Chicago, Milwaukee, and Dakota 440 Class 4-6-2
The Chicago, Milwaukee, and Dakota was not a particularly notable railroad in its early days. It's route was not as direct and profitable as those of the Milwaukee Road, Chicago & Northwestern, or the Burlington. However, the railroad did serve Milwaukee, Madison, La Crosse, and Rochester all on one Chicago- Twin Cities line. Which meant that those lines were able to give them just enough profit.
However, a big game changer for them arrived in 1906. At that time, railroad Baron James J. Hill was looking for a way to get his Great Northern Railroad into Chicago. However, when he considered the Burlington, that was vetoed on the grounds of lack of possible profit. As such, Hill turned to the CM&D instead. This meant that one of the major services for the CM&D would be shuttling the Great Northern and Northern Pacific trains like the Empire Builder and North Coast Limited to Chicago from the Twin Cities.
To this end, the CM&D immediately ordered several new pacifics to operate the services on their territory. Inspired by the ATSF Class 1337 Pacific, the first were built by Baldwin in 1910, with four more arriving in 1912. The Pacifics served the CM&D's own Chicago-Twin Cities Dairyland service, but also the Chicago portions of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific's passenger trains. Each locomotive was painted jet black, with silver smokeboxes and yellow striping down the cab and tender, matching the 8 green-yellow striped Pullmans that made up the train. In 1940, all four pacifics were repainted into the standard MDRR Drab-and-Decor paint scheme, minus the red wheels, following replacement by larger Pacific types from the Southern Pacific.
In 1924, the CM&D christened their reach into Omaha by purchasing the Illinois Central's Omaha Division and its branches to Madison, Souix City, and Bloomington. Which lead to the Pacifics being placed on such services as The Land O'Corn to Omaha. But after the Great Northern purchased the CM&D as part of the revised Ripley plan, they found themselves on less and lesser trains. Namely as first 8-coupled steamers then diesel took over passenger services.
The last engines of the class were retired in 1953 as the Great Northern replaced them with their own 4-8-2s on the Chicago-Omaha Land O'Corn. However a few have managed to survive to this day. The most notable of them being 446, who is now preserved at the Union Pacific's former C&NW roundhouse in Madison, WI. Alongside several other steam engines like the C&NW 4-8-4 3013 for the Milwaukee Road Hudson 102.
The Chicago, Milwaukee, and Dakota was not a particularly notable railroad in its early days. It's route was not as direct and profitable as those of the Milwaukee Road, Chicago & Northwestern, or the Burlington. However, the railroad did serve Milwaukee, Madison, La Crosse, and Rochester all on one Chicago- Twin Cities line. Which meant that those lines were able to give them just enough profit.
However, a big game changer for them arrived in 1906. At that time, railroad Baron James J. Hill was looking for a way to get his Great Northern Railroad into Chicago. However, when he considered the Burlington, that was vetoed on the grounds of lack of possible profit. As such, Hill turned to the CM&D instead. This meant that one of the major services for the CM&D would be shuttling the Great Northern and Northern Pacific trains like the Empire Builder and North Coast Limited to Chicago from the Twin Cities.
To this end, the CM&D immediately ordered several new pacifics to operate the services on their territory. Inspired by the ATSF Class 1337 Pacific, the first were built by Baldwin in 1910, with four more arriving in 1912. The Pacifics served the CM&D's own Chicago-Twin Cities Dairyland service, but also the Chicago portions of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific's passenger trains. Each locomotive was painted jet black, with silver smokeboxes and yellow striping down the cab and tender, matching the 8 green-yellow striped Pullmans that made up the train. In 1940, all four pacifics were repainted into the standard MDRR Drab-and-Decor paint scheme, minus the red wheels, following replacement by larger Pacific types from the Southern Pacific.
In 1924, the CM&D christened their reach into Omaha by purchasing the Illinois Central's Omaha Division and its branches to Madison, Souix City, and Bloomington. Which lead to the Pacifics being placed on such services as The Land O'Corn to Omaha. But after the Great Northern purchased the CM&D as part of the revised Ripley plan, they found themselves on less and lesser trains. Namely as first 8-coupled steamers then diesel took over passenger services.
The last engines of the class were retired in 1953 as the Great Northern replaced them with their own 4-8-2s on the Chicago-Omaha Land O'Corn. However a few have managed to survive to this day. The most notable of them being 446, who is now preserved at the Union Pacific's former C&NW roundhouse in Madison, WI. Alongside several other steam engines like the C&NW 4-8-4 3013 for the Milwaukee Road Hudson 102.