Burlington and Northwestern Railway
The Burlington and Northwestern Railway (B&NW) was a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railroad system in Iowa that operated during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
[6] The B&NW tracks ran north along Front Street in Burlington, Iowa, starting at the corner of Market and Front Streets, paralleling the BCR&N tracks to a yard, turntable and roundhouse just north of Burlington.
The B&NW initially had a small storefront on Front Street, very near the south end of the line, but later used the BCR&N depot.
[7][8] Later, the B&NW tracks were apparently extended south into the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy yard to that line's freight house.
[11] Just north of Mediapolis, the B&NW turned west on its own right-of-way, passing through Yarmouth, on the way to Winfield.
The route continued through Crawfordsville before reaching Washington, where tracks entered town street running north on 2nd St. (renamed 6th Ave. by 1902).
[16] The B&W line was constructed west from Winfield at the same time that the Iowa Central Railway was being built.
Crooked Creek flows into the Skunk River just south of Coppock; both the B&W and the Iowa Central had to build substantial bridges over both of these to reach the village.
The bridge over the Skunk River, between Coppock and Brighton, was the site of some of the most intense battles between the B&NW and Iowa Central.
The Chicago and Northwestern branch to Muchakinock, Iowa, completed in 1884, crossed the line between Cedar and Oskaloosa.
[24] The Burlington and Western with a route that closely paralleled by the Iowa Central, was not initially profitable.
[28] The Elevator was a frame building located on the corner of Front and Court streets and had a capacity of 150,000 bushels, powered by a 60 horse-power steam engine.
Oskaloosa was a major coal producer in the late 19th century, and the Burlington and Western served at least two mines in the area.
Thomas Long & Brothers opened a shaft 90 feet (27 m) deep in 1890 on the Iowa Central tracks near the west city limits of Oskaloosa.
[34] The Lost Creek Fuel Company had several mines about 10 miles (16 km) south of Oskaloosa.
[46][47] In Burlington, the BCR&N and the B&NW both had connections to what must have been a dual-gauge siding that went up to the foot of the bluff behind the BCR&N Freight House to deliver coal to fuel the massive pumps of the Burlington Water Company and the coal bins of the adjacent gas works.
[10] As of 1880, the B&NW owned 3 locomotives (one newly purchased), 3 passenger cars, 2 mail/baggage combines, 39 boxcars and 11 flatcars.
The B&NW purchased a replacement from the Denver, Utah and Pacific, a 2-8-6T Mason Bogie built in 1882.
The reverse procedure was used for outgoing freight, so long as it was on cars that were compatible with standard gauge requirements.
[11] Another preliminary job involved planing seats in the ties spaced for standard gauge rails.
Several crews managed to work at sustained rates of one mile per hour when there were no complications, despite the heavy rains that fell that day.
[53][54] Coffee and barrels of water were set out along the line for the crews, and each worker was provided with 15 sandwiches and a dozen hard-boiled eggs to fuel the day's work.
[12][55] The former B&W line to Oskaloosa was abandoned in 1934, with segments sold to the Minneapolis and St. Louis (M&StL), the successor of the Iowa Central.
In effect, the M&StL was finally able to undo awkward route choices that had been forced on the Iowa Central when these lines were built.
The Rock Island, successor of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern owned that bridge and could not afford to repair it.
