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Burlington Railroad (CB&Q): Map, History, Rosters, Photos

Last revised: October 18, 2026

By: Adam Burns

The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy was the Burlington Route, reporting mark CBQ. From a twelve-mile Aurora Branch it became the granger that also reached Denver, the Twin Cities, Billings, and, through the Colorado & Southern and the Fort Worth & Denver, the Gulf. Its slogans were Everywhere West and, once the stainless trains were famous, Way of the Zephyrs. The company itself did not go through bankruptcy. At 12:01 a.m. on March 2, 1970 it entered the Burlington Northern with the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, and the Spokane, Portland & Seattle.

The railroad is remembered for those Zephyrs, and for a steam fleet built in its own shops as often as it was bought.

4-8-4 5632, an oil-burning O-5B, in gold for the fiftieth anniversary of Kansas City Union Station, November 1964. Earlier that year the same engine was gold for the railroad’s own centennial of the Chicago line. Photographer unknown.

On this page: Aurora Branch · West of the Mississippi · Colorado & Southern · Zephyrs · At a glance · Steam · Diesels · Burlington Northern

Aurora Branch

The Galena & Chicago Union, chartered in 1836, was open from Chicago to Elgin by January 1850 and reached Freeport in September 1853. Aurora wanted its own railroad. The Illinois legislature chartered the Aurora Branch Railroad on February 12, 1849, and the company was organized on February 22. The line was to run up the Fox River to Batavia and then to Turner Junction, now West Chicago, and use the Galena & Chicago Union into the city.

Grading was underway in the spring of 1850. Track reached Batavia on August 22. On September 2, 1850 the Aurora Branch held its opening, with a borrowed locomotive and coach. The engine was the 4-2-0 Pioneer, the first locomotive to operate out of Chicago, on October 24, 1848. Rails were into Aurora on October 4, and regular service over the Galena road into Chicago began on October 21, 1850.

Alco S-2 9304 at Denver, circa 1965. American-Rails.com collection.

On June 22, 1852 the company became the Chicago & Aurora Railroad. The new aim was west, toward a connection about fifteen miles north of La Salle, rather than a line of its own into Chicago. Boston money associated with the Michigan Central, the Forbes group, came in. The connection was Mendota. The 45.61 miles from Aurora were finished on October 20, 1853, and met the Illinois Central.

Three neighbors then filled out the Illinois X. The Central Military Tract, chartered February 15, 1851, opened between Mendota and Galesburg on December 7, 1854, and merged with the Burlington on July 9, 1856. The Peoria & Oquawka, incorporated February 12, 1849, opened from Galesburg to East Burlington on March 17, 1855, was renamed the Peoria & Burlington, and merged on June 24, 1864. The Northern Cross that matters here was chartered February 10, 1849, from the remnants of an 1837 company of the same name. Most of that older company became the Wabash. This Northern Cross opened between Quincy and Galesburg on January 31, 1856, was renamed the Quincy & Chicago, and joined the Burlington on April 28, 1864.

An NE-10 waycar at Aurora, circa 1969. American-Rails.com collection.

On February 14, 1855 the legislature authorized the Chicago & Aurora to take the name Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. The railroad then built its own line from Aurora into Chicago, so it could drop the Galena trackage rights. That line opened on December 26, 1865. The Illinois map was an X: Chicago to Galesburg, and from Galesburg west to Burlington, southwest to Quincy, and southeast to Peoria. In 1964 the railroad painted 5632 gold for its own centennial of the Chicago line.

West of the Mississippi

John Murray Forbes and John L. Gardner carried the expansion. The Hannibal & St. Joseph, chartered February 16, 1847, and in the Forbes group from 1854, opened across Missouri on February 15, 1859. A fourteen-mile Quincy & Palmyra connected it to the river, and a Mississippi bridge at Quincy opened on November 9, 1868. The Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs, formed in 1870 from earlier companies, had through service among its three namesake cities from November 25, 1869.

The Burlington & Missouri River was chartered May 12, 1869, to build from Burlington to Council Bluffs and the Union Pacific. By lease it reached Council Bluffs on January 3, 1870, using the St. Joseph & Council Bluffs from Pacific Junction. A direct Omaha connection, the Omaha & South Western, opened July 19, 1871. The Burlington leased the Burlington & Missouri River on December 31, 1872.

New FT locomotives and a cut of tank cars in Wind River Canyon, along the Bighorn River in Wyoming, circa 1945. Fred Lehman photo.

