Current Day
Almost forty years after merger and piecemeal abandonment, some Chicago Great Western trackage and infrastructure remains in service. In Minnesota, the CGW branchline from Northfield to Cannon Falls is owned by the Union Pacific Railroad and operated by Progressive Rail. The CGW mainline from the Flint Hills refinery in Rosemount to Inver Grove Heights, MN is UP's "Roseport Industrial Lead" to the refinery. The CGW main from Inver Grove Heights to downtown St Paul is an extension of UP's Albert Lea subdivision. In Iowa, the largest remaining section of the CGW is located between Waterloo and Oelwein Iowa. A portion of this section is the 23-mile line of railroad now owned by D&W Railroad between Dewar and Oelwein. In Illinois, there is a small spur east of the former crossing of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern serving a construction-materials business in West Chicago. A length of the former mainline from the DuPage Airport through St. Charles, including a large bridge over the Fox River, was operated by the UP as an industrial lead for several shippers including a lumber yard. UP filed to abandon the St. Charles industrial lead on 06/24/2010, and awaits the final decision. (STB docket #: AB_33_284_X). Also in Byron, a small section of trackage is used for car storage and the bridge over the Rock River is used to service the Byron Nuclear Generating Station.
Long sections of former CGW rights-of-way have been preserved as rail trails, such as the Great Western Trail between Villa Park and Sycamore, Illinois, the Cannon Valley Trail between Red Wing and Cannon Falls, Minnesota, the Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail between Faribault and Mankato, Minnesota, and the Heritage Trail between Dubuque and Dyersville, Iowa. Another trail between Cannon Falls and Faribault is being proposed by the Mill Towns Trail group from Northfield with the hope of being completed in the coming years. Several CGW depots also remain along abandoned rights-of-way, some converted to better serve their new, non-railroad owners, and others restored to their former appearance. In Red Wing, MN, the ex-CGW Depot is located at 726 Main Street and was the esrtwhile home of a Hardee's Restaurant for many years in the 1980s and 1990s and is currently occupied by a Caribou Coffee Shop.
Additionally, the Elmhurst Depot (located off of York Street in Elmhurst) still stands, along with other depots in Villa Park and Elizabeth.
A handful of CGW locomotives remain operational, including one of the former CGW EMD GP7, two of the EMD F7Bs and three of the nine SD40s, but all have long since been repainted and scattered nationwide. An EMD FP7-A, CGW 116-A, has been cosmetically restored and repainted, and is located at the former "Hub City" of the railroad at the Hub City Heritage Corporation museum in Oelwein (http://www.cgwo.org). Rare TR2B "Calf" 65B is unrestored, at the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad as Chicago & North Western 1103. Sometimes an observant train watcher will notice an old hopper or tank car still painted in CGW colors, but even they are now quite rare.
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