The Omaha Road
Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha
by Stan Mailer.
188 pages, Cloth with dust jacket, 11x8.5 horizontal format, b/w photos throughout with a few color photos.
"The Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway was part and parcel of Chicago & North Western's midwest empire.
"As a country cousin, the Omaha Road functioned in concert with C&NW's main line across Wisconsin, and provided the northern reaches of the empire with access to Lake Superior ports before 1912 - a highly competitive exercise. The prize included the historic St. Croix Land Grant, which was sought by aggressive and prominent lumber barons....
"The Omaha Road had its origins in the West Wisconsin Railway. Begun at Tomah, WI, it was at that time a springboard community to the Northwest after the Civil War.
"The contemporary Omaha, at least in the steam era, ran modest trains and, in the end, carried pulpwood logs. There was the fast track through Augusta and Black River Falls, grounds for the TWIN CITIES 400 to perform at high speed. It was also ten-wheeler territory - the wheel arrangement best suited for handling local traffic on remote branch lines, which often required heavy snowplows."