The Burlington reached Denver on May 29, 1882, and a direct Twin Cities line on August 23, 1886. A St. Louis corridor opened on March 4, 1894. The same year, on October 28, the railroad met the Northern Pacific at Huntley, Montana. Forbes died on October 12, 1898, and Gardner on December 10. By then the modern map was largely in place.

James J. Hill added the Northern Pacific to the Great Northern in 1899 and the Burlington on May 21, 1901. Great Northern and Northern Pacific each took nearly half the stock, which gave the northern transcontinentals their Chicago connection. Hill then built the Spokane, Portland & Seattle as the bridge from Spokane to Portland. A 1927 plan to merge the northern lines and lease the Burlington failed when the Interstate Commerce Commission would approve it only without the Burlington. The owners kept the Q. The merger that Hill wanted waited until 1970.

The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and its subsidiaries, about 1950. Author’s work.

Colorado & Southern

The largest addition was the Colorado & Southern, taken in on December 19, 1908. The C&S itself dated from December 19, 1898, when it gathered the bankrupt Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf, from Orin Junction, Wyoming, through Cheyenne, Denver, and Pueblo to the Texas and New Mexico line. The property included the narrow-gauge branches southwest of Denver, the Colorado Central and the Denver, South Park & Pacific, into Gunnison, Leadville, Como, and Georgetown. Until 1918 the Colorado Midland was operated jointly with the Rio Grande.

The Fort Worth & Denver City met the Colorado & Southern at Texline and ran to Fort Worth. On June 1, 1925 it took Rock Island trackage rights into Dallas. In 1905 the Colorado & Southern, jointly with the Rock Island, took the Trinity & Brazos Valley, from Cleburne toward Mexia and, in 1907, Houston, with a branch from Teague to Waxahachie. Galveston was reached by trackage rights on the Texas & New Orleans. The Trinity & Brazos Valley failed in 1914 and was reorganized as the Burlington-Rock Island on July 7, 1930, still owned by the two parents. The Cleburne–Mexia segment, which had used the Santa Fe into Fort Worth, was abandoned in the 1930s. On June 1, 1931 the Dallas–Waxahachie rights moved from the Texas & New Orleans to the Katy.

An E5A leaving Fort Worth with the Texas Zephyr in the 1960s. American-Rails.com collection.

North of the subsidiaries, a line from Orin Junction to the Burlington’s Montana track at Fromberg opened on October 18, 1914. In 1952 the parent railroad was 8,806 miles. The Colorado & Southern was 748 and the Fort Worth & Denver 1,364. Those are three figures. The map above is the combined network.

An official 1969 system map. Author’s collection.

F7s and six-axle units on the Joint Line south of Denver in the 1960s. The place along the hill was not recorded. American-Rails.com collection.

Fort Worth & Denver F7 751-A, leading an A-B-B-A set in the 1960s. The place was not recorded. American-Rails.com collection.

F7s, with SD units cut in, and three more covered wagons, on the Colorado & Southern in the 1960s. American-Rails.com collection.

Colorado & Southern SD9 840 on the Freight Lead, just north of the Longmont Mill in Denver, in the 1960s. The 20th Street Viaduct is behind the train. American-Rails.com collection.

Zephyrs

Among grangers the Burlington was unusual. Agriculture was there, on a thick map of branches, and so were southern Illinois coal, manufactures, and a set of interchange gates. The worst year was 1932, the year Ralph Budd became president. He treated the railroad as something that had to be redesigned for highways and airlines. Centralized traffic control was in use as early as 1927. Budd retired in 1949. Harry C. Murphy followed him.

The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad logo. Author’s work.

Union Pacific’s M-10000 of February 25, 1934, was the first of the lightweight trainsets. The Burlington’s was the one that lasted. The order went to the Budd Company on June 17, 1933: a three-car stainless train, railway post office, baggage-coach, and coach-parlor observation, with a Winton diesel of 600 horsepower through Electro-Motive. The train was completed on April 9, 1934, and christened at Broad Street Station in Philadelphia on April 18. On May 26, 1934, the Dawn-to-Dusk dash ran from Denver to Chicago, 1,015.4 miles in 13 hours 5 minutes, at an average a shade under 78 miles an hour, with a peak of 112.5. Revenue service began November 11, 1934, as trains 21 and 20, Kansas City–Omaha–Lincoln. The railroad later named 9900 the Pioneer Zephyr so the original would not disappear into a fleet of Zephyrs. It was retired on March 20, 1960, and given to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.

