Chicago and North Western Railway Co. - $5,000 Railroad Specimen Bond

$5,000 Specimen Bond printed by American Bank Note Company.

Until its corporate death in 1995, the Chicago & North Western Railway (C&NW) had long served greater Milwaukee. Although the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad was the first carrier to appear in the area, in the early 1850’s a predecessor of the Milwaukee Road, two future units of the C&NW, the Illinois Parallel Railroad, and the Green Bay, Milwaukee & Chicago Railroad, forged the eighty-five-mile link between Chicago and Milwaukee. These pioneer pikes consolidated in 1863 to form the Chicago & Milwaukee Railway (C&M). Three years later the C&NW, which dates from 1859, leased the C&M, and in 1881 the property officially joined the railroad. This corridor gave the C&NW a route that competed directly with arch-rival Milwaukee Road (Chicago, Milwaukee, & St. Paul Railway). At the end of 1970, B&M operated 1,515 route-miles (2,438 km) on 2,481 miles (3,993 km) of track, not including Springfield Terminal. That year it reported 2,744 million ton-miles of revenue freight and 92 million passenger-miles.