompted the Burlington to consider building a line up the east bank of the Mississippi River to St. Paul. The line would be 25 miles longer than the Milwaukee Road and Chicago & North Western lines between Chicago and the St. Paul, but the grades would be easier. The Q extended its Chicago & Iowa line west to Savanna; the Chicago, Burlington & Northern (the Q owned one-third of its stock) built the line along the river. It was opened in 1886. Considerable friction ensued between parent and child: The CB&N wanted to cut rates to secure business, and the CB&Q knew that retaliation by the Milwaukee and the North Western would be directed at CB&Q systemwide, not just at the CB&N. The matter was eventually settled when CB&Q increased its CB&N holdings in 1890 and absorbed the road in 1899.
Over the years the Burlington considered extension to the Pacific coast and merger with nearly every other railroad. Between 1883 and 1886 it made surveys west of Denver but did no construction. The arrival at Pueblo of the Missouri Pacific in 1887 and the Rock Island in 1888 (on trackage rights from Colorado Springs) put the Burlington at a competitive disadvantage. The Rio Grande received the same amount for moving freight from Salt Lake City to Pueblo as it did from Salt Lake City through Pueblo to Denver (the Dotsero Cutoff was still nearly five decades in the future). Naturally Rio Grande preferred to interchange at Pueblo — it received nothing additional for the 119-mile haul from Pueblo to Denver.
There was thought of the Burlington’s acquiring James J. Hill’s St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba and vice versa. The CB&Q considered a merger with the Pennsylvania; the two roads purchased interests in the Toledo, Peoria & Western. In 1893 the Burlington looked eagerly at the Oregon Short Line and Oregon Railway & Navigation Co. when their parent, Union Pacific, was in receivership. Other merger partners considered were Northern Pacific, Yazoo & Mississippi Valley, Missouri-Kansas-Texas, Chicago Great Western, Denver & Rio Grande, Kansas City Southern, Minneapolis & St. Louis, Chicago & Eastern Illinois, and St. Louis-San Francisco. With one exception the Q was content for a while to stay within its boundaries, marked by corner stakes at Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Omaha, Galesburg, and St. Paul. That exception was a line opened in 1894 from Alliance, Neb., northwest through the coalfields of eastern Wyoming to Billings, Mont.
Merger, eventually
Perhaps the most important event in the Burlington’s history was the purchase effective July 1, 1901, of nearly 98% of its stock jointly by the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific. James J. Hill, builder of the Great Northern, saw in the Burlington the connection he needed from St. Paul to Chicago — the Chicago & North Western was largely held by the New York Central, and the Milwaukee Road refused to consider the matter. At the same time Edward H. Harriman realized that the Burlington could bring his Union Pacific to Chicago from Omaha. Burlington recognized it would be better off with the northern lines because of their on-line resources of coal and lumber, both lacking on the Union Pacific-Southern Pacific route to San Francisco. The battle for control was brief and intense. Control of the Burlington essentially moved from Boston to St. Paul. That same year, Hill, with the backing of J.P. Morgan, his banker, acquired control of Northern Pacific. The next logical step was merger of the three railroads, a process that took 69 years of off-and-on petitioning, protesting, and arguing.
The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad was leased to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway for 99 years on Sept. 30, 1901; that lease lasted until June 30, 1907, when the railroad resumed its own management. The Railroad and Railway companies had several officers and directors in common. Of the railway company during those years Moody’s railroad manual simply says, “The company has decided not to issue a report.”
In 1908 the Burlington acquired control of the Colorado & Southern, gaining a route from Denver to the Gulf of Mexico at Galveston, Texas, and a route from Denver north into Wyoming. CB&Q extended a line down from Billings, Mont., to meet the C&S in 1914. Other extensions were to the coalfields of southern Illinois and across the Ohio River to Paducah, Ky., and a line from Ashland, Neb., north to a connection with the Great Northern at Sioux City, Iowa, in 1916.
The Burlington’s growth leveled off during the 1920s. In 1930 the ICC authorized merger of Great Northern and Northern Pacific on the condition that they relinquish control of the Burlington; GN and NP withdrew their merger application in 1931 in favor of retaining joint control of the Q.
Zephyr years of Burlington Route history
The year 1932 saw the beginning of two significant projects: the Rio Grande’s Dotsero Cutoff, which would give Denver a direct rail line west, and Burlington’s order for a stainless-steel streamlined train from the Budd Co. The cutoff opened June 16, 1934. The Zephyr, the country’s first diesel-powered streamliner, was delivered in April 1934 and was prophetically the first train to traverse the Dotsero Cutoff.
A whole family of Zephyrs soon appeared on Burlington rails. In 1939 the Burlington teamed up with Rio Grande and Western Pacific to operate a through passenger train between Chicago and San Francisco via the Dotsero Cutoff — the Exposition Flyer. In 1945 Burlington built the first Vista-Dome coach. These elements achieved their ultimate synthesis in 1949 with the inauguration of the Vista-Dome-equipped California Zephyr, operated between Chicago and San Francisco by the Burlington, the Rio Grande, and the Western Pacific. The route was longer and slower than that of the competition, but the schedule took advantage of the scenery. The train was an immediate success and remained so through its life.
The Q was still aware of the shortcomings of its Chicago-Kansas City route across northern Missouri (the 1902 purchase of the Quincy, Omaha & Kansas City Railroad, a circuitous secondary line between Quincy and Kansas City, largely abandoned in 1939, appears to have been an act of mercy on the Burlington’s part). The Burlington first proposed a four-way deal that would give Santa Fe a route to St. Louis; Gulf, Mobile & Ohio a route of its own to Chicago (Q president Ralph Budd had been a member of the board of directors of GM&O predecessor Gulf, Mobile & Northern); and the foundering Alton a good home. GM&O would get the Alton, less its St. Louis-Kansas City line, which didn’t fit into GM&O’s north-south pattern; Burlington would take that line and swap trackage rights into St. Louis to the Santa Fe for a shortcut across Missouri on Santa Fe’s main line.
The other roads serving St. Louis protested. GM&O merged the Alton, but the rest of the plan did not come to fruition. In the early 1950s Burlington built a new line across Missouri and coupled it with Wabash trackage rights to shorten its Chicago-Kansas City route by 22 miles. The line was further improved in 1960 with a new bridge at Quincy.
Merger with Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and Spokane, Portland & Seattle (jointly owned by GN and NP) was proposed once again in 1960 and finally became reality on March 2, 1970, with the creation of Burlington Northern, thus ending Burlington Route history