The 1964 Chicago-line lineup, from right to left: GP30 974, E9A 9985-A, Zephyr power car 9908 Silver Charger, 2-8-2 4968, and 4-4-0 35. The railroad also painted 5632 gold for the same centennial.

The Twin Cities Zephyr, the Mark Twain Zephyr, the Denver Zephyr, and the Ozark State Zephyr followed. The train people came to know best was the California Zephyr, with the Rio Grande and the Western Pacific, from 1949 until 1970. The Rio Grande kept its own segment as the Rio Grande Zephyr after the through train ended. The Burlington also forwarded the northern transcontinentals: the Empire Builder, the Western Star, the Mainstreeter, and the North Coast Limited.

The Twin Cities Zephyr at East Dubuque, Illinois, in April 1940. John Vachon photo, colorized by Patty Allison.

E7A 9932-A with train 11, the Nebraska Zephyr, at Buda, Illinois, in March 1963. Rick Burn photo.

Train 21, the Morning Zephyr, at Hamline Avenue in St. Paul in September 1962. The Koppers Coke plant is at the left. Rick Burn photo.

Train 11-35, the combined Nebraska Zephyr and Kansas City Zephyr, at Wataga, Illinois, in May 1967. Rick Burn photo.

E5A 9915-B with train 2, the Galesburg local, at Sandwich, Illinois, on the morning of July 5, 1963. Marty Bernard photo.

E7A 9932-B at Kansas City Union Station, circa 1965. American-Rails.com collection.

E7A 9923B arriving at Kansas City Union Station from Omaha with train 20, the former Silver Streak Zephyr, on March 27, 1967. Roger Puta photo.

E8A 9945-B arriving at Aurora with a dinky, a Chicago suburban train, in October 1961. Rick Burn photo.

Fort Worth & Denver E8A 9981-B at Dallas Union Station in the 1960s. American-Rails.com collection.

Named passenger trains on the Burlington and its subsidiaries included:

• Afternoon Zephyr and Morning Zephyr, Chicago–Twin Cities
• Ak-Sar-Ben Zephyr, Chicago–Lincoln
• American Royal Zephyr, Chicago–Kansas City
• Black Hawk, Chicago–Twin Cities
• California Zephyr, Chicago–Oakland, with the Rio Grande and the Western Pacific
• Denver Zephyr, Chicago–Denver
• Empire Builder and Western Star, Chicago–Seattle, with the Great Northern and the Spokane, Portland & Seattle
• Exposition Flyer, Chicago–Oakland with the Western Pacific and the Rio Grande, until the California Zephyr in 1949
• General Pershing Zephyr, St. Louis–Kansas City
• Kansas City Zephyr, Chicago–Kansas City
• Mainstreeter and the North Coast Limited, Chicago–Seattle, with the Northern Pacific and the Spokane, Portland & Seattle
• Nebraska Zephyr, Chicago–Lincoln
• Pioneer Zephyr, first Kansas City–Omaha–Lincoln, and later a short Missouri run
• Sam Houston Zephyr, Dallas–Houston
• Texas Zephyr, Denver–Dallas
• Zephyr Rocket, Minneapolis–St. Louis, with the Rock Island

Burlington Lines in the Official Guide, page 1040. The Texas Zephyr of the Colorado & Southern and the Fort Worth & Denver, with the Sam Houston Zephyr and the Twin Star Rocket. The tables are dated September 30, 1951, and January 20, 1952.

At a glance

Steam

The Burlington’s own shops built a large share of the roster. West Burlington, Aurora, and Havelock turned out Prairies, switchers, Hudsons, and 4-8-4s, and Baldwin supplied the Mikados and the Pacifics. George H. Drury’s list of locomotives built or rebuilt since 1900 is the steam roster. A rebuild is the same frame. The post-1900 Prairies, classes R-1 through R-5, come to 429. The Mikados come to 383: 60 O-1, 148 O-1A, 100 O-2, 60 O-3, and 15 O-4. Baldwin’s first O-1s, in 1910, kept the 64-inch drivers and, at 49,500 pounds of tractive effort, outpulled the newest 2-6-2s by about 40 percent.

Consolidations were a smaller group, for slow freight west of the Mississippi. The 2-10-2s and the eighteen M-4 2-10-4s worked southern Illinois coal, and some of them went to the Colorado & Southern. Articulateds were few. The 2-6-6-2s stayed in the Black Hills, and the single 2-8-8-2 worked the Galesburg hump.

