Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway: History, Map, Timetables

Last revised: October 20, 2026

The Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway was the Omaha Road. Reporting mark CMO. It was a Wisconsin corporation, with its principal office at Hudson and its general offices at St. Paul. An agreement of May 25, 1880, filed the next day, consolidated the Chicago, St. Paul & Minneapolis and the North Wisconsin. The Interstate Commerce Commission recorded that consolidation as effective May 28, 1880. In November 1882 the Chicago & North Western bought a majority of the stock. Management passed to the parent on December 16, 1882. The Omaha kept its own officers, its own numbers, its own rule book, and right-hand running. The North Western leased the property on January 1, 1957. The separate corporation was removed in 1972.

Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha class K-1 4-6-0 No. 183 at Emerson, Nebraska, on March 24, 1956

Omaha Road class K-1 4-6-0 No. 183 at Emerson, Nebraska, on March 24, 1956. The cab is lettered C. St. P. M. & O. Emerson was a junction on the Nebraska Division, where the line from Omaha to Sioux City met a line west toward Norfolk.

On this page: Its own railroad · May 1880 · The 1882 purchase · Main lines · Emerson · 1909 public sheets · At a glance · Lease and after · Steam · Sublettered diesels · Omaha numbers

Its own railroad

After the stock purchase the Omaha kept its own timetable, its own locomotive numbers, and its own operating rules. The Chicago & North Western Historical Society’s capsule, drawn from the society’s archives, lists what the subsidiary kept: its own president and departments, offices in St. Paul, freight and passenger cars, locomotive classes, diagram books, rule book, and ICC valuation sections. Reporting marks were CMO. Equipment numbers generally sat below the parent’s, in a series of their own. The Omaha ran right-handed. Diesels were sublettered for the subsidiary even when the carbody matched a North Western order. Maps handed to shippers showed one system. The public sheets on this page carry both names, The North Western Line and the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha, on the same page.

The Commission, at its valuation, put the same fact in one sentence. The property had been operated by the Omaha’s own organization throughout its life to that date. The parent controlled the company by a majority of the capital stock. The Omaha, in turn, held pieces of five terminal properties. Those terminals operated the track:

Company	Omaha share	Held with
Lake Superior Terminal and Transfer	16.66%	Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic; Great Northern; Northern Pacific
Minnesota Transfer Railway	11.11%	Eight other Twin Cities roads, including the Milwaukee Road, the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, and the Minneapolis & St. Louis
Minneapolis Eastern Railway	50%	Milwaukee Road
Saint Paul Union Depot	11.11%	The same Twin Cities group as the Minnesota Transfer
Sioux City Bridge	50%	Chicago & North Western

On the November 7, 1909, public sheet the officers still sat in both cities. Marvin Hughitt was chairman of the executive committee, in Chicago. W. A. Gardner was president, in Chicago. James T. Clark was second vice-president at St. Paul, A. W. Trenholm was general manager at St. Paul, and T. A. Polleys was secretary at Hudson, the principal office. The passenger department’s general agent, J. A. O’Brien, was at 600 Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis.

May 1880

Two Wisconsin companies went into the consolidation. The Chicago, St. Paul & Minneapolis was incorporated April 30, 1878. It was the reorganization of the West Wisconsin, which entered receivership on June 1, 1877, was sold at foreclosure on March 1, 1878, and was acquired on May 2, 1878. That road had begun as the Tomah & Lake St. Croix, incorporated April 1, 1863, and took the West Wisconsin name by a resolution of June 4, 1867. Its line was the eastern stem, St. Paul to the North Western at Elroy. The North Wisconsin was incorporated November 17, 1871. It was the road toward Bayfield and Superior.

The St. Paul & Sioux City came in the next year. The Minnesota Valley, incorporated March 4, 1864, took that name on June 7, 1870, and was sold to the Omaha on May 9, 1881. Its main line ran from the Twin Cities through Mankato and Worthington to Le Mars, Iowa. Sioux City was reached by trackage rights. On October 1, 1872, through trains were already running from St. Paul to Sioux City, using the Iowa Falls & Sioux City, an Illinois Central predecessor, from Le Mars to the Missouri River. Minneapolis itself remained a trackage-rights terminal. The Commission’s description of the finished road names five main lines: St. Paul to Elroy; Eau Claire to Duluth; Northline to Bayfield; Merriam, Minnesota, to Le Mars; and South Sioux City to Omaha.

