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Well done guys!

My grandfather, Lou Pepin, was the dispatcher working in that tower in the 50s & 60s. We walked up those scary steps many times to watch him work and for the view.❤

This is an awesome story. I’m excited to see the DeKalb line story. I hope you consider other lines like the Rockford Route to Gary or some of the Burlington branch lines or maybe the railroads around Ladd, Illinois. Thanks again.

What a wonderful series. Thanks so much for your efforts

Unfortunately we were part of the kids that would visit the property at night. I refused to ever go inside. I barely could handle walking on the property when it stood. I alwsys felt the place as haunted and didnt want to distrup anything on that property.

Finding Egan Bridge was quite an adventure for Me but, I found it and it's still there plus, I used Google Maps & Acme Mapper 2.2 to locate CGW RR, Thank You for the adventure!

Well done guys !! What a series Wow !! Have loved every episode, Thank you for bringing The CGW back alive . I can’t wait for your next big project ! Loved your series on the CA&E too !

I am grateful you produced this excellent series, but sad it has to end

An outstanding series. I have watched all 24 episodes. Keep up the good work.

U guys rock, keep them videos coming

Omg, i love both of your voices, you guys must have been doing commentary, type of work for TV or radio 📻🔘 in past??

Omg, it's I want to cry, wen watching your videos it's like the sad truth of America forgotten, no more will this country be like it once was, because of well you guys already know:(

We've reached the end of the line, so to speak, and this is once again an excellent and well researched video. Looking forward to seeing the additional chapters with new artifacts. Well done, Brian and Joyce.

Thank you for the hard work on this excellent series. Too bad it came too late to save the CGW. The series has also shown the level of socio-economic damage that gets done when a major industry or major right of way conveyance disappears from commuities that built it up.

The depth that you guys have been going into is righteous. The records you have created are contributing to our society and culture. I'm excited to see what your next project is.

You've outdone yourselves once again! Great work!

Where was the CGW freight yard located in chicago and what name was the yard

Dunkerton historical society got the Lincoln iowa Depot moved into town at their historical park and ready to start restoration this coming year, you should check it out

Thank you for this second video on the history of the Chicago Great Western Railroad in Oelwein, Iowa from the early 1900s to the present. You did a lot of research to tell us what changes the Chicago Great Western Railroad made to their shops and buildings at Oelwein through to the merger with the Chicago & North Western Railroad. The diesel shops at Oelwein did a lot of work rebuilding first generation Electro-Motive Division (EMD) GP and SD locomotives which as you said was cheaper to do than purchasing brand new locomotives from EMD. I remember going on a tour of the diesel shops at Oelwein sometime during the rebuild era that was part of an Annual Meeting of the Chicago & North Western Historical Society. This was a bus tour from the city where the Annual Meeting weekend took place to Oelwein. I do not remember which city in Iowa that Annual Meeting was in or the year of that Annual Meeting. WE were able to see the locomotives in various stages of the rebuilding process. Currently the Iowa Northern Railroad services the Transco rail car repair facility from the Cedar Falls/Waterloo area remaining on one of the few segments of the Chicago Great Western Railroad that has not been abandoned. In the not-too-distant future the Iowa Northern Railroad will become part of the Canadian National Railroad. I enjoyed the tour of the Hub City Railroad Museum that you gave us. I am glad to hear that you are going to have another video on the CGW branch line from Sycamore, Illinois to DeKalb, Illinois and you will also be giving us information about CGW artifacts and locations that you were made aware of by viewers of this series. (Posted on 18 December 2024 at 2334 CST.)

Once again. THANK YOU for a excelent series. I hope you found Iowa pleasant.

I am almost at a loss for words after seeing this video. It has been a while since I have been able to get home to Oelwein, but after seeing this, I felt like I have been back. You did an excellent job of covering the Oelwein yards & facilities. I realize that limitations kept you from going into greater depths. Hopefully, this video will make people want to visit Oelwein & get the full experience of the museum, etc. There is so much I could say, but it would make this into a book, so I will do my best to keep it short. The CGW is what made Oelwein into Oelwein. & what brought both sides of my family there as I have said before. The fact that they opted for Oelwein rather than Waterloo as a meeting point of the branches is due in part for what land they could acquire. Something I am grateful turned out the way it did. I remember those tanks as traveling towards downtown from home they were a landmark. I also remember that the little creek that runs on the West side of the yards always had some diesel fuel leaking into it giving it a rainbow shimmer. Growing up the side of the viaduct on the NW side was a bit steep but climbable. I spent a lot of time climbing up it to view the yard from that side. Before the CNW/UP merger, the yards by the roundhouse were filled with dozens of yellow & green GNW locomotives. Thankfully, after the UP pulled out Iowa Northern was willing to operate into Oelwein. But it is sure a far cry from the heyday of passenger & freight trains that used to pass through. As an aside, the Rock Island tracks ran to the West of the new library. The CGW tracks that crossed S Frederick is where the 2 railroads exchanged cars. & finally, the CGW is responsible for 1 of the most famous people to live in Oelwein, Walter Chrysler. He worked for a while in the shops & of course Oelwein has a park dedicated to him. According to some stories, unfortunately not documented, he built his 1st car while in Oelwein. Like I said, I could go on & on, but I think here is a good place to stop. Glad to hear there will be more videos. Looking forward to them.

Once again thanks for this series. As mentioned previous my mothers side of the family were from the Lamont, Aurora, Stanley, Oelwein area in the mid 1800's to early 20th century and I spent a considerable amount of time in NE Iowa in the 1970's and 80's. My parents graduated from East High in Waterloo and the area is still a "home" to me, this just makes me homesick. LOL! You can be proud of your reserch and work in regards to this series. Very well put together and presented. Now, on to KC, the Twin Cities, and Council Bluffs! Best wishes.