Passenger power ran from Atlantics and Pacifics to the Hudsons and the 4-8-4s, and the last two looked alike. Baldwin delivered S-4 3000–3011 in 1930. West Burlington built 3012, rebuilt 3002 into the shrouded Aeolus, and in 1938 built 4001, the second Aeolus, without the shroud. 4000 is 3002. The 4-8-4s were eight Baldwin O-5s and twenty-eight shop-built O-5As. Oil-burning engines were class O-5B, including 5632, the gold engine at the top of this page. Commercial steam ended in January 1959. After 1960 the excursion engines were 4960 and 5632. 4960’s last Burlington trip was the Denrock Zephyr on July 17, 1966. The class grid, from the switchers through the 4-8-4s, is the steam roster.

Diesels

Freight dieselization began with the FT sets of 1944. The last new road freight units lettered for the Burlington were SD45s and U23Cs in 1969. The diesel roster counts each frame once. The parent list is 951 locomotives. Colorado & Southern and Fort Worth & Denver are their own lists, 72 and 36 new frames through the merger. A unit transferred from the parent is the same locomotive and is not counted again. Nine small industrial locomotives never joined that count: Plymouth 1 and 2, Mack 100, Whitcomb 101, Porter 111, Whitcomb 112, and Midwest 65-ton 9121–9123.

F3s at Eola Tower, the east end of Eola Yard, in July 1962. Rick Burn photo.

F3s 122-D and 122-C, with an F7A, at Westmont, Illinois, on June 25, 1965. Marty Bernard photo.

F3A 128-D, F3B 128-C, and an F7A at Westmont on January 26, 1966. Marty Bernard photo.

F3A 116D, an F3B, and an F7A at Fairview Avenue in Downers Grove on July 4, 1965. Marty Bernard photo.

F3 124-A leaving Lincoln, Nebraska, with an eastbound freight on August 9, 1962, passing a westbound and approaching the Salt Creek bridge. Roger Puta photo.

F3 122-A with a freight at Zearing, Illinois, in June 1966. Rick Burn photo.

F3s 165A, 165B, and 165C on the morning Pick Up at Milledgeville, Illinois, on August 14, 1964. Marty Bernard photo.

GP7 244 on the Pick Up at Milledgeville on August 6, 1964, with GP30s 965 and 943. Marty Bernard photo.

Clyde Yard, Cicero, in June 1966. The nearest unit is GP7 247, a Blackbird. Rick Burn photo.

SD7 301 and GP7 205 at Clinton, Iowa, on December 31, 1965. Marty Bernard photo.

Motorcar 9769 at Clinton on New Year’s Day, 1966, then in use as the local switcher. Marty Bernard photo.

Burlington Northern

Murphy rebuilt Clyde Yard, in Cicero, as a hump, carried centralized traffic control out to 1,750 miles of main line, and bought the Vista-Domes for the first-class trains. The Centennial Cutoff opened on October 28, 1952, and shortened Chicago–Kansas City by 22 miles. The northern merger was filed, fought, and filed again. The Interstate Commerce Commission approved it on November 30, 1967. The four railroads became the Burlington Northern at 12:01 a.m. on March 2, 1970. John M. Budd of the Great Northern was the first chairman. Louis W. Menk, who had come from the Burlington, was the first president. William J. Quinn was the Burlington’s president at the merger.

The Colorado & Southern and the Fort Worth & Denver were not dissolved that morning. They came into the Burlington Northern as subsidiaries. The Colorado & Southern was absorbed at the end of 1981. The Burlington Northern and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe merged on September 22, 1995. The Chicago–Aurora main line, the Denver road, and the Texas line are still BNSF routes. Chicago commuter trains on the Burlington became Metra.

Former Burlington SD7 6032 at Eola on August 31, 1970, in the first Burlington Northern summer, with a dinky on the next track. Marty Bernard photo.

Related reading

• Steam roster, post-1900 · Diesel roster
• California Zephyr
• Denver Zephyr
• Texas Zephyr
• Exposition Flyer
• Mainstreeter
• Fallen Flags