The 1882 purchase

Albert Keep, president of the Chicago & North Western, reported the purchase in the fiscal year that ended May 31, 1883. In November of 1882 the company bought a majority of the Omaha’s common and preferred stock, with delivery and payment arranged for the summer of 1883. Management was reorganized and placed under the North Western on December 16, 1882. The block was 93,200 shares of common, at an average of $48.40 and a fraction, and 53,800 shares of preferred, at an average of $104.04 and a fraction. Cost, including interest to the day of delivery, was $10,503,959.90. Keep put the railroad then embraced by the Omaha at 1,147 miles, from the Twin Cities southeast to Elroy, northwest to Bayfield and Superior, and southwest to Sioux City, eastern Nebraska, and Omaha.

The purchase gave the North Western a second path to the Twin Cities, the Lake Superior ore docks, and a line of its own toward the Omaha gateway, and it kept that map out of the hands of the Rock Island. A minority of the shares stayed outside the North Western’s block, and the Omaha remained a separate corporation.

Main lines

At the valuation the Commission inventoried 1,665.680 miles of road the Omaha wholly owned, and 2,516.315 miles of all tracks wholly owned. Joint ownership with other carriers added 6.581 undivided miles of road. 183.610 miles was double track. The long double-track stretch was St. Paul to Wyeville. Principal branches in that report ran from Tuscobia to Park Falls, Lake Crystal to Elmore, Fairchild to Mondovi, Chippewa Falls to Hughey, and Wakefield to Crofton.

The public map on this page is a different count, from a different year. It is page 681 of a Poole Bros. North Western Lines sheet, the map the 1909 timetable tells the reader to see on pages 680–681. The plate is undated. Its mileage table credits the Omaha Road with 1,738.81 route miles. The same box lists the Chicago & North Western, the Pierre, Rapid City & North Western, and the Wyoming & North Western. The combined total printed there is above 9,600 miles. The legend marks double track and lines then under construction.

Poole Bros. North Western Lines map, page 681, showing the Chicago and North Western and the Omaha Road, with the Omaha credited 1,738.81 miles

North Western Lines map, Poole Bros., Chicago, page 681. The mileage table credits the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha with 1,738.81 route miles. The sheet is the map cited by the 1909 public tables. Author’s collection.

After 1911 the North Western’s Adams Cutoff, from Milwaukee to Wyeville, gave Chicago–St. Paul trains a faster path onto the Omaha. The Twin Cities 400, launched January 2, 1935, used that cutoff. Trains also continued to use the older connection at Elroy, the route of the North Western Limited in its earlier years. Freight moved on the triangle Keep had bought: grain toward the Twin Cities mills, flour and merchandise back toward Chicago, and lumber off the northern Wisconsin lines. The Minnesota Transfer and the Minneapolis Eastern were how the Omaha reached the milling district without owning every spur.

Emerson

The line in the photograph was the Nebraska Division, South Sioux City to Omaha. It began as the Omaha & Northwestern, chartered November 30, 1869, and built north from Omaha. That company was sold at foreclosure on October 24, 1878, and passed to the Omaha & Northern Nebraska. On February 11, 1880, the property was sold to the Sioux City & Nebraska. Part of it went to the St. Paul & Sioux City on March 2, 1880. The remainder was sold to the Omaha Road on May 16, 1881, July 2, 1883, and December 18, 1883.

Emerson was laid out as a junction in 1881. The town had been Kennesaw Junction, and it was renamed for Ralph Waldo Emerson because a Kennesaw already existed in Nebraska. Trains left in three directions: south to Omaha, east to Sioux City, and west toward Norfolk, with Wakefield and Concord on that western line. The railroad kept a roundhouse there. A Dixon County history records the last train through Emerson in 1977. The Nebraska Division, Sioux City to Omaha, was afterward abandoned. That 1977 figure is the county history’s last-train year. The certificate day for the line in the photograph lies outside the records opened for this account.

