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The Worthington Subdivision or Worthington Sub is a railway line operated by Union Pacific Railroad. It runs generally southwest-northeast and begins at a siding in St. James Township, Minnesota, where the Mankato Subdivision ends, and it continues to Sioux City, Iowa. The line has yard facilities in Worthington and Sioux City, as well as a small yard north of Worthington in Hersey and Lorain townships called Elk Creek. The line passes through many small towns and villages with grain elevators along its route, and it is the origin of numerous grain unit trains. [1] As of 2003 [update] the line sees 4 freight trains daily. [2]
The line began as the St. Paul and Sioux City railroad and was constructed between 1871 and 1872. [3] It then became a division of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway (Omaha Road), which in turn became part of the Chicago and North Western Railway in 1882. [4] The Chicago and North Western Railway was acquired by Union Pacific in 1995. [5]
Authority to occupy the main track is dispatched via CTC from West St. James to South Butterfield. From there, track warrant control (TWC) is used, and it is dark territory until Le Mars, Iowa, where automatic block signaling is used in conjunction with TWC. Union Pacific has trackage rights over CN's track from Le Mars to Sioux City, although UP dispatchers grant the authority to occupy the main track.
On November 18, 1999, an empty northbound Union Pacific grain unit train was stopped on the main track at Carnes to meet a southbound UP manifest train which was to take the siding. For reasons unknown, the southbound train did not enter the siding and struck the stopped northbound train head-on, derailing 30 cars, five locomotives, and claiming the life of 23-year-old conductor Paul Schmidt of Boone, Iowa on the southbound train. Dale Evans, the driver of a crew transport van parked nearby was also killed. [6] This accident was a prompt for legislation for the implementation of Positive Train Control, which could have prevented the accident. [7]
On May 16, 2021, a Union Pacific manifest train bound for North Platte, Nebraska derailed and caught fire in Sibley, Iowa. The derailment involved 47 cars which were carrying asphalt, hydrochloric acid, and potassium hydroxide. [8] Approximately 80 people were evacuated from a 2.5 mi radius around the derailment site, and the derailed cars were allowed to burn for nearly two days. No injuries or deaths occurred. [9]
Sibley is a city in Osceola County, Iowa, United States. The population was 2,860 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Osceola County. Hawkeye Point, the highest point in the State of Iowa, is also nearby.
The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over 32,200 miles (51,800 km) routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, with which it shares a duopoly on transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western, Midwestern and West South Central United States.
BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, 32,500 miles (52,300 km) of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide rail connections between the western and eastern United States. BNSF trains traveled over 169 million miles in 2010, more than any other North American railroad.
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad was an American Class I railroad. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock.
The Chicago Great Western Railway was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, and Kansas City. It was founded by Alpheus Beede Stickney in 1885 as a regional line between St. Paul and the Iowa state line called the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad. Through mergers and new construction, the railroad, named Chicago Great Western after 1892, quickly became a multi-state carrier. One of the last Class I railroads to be built, it competed against several other more well-established railroads in the same territory, and developed a corporate culture of innovation and efficiency to survive.
The Hiawathas were a fleet of named passenger trains operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad between Chicago and various destinations in the Midwest and Western United States. The most notable of these trains was the original Twin Cities Hiawatha, which served the Twin Cities in Minnesota. The train was named for the epic poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
The Chicago and North Western was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of track at the turn of the 20th century, and over 12,000 miles (19,000 km) of track in seven states before retrenchment in the late 1970s. Until 1972, when the employees purchased the company, it was named the Chicago and North Western Railway.
The Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad is a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Kansas City. Before its purchase, it was the largest Class II railroad in the United States, operating across South Dakota and southern Minnesota in the Northern Plains of the United States. Portions of the railroad also extended into Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois. It interchanged with all seven U.S. Class I railroads.
The Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway or Omaha Road was a railroad in the U.S. states of Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and South Dakota. It was incorporated in 1880 as a consolidation of the Chicago, St. Paul and Minneapolis Railway and the North Wisconsin Railway. The Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW) gained control in 1882. The C&NW leased the Omaha Road in 1957 and merged the company into itself in 1972. Portions of the C. St. P. M. and O. are part of the Union Pacific Railroad network. This includes main lines from Wyeville, Wisconsin, to St. Paul, Minnesota, and St. Paul to Sioux City, Iowa.
The Minnesota Southern Railway was a shortline railroad in the states of Minnesota and South Dakota in the United States.
The Arrow was a passenger train operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad between Chicago, Illinois and Omaha, Nebraska. It operated from 1926 until 1967. The Arrow provided overnight service between the two cities and included through cars for other destinations in Iowa.
The Twin Cities Hiawatha, often just Hiawatha, was a named passenger train operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, and traveled from Chicago to the Twin Cities. The original train takes its name from the epic poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. There are a number of Hiawatha-themed names within the city of Minneapolis, the terminus of the original train. The first Hiawatha ran in 1935; in 1939 the Milwaukee Road introduced a second daily trip between Chicago and Minneapolis. The two trains were known as the Morning Hiawatha and Afternoon Hiawatha, or sometimes the AM Twin Cities Hiawatha and PM Twin Cities Hiawatha. The Milwaukee Road discontinued the Afternoon Hiawatha in 1970 while the Morning Hiawatha continued running until the formation of Amtrak in 1971.
The Sioux City and Pacific Railroad was a railroad in the U.S. states of Iowa and Nebraska. Built as a connection from Sioux City, Iowa to the Union Pacific Railroad at Fremont, Nebraska, it became part of the Chicago and North Western Railway system in the 1880s, and is now a main line of the Union Pacific (UP). The east–west portion from Fremont to Missouri Valley, Iowa, is the Blair Subdivision, carrying mainly westbound UP trains, and the line from California Junction, Iowa north to Sioux City is the Sioux City Subdivision.
Org is an unincorporated community in Nobles County, Minnesota, United States.
The Hinckley Subdivision is a railway line that connects the Twin Cities to the Twin Ports in Minnesota and Wisconsin. This line was originally built by the Great Northern railroad. It branches north off the Staples Subdivision At Coon Creek junction in Coon Rapids, MN, and ends at Boylston junction where the tracks run to Duluth/Superior via the Lakes subdivision.
The Mankato Subdivision or Mankato Sub is a railway line operated by the Union Pacific Railroad. It runs generally southwest, starting at Chestnut Street in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where it crosses the Mississippi River, then runs south along the Mississippi and then the Minnesota River to Mankato, where it turns away from the river and continues west to St. James. From there Union Pacific's rails continue southwest toward Sioux City, Iowa, as the railroad's Worthington Subdivision.
The Ellis and Eastern Company is a railroad owned and operated by Sweetman Construction Company.
The Chicago, St. Paul and Minneapolis Railway was authorized in 1879 to build a railroad from the Eastern border of Minnesota to Minneapolis. In 1878, it obtained the re-organized West Wisconsin Railway, which had built from Hudson, Wisconsin to Elroy, Wisconsin.
The Altoona Subdivision or Altoona Sub is a 90.7-mile (146.0 km) railway line owned and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad in the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin. The line originates in Saint Paul, Minnesota, crosses the St. Croix River on the Hudson Bridge into Hudson, Wisconsin, and eventually terminates in Altoona, Wisconsin where it connects to the Wyeville Subdivision. This subdivision is formerly a Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW) mainline, on which the Twin Cities 400 operated in the mid 1900s.