Burlington and Missouri River Railroad
The Burlington and Missouri River Railroad (B&MR) was an American railroad company incorporated in Iowa in 1852, with headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. It was developed to build a railroad across the state of Iowa and began operations in 1856. It was acquired by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in 1872.
[edit] History
The Burlington and Missouri River Railroad was incorporated in Burlington, Iowa, in 1852. It commenced operations on January 1, 1856 with only a few miles of track. In 1857 it connected to Ottumwa, followed by Murray in 1858. It finally reached the Missouri River in November 1859. It used wood-burning locomotives and wooden passenger cars.[1]
After the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) finished a bridge crossing the Mississippi River at Burlington, it connected to the B&MR.[1] By 1868 B&MR operated 13 locomotives and 429 cars, mostly freight, with net earnings of $299,850 in 1867. After the interest on loans, this meant a total net profit of $6,749.[2]
A sub-branch of the railroad was founded in Nebraska in 1869,[1] with rails first entering the state in 1870 via Plattsmouth.[3] That summer, the railroad reached Lincoln, the recently designated state capital.[1] It later continued to lay rails westward and eventually joining with the Union Pacific Railroad on September 3, 1872 at Kearney; this had the effect of linking traffic from southern Nebraska to the rest of the continent.[3] That same year it began advertising "millions of acres of cheap land" as an incentive to prospective settlers to Iowa and Nebraska.[4]
The B&MR was acquired by the CB&Q in 1872. At the time, it had begun laying tracks to Denver, Colorado; this line was finished by the CB&Q ten years later.[1] After being acquired by the CB&Q, the B&MR served as its subsidiary, operating several lines in the Black Hills, including those acquired when CB&Q took over the Black Hills and Fort Pierre Railroad.[5]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e BRHS 2004, About the Chicago.
- ^ Poor 1868, p. 323.
- ^ a b NSHS 2004, THE BURLINGTON.
- ^ LOC, An American.
- ^ Mitchell 2009, p. 294.
- Bibliography
- "THE BURLINGTON & MISSOURI RIVER RAILROAD". Nebraska State Historical Society. June 4, 2004. http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/markers/texts/burlington_missouri_rr.htm. Retrieved September 7, 2011.
- "An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera". Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?ammem/rbpebib:@field%28NUMBER+@band%28rbpe+13401300%29%29. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
- "About the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad". Burlington Route Historical Society. 2007. http://www.burlingtonroute.com/cbq.html. Retrieved September 7, 2011.
- Mitchell, Steven T. (2009). Nuggets to Neutrinos : the Homestake Story. United States: Xlibris. ISBN 978-1-4415-7067-3. http://books.google.ca/books?id=qZKGnfPIvWUC.
- Poor, Henry Varnum (1868). Poor's Manual of Railroads. New York: H. V. & H. W. Poor. OCLC 247158189. http://books.google.ca/books?id=vohS7PpusAQC.
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