1909 public sheets

The three tables are North Western Lines public sheets for the Omaha Road. Hughitt and Gardner head the officer list. Table 67 is Minneapolis, St. Paul, Milwaukee, and Chicago, and the foot of that page sends the reader to the map on pages 680–681. Nos. 17 and 18 on the Marshfield branch carried a sleeper and a chair car between Minneapolis and Fond du Lac.

North Western Lines public table for the Omaha Road, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Milwaukee, and Chicago

North Western Lines public sheet. Table 67, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Milwaukee, and Chicago, with the Marshfield and Stillwater branches. Marvin Hughitt, chairman. W. A. Gardner, president. Author’s collection.

Omaha Road public tables for Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Lake Superior, and Duluth, Superior, and Chicago, dated November 7, 1909

Tables 74 and 78, dated November 7, 1909. Minneapolis and St. Paul to Lake Superior, and Duluth and Superior toward Chicago, through Spooner. Author’s collection.

Omaha Road public table 84, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Omaha, and Kansas City, dated September 12, 1909

Table 84, dated September 12, 1909. Minneapolis, St. Paul, Omaha, and Kansas City, with St. Paul, Savage, Shakopee, and Merriam on the opening rows. Author’s collection.

At a glance

Common name	Omaha Road
Reporting mark	CMO
Gauge	4 feet 8½ inches
Principal office	Hudson, Wisconsin
General offices	St. Paul, Minnesota
Incorporated	May 26, 1880. Consolidation effective May 28, 1880
North Western control	Majority purchased November 1882. Management, December 16, 1882
Miles at that purchase	1,147
Owned road, ICC inventory	1,665.680 miles
All tracks wholly owned	2,516.315 miles
Public-sheet route miles	1,738.81, on the Poole map
Running	Right-hand
Lease to the North Western	January 1, 1957
Separate corporation	Removed in 1972
Steam since 1900	241 on the North Western steam roster. Class K-1, including No. 183, stands outside that table
Sublettered diesels	34 North Western units, listed below
Omaha-numbered diesels	29 on the second diesel table

Lease and after

On January 1, 1957, the North Western leased the Omaha Road and took over the offices and the operation. Ben W. Heineman had come to the parent the year before. The historical society treats that lease as the practical end of the Omaha as a separate railroad. In 1972 the parent removed the remaining paper corporation. The employee-owned Chicago & North Western Transportation Company dates from June 1, 1972. Those are two transactions in the same year.

Two main lines remain in the Union Pacific, which took common control of the North Western effective April 6, 1995: Wyeville to St. Paul, and St. Paul to Sioux City. Between Spooner and Trego, a piece of the old Northern Division is used by the Wisconsin Great Northern. The Nebraska Division is gone.

Steam

Post-1900 steam that Drury listed for the Omaha is a separate table on the Chicago & North Western steam roster. The quantity column there sums to 241. That table is the parent’s second grid, kept apart from the parent’s 1,445. Its Ten-Wheelers are class F-1 No. 220, seven class F-2 engines, and class I-1, sixty-seven engines described as the same design as the North Western’s class R-1. No. 183 stands outside that list.

No. 183 is an Omaha Road class K-1, a superheated 4-6-0 built by Alco at Schenectady. The K-1s followed the I-1s. Cylinders were 23 by 26 inches, drivers 63 inches, boiler pressure 180 pounds, and tractive effort about 33,400 pounds. Lou Schmitz’s roster in North Western Lines for Fall 1995 lists twenty-seven road numbers in three groups. The 1913 group is serials 52621–52630. In the order those works numbers are paired with road numbers, No. 183 falls at 52623. The next engine, No. 184, is Schenectady 52624, built in February 1913, and No. 203 is 52626, also February 1913. The photograph shows No. 183 still at work on March 24, 1956, lettered for the Omaha on the cab.

Year	Road numbers	Builder	Serial
1911	107, 108, 112, 231, 232	Alco-Schenectady	—
1912	235–246	Alco-Schenectady	—
1913	110, 125, 183, 184, 201, 203, 204, 249, 261, 262	Alco-Schenectady	52621–52630

Parent engines assigned to the Omaha carried the subsidiary’s initials under the cab number. The diesels in the next table are the North Western units the parent roster marks as sublettered for the Omaha. They kept North Western numbers. No. 183 was built for the Omaha and numbered in the Omaha series.