Sources

• Richard C. Overton, Burlington Route: A History of the Burlington Lines (1965). The Aurora Branch, the Illinois consolidations, the lines west of the Mississippi, and the Hill purchase of May 21, 1901.
• George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy chapter. Locomotives built or rebuilt since 1900, and the class narrative. Drury’s own recommended roster is Bernard Corbin and William Kerka, Steam Locomotives of the Burlington Route (1960), and their Railway & Locomotive Historical Society list of 1936–1937, with the 1948 supplement.
• Diesel roster at thedieselshop.us, Chicago Burlington & Quincy, Colorado & Southern, and Fort Worth & Denver, redone April 7, 2012, from John Komanesky and Bob Van Derveer. https://www.thedieselshop.us/CB&Q.HTML. Baldwin VO-1000 builder numbers and months from the same site’s VO-1000 list. https://www.thedieselshop.us/BLW_VO1000.HTML. Serial and order are separate columns. Where a printed serial range does not match the number of units, the serial cell is left blank.
• Burlington Northern Inc. began with the merger of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Northern Pacific, and the Great Northern on March 2, 1970. The four railroads, including the Spokane, Portland & Seattle, became one railroad at 12:01 a.m. that day. The Burlington Northern and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe merged on September 22, 1995.
• Pioneer Zephyr: Budd order of June 17, 1933, completion April 9, 1934, christening April 18, 1934, and the Dawn-to-Dusk dash of May 26, 1934, 1,015.4 miles in 13 hours 5 minutes, average a shade under 78 miles an hour, peak 112.5. Revenue service began November 11, 1934.

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    Nov 02, 26 11:48 PM

    
    Reading and Northern has moved Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway trips to Nesquehoning after the October 31 rockslide west of Jim Thorpe. Trains leave at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. through Sunday, November…

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40. Texas Transit Agency Breaks Ground on TEXRail

    Nov 02, 26 11:40 PM

    
    Trinity Metro broke ground October 29, 2026, on a $270 million, 2.1-mile TEXRail extension from Fort Worth T&P Station to a new Near Southside station on land donated by Baylor Scott and White Hea…

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41. Lake Front Depot: The C&NW's Milwaukee Terminal

    Nov 02, 26 09:40 PM

    
    The Chicago and North Western Lake Front Depot at 915 East Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee. Charles Sumner Frost, 1889. Last train May 15, 1966. Clock tower down May 7, 1968.

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42. Canal Street Maintenance Plan Will Get an FRA Review

    Nov 02, 26 01:48 PM

    The Federal Railroad Administration will prepare an environmental assessment of Amtrak Canal Street maintenance plans in Chicago after adding 17 viaduct repairs to a project that had a categorical exc…

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43. Durango & Silverton Repairs Track After Continued Flooding

    Nov 02, 26 01:40 PM

    
    Durango & Silverton crews are repairing flood damage after the Animas hit 11,200 cfs on October 23. The Highline Express ran October 27 through November 1. Polar Express trains remain listed from…

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44. Middle Georgia Megasite Will Host the First Audi Plant in the U.S.

    Nov 02, 26 01:35 PM

    
    Audi will build its first U.S. plant at the Norfolk Southern-served Middle Georgia Megasite in Peach County, about $4 billion and about 4,500 jobs. Audi and Norfolk Southern publish different construc…

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45. Union Pacific No. 844 Returns Beside Big Boy on November 21

    Nov 02, 26 01:30 PM

    
    Union Pacific 4-8-4 No. 844 is back under steam and will trail Big Boy 4014 from Greeley to Denver on November 21. The pair will then stand on free display at Denver Union Station.

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46. Norfolk Southern Abandonment in the Shenandoah Valley Is Stayed

    Nov 02, 26 01:19 PM

    
    The Surface Transportation Board on October 22, 2026, postponed a Norfolk Southern exemption to abandon 48.5 miles from Front Royal to Broadway, Virginia. A response is due November 3.

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47. Reading & Northern Sets a November 23 Start in Luzerne

    Nov 02, 26 01:13 PM

    
    Reading and Northern expects to begin operating about 59.65 miles of Luzerne County rail line on November 23, 2026. The package is $7 million in cash plus $3 million in track work.

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48. Second Daily Pennsylvanian Begins November 18

    Nov 02, 26 12:19 PM

    
    A second daily Pennsylvanian round trip between New York and Pittsburgh begins November 18, 2026, after 46 years with one round trip. Each city gets a morning departure and an afternoon departure.

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49. MBTA Sets November Meetings on Regional Rail

    Nov 02, 26 12:10 PM

    
    The MBTA will hold virtual meetings on November 4 and November 17, 2026, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., on a plan to turn Commuter Rail into Regional Rail with more frequent servic

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50. Wisconsin Central Diesel Roster (Soo Line Years)

    Nov 01, 26 11:31 PM

    
    Diesels built new for the Wisconsin Central in the Soo Line years. 97 locomotives, Alco 24 and Electro-Motive 73. These 97 are already inside the Soo Line roster of 786.

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