Brad,
Simply, the Q was trying to reach Yellowstone and all that passenger traffic.
They first went from Alliance to Sheridan to Billings For a while they had a
cut off from Tuloca, MT to Cody, but after the merger they closed that and used
the NP from Laurel to Cody. They had a huge Inn in Cody and owned a car/bus
transportation company that traveled to Yellowstone. After the Q finished
their line through the Wind River Canyon they then had a more direct route and
another tourist attraction with the Canyon. You may have notice that they
advertised the tourist potential heavily. Then the Mormons built canals and
irrigated the Big Horn Basin which was a very heavy producing (sugar beets and
turkeys) agriculture area, then the Homestead advertisements started. Oil,
coal, gypsum, sulpher, and agriculture proved to be a big traffic generator.
Sheridan was more of the cattle, coal, and passenger traffic line. Both
produced enough that they never were put on the cut list. Today both lines are
productive. The UP only goes through the very southern edge of the state, so
the rest of the state was open to the Q. Available coal made the decisions
easier, especially early on with the Cambria branch which produced most of the
coal for the Black Hills mining and coal for the Q on north. The CN&W did
parallel the Q from Orin Junction to Shoshone then to Lander, but quickly
abandoned their line and paid the Q for trackage right to Shoshone.
Harold Huber
Sheridan, WY
----- Original Message -----
From: bkobielusz
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2007 10:57 AM
Subject: [CBQ] Why Wyoming
Hi All
Does anyone know the reason fo the 2 CB&Q runs up through Wyoming. Was it
merely a
connection for parent Company Norther Pacific in Montana? Where they trying
to generate
trackside business or was it just for the land given out by the governmant
for building
lines. Anybody know the history it seems like this area is never mentioned in
any of the
posts.
Thanks Brad
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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