Sublettered diesels

Thirty-four North Western diesel units are marked on the parent diesel roster as sublettered for the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha. Twelve are F7A cab units. Eleven are GP7s, numbers 151–161. Six are Alco RS3s, numbers 162–167. Five are Fairbanks-Morse H16-66s, numbers 168–172. A later GP7R number is the same frame, rebuilt. Ten of the GP7s returned in 1979 as GP7Rs 4466–4475. The parent roster gives 4467 as the later number of 161. No. 160’s later number is blank on that roster. No. 167 carried a steam generator. The H16-66 serial cells on that roster are blank. Order numbers are blank throughout.

Qty	Model	Builder	Road numbers	Built	Serial	Order	Notes
6	F7A	EMD	6500A, 6500C–6502A, 6502C	December 1949	8578–8583	—	Sublettered for the CStPM&O.
6	F7A	EMD	6503A, 6503C–6505A, 6505C	April 1950	10558–10563	—	Sublettered for the CStPM&O.
6	GP7	EMD	151–156	July–August 1951	14667–14672	—	Sublettered for the CStPM&O. Later GP7R numbers 4473, 4472, 4475, 4474, 4471, 4470.
3	GP7	EMD	157–159	June 1952	16891–16893	—	Sublettered for the CStPM&O. Later GP7R numbers 4469, 4468, 4466.
2	GP7	EMD	160–161	August 1952	16894–16895	—	Sublettered for the CStPM&O. 4467 is the later GP7R number of 161.
3	RS3	Alco	162–164	July–August 1952	80137–80139	—	Sublettered for the CStPM&O.
3	RS3	Alco	165–167	July 1953	80519–80521	—	Sublettered for the CStPM&O. No. 167 equipped with a steam generator.
5	H16-66	FM	168–172	July 1953	—	—	Sublettered for the CStPM&O.

Omaha numbers

A second group was numbered for the Omaha Road itself. Reporting marks on those units were CMO, and the numbers sat in the subsidiary’s own series. They later appear on the North Western diesel roster as frames built for the subsidiary. The quantity column below sums to 29. The 29 stands beside the 34 sublettered units. A renumber on the parent roster is the same frame. No. 68 is printed on that roster as two Baldwin serials under one road number, and the quantity cell there is 2. Switcher 150 is a Fairbanks-Morse H16-66, serial 16L278, distinct from the sublettered 168–172.

Qty	Model	Builder	Omaha numbers	Built	Serial	Order	Notes
1	44-ton	Whitcomb	10	June 1943	60284	—	Built as CStPM&O 10.
1	SW1	EMD	55	October 1940	1194	—	Later North Western 1207, second. The same frame is among the four units renumbered 615–618.
2	S1	Alco	56–57	November 1944	72842–72843	—	56 later 1224, second.
2	VO-660	Baldwin	58–59	June 1945	71572–71573	—	Later 146–147. Rebuilt with EMD 8-567 prime movers in 1959.
2	VO-660	Baldwin	68	July 1945	71542–71543	—	Rebuilt with an EMD 567 in December 1958. The parent roster prints these two serials against number 68.
1	NW2	EMD	70	December 1940	1195	—	Built as CStPM&O 70.
1	DS-4-4-660	Baldwin	71	May 1949	73904	—	Built as CStPM&O 71.
3	VO-1000	Baldwin	87–89	March 1944 and July 1945	70149, 72027–72028	—	Rebuilt with EMD 12-567 engines in 1958.
1	S2	Alco	90	October 1940	69216	—	Built as CStPM&O 90.
3	S2	Alco	91–93	April–May 1944	72205–72206, 72049	—	Built as CStPM&O 91–93.
1	H10-44	FM	94	January 1947	L1171	—	Later North Western 1058.
4	H10-44	FM	95–98	February 1948	—	—	Later 1062–1063 and 1066–1067.
2	DS-4-4-1000	Baldwin	99–100	February 1949	74088–74089	—	No. 99 rebuilt with an EMD 8-567 in May 1960.
4	SW8	EMD	126–129	September 1951	14663–14666	—	Built as CStPM&O 126–129.
1	H16-66	FM	150	February 1951	16L278	—	Built as CStPM&O 150.