Excellent series! I learned so much history of the Great Western. Thank you for doing this well researched project!!

Very interesting, thank you!

I very much enjoyed your series and occasionally rewatch previous videos. The history and research you did is so interesting. Very well done and I look forward to more videos!

Excellent video and great research! But, the young president's name was pronounced Der- RAY-mus. Not a good guy. Went on to wreck the KCS and MKT.

This is a excellent video and am very thankful for all your videos. The music you have used is very touching of William Byrd.

Very much worth the wait… thanks🙂

Trains ran normal until about the mid 1980s is when everything kinda started to fall

Looking forward to the Dekalb spur! There's some tracks still in the ground near the edge of Dekalb deep in the woods, no idea if they were CGW or CNW or even Gary Line though but I look forward to finding out

Great stuff......Again!! ❤😊

Nice to close out with the much photographed FP7A no. 116A. Later CNW 217.

Due to TH-cam's 5K character limit on video descriptions, we are once again forced to list the image credits in the Comments Section. The Image Credits for this video are as follows, in order of appearance: US Library of Congress, www.loc.gov Hub City Railroad Museum, oelweinrailwaymuseum.org Railway master Mechanic, archive.org www.familysearch.org Monte Barker Wikimedia Commons www.newspapers.com (Leavenworth Times, Kingsbury County Independent, Freeport Journal Standard, Quad City Times, The Daily Review, Chicago Tribune, True Republican, The Courier, The Gazette, Des Moines Tribune, Star Tribune, Fort Madison Evening Democrat, Hampton Chronicle, The Pantagraph, Carroll Daily Times Herald, The Daily Nonpareil) www.ebay.com www.worthpoint.com www.trains.com www.newspaperarchives.com (Oelwein Register, Oelwein Daily Register) Sites.google.com Phil Green Leroy James US National Archives, www.archives.gov/research Trains Magazine, archive.org Iowa Department of Natural Resources, www.iowadnr.gov/ CGW Railroad Diagrams, circa 1940 David P Morgan Great Trains of the Great Western, archive.org Gary Everhart, rrpictures.net Bob Vaughn H Roger Grant W H Applegate IRM Strahorn Library, facebook.com/IRMStrahornLibrary/ Roger Puta Tim Starr James L Rueber Chuck Zeiler Railway Age Magazine, archive.org Business Week Magazine, archive.org Newsweek Magazine, archive.org Depots of Northeast Iowa - Craig Starr and Robert Ungs Roger Bee John P Vander Maas RFcafe.com Dustin Smith Adam Rudolphy Phil Hastings Walter Dunlap John Laschinski Alan E MacMillan H Svendson Don L Hofsommer Matt Covarrubias Berne Ketchum US Geological Survey, www.usgs.gov Kevin Cavanaugh Dennis Eggert Davis Shroomberg Mark Llanuza CGWNUT, flickr.com Richard Bruehahn Bob Williams George Whalen Tammie Williams Ed Raye Oelwein Chamber of Commerce, www.oelwein.com Iowa Digital Archives, digital.lib.uiowa.edu www.buttefrontstreetstation.com GPA Photo Archive, flickr.com Telegraph Herald newspaper Illinois Digital Archives, www.idaillinois.org LIFE Magazine, archive.org Deb Larsen Taylor Sher Gosse Chris Frank Georgia Hutchinson Oelwein Historical Society Museum

What killed off the streetcars and interurbans was a combination of the three P's: Private transportation (automobiles), paved roads and politics.

We have another photo of 116A. Without a doubt the most common reoccurring locomotive in this series.

Is Part 2 of Oelwein coming soon?

Bypassing large towns on a westward trek is not unheard-of. The old ERIE RR from Buffalo to Chicago did the same thing. The largest town that the ERIE passed through was Youngstown. Bypassing Cleveland, Toledo, Ft. Wayne. ERIE was noted for it's extra wide right of way. Like the CGW, the ERIE main is almost totally ripped up.

Nice color shot of 116A. A repeat visitor to your videos. As mentioned earlier, I saw her as CNW 217 in Minneapolis jct in 1978. 116A/217 can be seen at the Hub City museum.

Ah,,,shot tower. In Kings Mills, OHIO there is currently a shot tower. Located along the former PRR Little Miami RR branch.(The RR was embargoed about 1972 with tracks removed 1978) Owned by Peters Cartridge. I have a few boxes of 12ga. With the mfg. location being Kings Mills. These boxes are VERY old (Kings Mills is the location of the great Kings Island amusement park) There is little left of the factory. Peters closed and RCA records used the location for storing records. Back in 1983, with permission I climbed the tower. It was something only a young person would contemplate and accomplish. Little Miami RR is/was the second oldest RR in OHIO.

28:57 CGW had only two FP7s. This is one of them. The other was 116C, which was wrecked/destroyed. 116A would be renumbered as CNW 217. In 1978 I caught 217 leading an F3B at Minneapolis jct. Mn. 217/116A is at the Hub City museum.

I am no bird expert, but it is flying like a red tailed hawk.

You are so fast 💨 are you on meth 😅😅😅

After the E.L. main was torn up through OHIO and Indiana, the ballast was scooped out by truck, cleaned and reused. I don't know what % was recycled but it was substantial.

& Whom they "deemed " to be the "Source".......

Great lead up to the Oelwein story! I'm glad there is more. Since there was mention of the "other" game in town (Rock Island) it gave me a chance to do more research for fun. Near Topeka KS where I live, a couple I go to church with, met and married in Oelwein and I told them of your video series.

😊❤

Fascinating indepth history

Very nicely done thanks for the history

Well done!😊