Sources

Interstate Commerce Commission, Valuation Reports, vol. 137, Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway Company. Wisconsin corporation. Principal office at Hudson. General offices at St. Paul. Agreement dated May 25, 1880, filed May 26, 1880. Consolidation effective May 28, 1880, with the consolidating companies’ books continued through May 31, 1880. Operated by its own organization throughout its life to the valuation date. Wholly owned road inventoried at 1,665.680 miles. All tracks wholly owned, 2,516.315 miles. Double track, 183.610 miles, chiefly St. Paul to Wyeville. Main lines: St. Paul–Elroy, Eau Claire–Duluth, Northline–Bayfield, Merriam–Le Mars, and South Sioux City–Omaha. Minneapolis and Sioux City reached by trackage rights. Joint holdings: Lake Superior Terminal and Transfer, 16.66 percent; Minnesota Transfer and the Saint Paul Union Depot, 11.11 percent each; Minneapolis Eastern, 50 percent with the Milwaukee Road; Sioux City Bridge, 50 percent with the North Western. Corporate chart for the West Wisconsin, the North Wisconsin, the St. Paul & Sioux City sale of May 9, 1881, and the Omaha & Northwestern chain into the Nebraska Division.
Albert Keep, presidential report for the fiscal year June 1, 1882, to May 31, 1883, printed in Yesterday and Today: A History of the Chicago and North Western Railway System. Majority of Omaha common and preferred purchased in November 1882, delivery and payment during the following summer, management placed under the North Western on December 16, 1882. 93,200 common shares and 53,800 preferred shares. Cost including interest, $10,503,959.90. The system at purchase, 1,147 miles.
Joe Piersen, “Chicago St. Paul Minneapolis & Omaha: A Capsule History,” Chicago & North Western Historical Society, compiled from the society’s archives, H. Roger Grant’s The North Western, and Stennett’s Yesterday and Today. Reporting mark CMO. Right-hand running. Own officers, rule book, and valuation sections. Diesels sublettered for the subsidiary. Adams Cutoff completed in 1911. Lease by the North Western on January 1, 1957. Paper corporation removed in 1972.
North Western Lines public sheets reproduced here. Officer list headed by Marvin Hughitt and W. A. Gardner. Table 74 dated November 7, 1909. Table 84 dated September 12, 1909. Map, Poole Bros., Chicago, page 681, Omaha route miles 1,738.81. The Chicago table tells the reader the map is on pages 680–681.
H. Roger Grant, Minnesota’s Good Railroad: The Omaha Road, as cited on this site’s Chicago & North Western history for the 1880–1881 formation and the November 1882 stock control.
Lou Schmitz, “Omaha Class I-1 and K-1 4-6-0 Roster,” North Western Lines, Fall 1995, p. 37. Class K-1 road numbers, and the 1913 Alco-Schenectady serials 52621–52630. Class dimensions shared with the Mailer roster captions: 23 by 26 inch cylinders, 63-inch drivers, 180 pounds pressure, tractive effort about 33,400 pounds.
Mailer locomotive-roster captions for Omaha Road Ten-Wheelers. No. 184, class K-1, Schenectady 52624, February 1913. No. 203, class K-1, Schenectady 52626, February 1913.
George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition. The Omaha table on this site’s Chicago & North Western steam roster. Quantity 241. Class I-1 described as the same design as the parent’s class R-1. No. 183 is outside that table.
This site’s Chicago & North Western diesel roster. The thirty-four units noted as sublettered for the CStPM&O, and the frames noted as built for the subsidiary. A renumber is one frame. GP7Rs 4466–4475, rebuilt in 1979, are former Omaha GP7s 151–159 and 161.
“Railroads and Depots in Dixon County,” Mid-Continent Region, National Model Railroad Association. Emerson established as a junction in 1881, formerly Kennesaw Junction. Trains south to Omaha, east to Sioux City, and west toward Norfolk. The last train through town in 1977.
This site’s Chicago & North Western history. Twin Cities 400 launched January 2, 1935. Employee-owned Chicago & North Western Transportation Company, June 1, 1972. Union Pacific common control effective April 6, 1995.

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