If I am correct, at first the Hill Lines used the MILW from the Twin Cites to Chicago. Later they bought the CB&Q. Why buy the Q if only need access Twin Cities-Windy city?
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Maybe because the CB&Q was a money making company, and also gave the GN and NP access to Denver, Texas (via. FW&D), the southern Illinois coal fields, and shorter/faster access to the Chicago interchange with the NKP (via IHB).
I don't believe that the GN and NP ever used the Milw for their entrance to Chicago. In fact, this is the primary reason that the Milwaukee built it's West Coast extension, starting in 1909. They felt that they were being denied West Coast freight which went to the Burlington at Minneapolis.
I believe that there was some joint ownershipt of the CB&Q all along, which caused them to favor the Q for both freight and passenger trains. Thus it was a ntural "merger" when the Burlington Northern developed out of those three roads plus others like the Spokane, Portland and Seattle, as well as other small roads. I grew up in Milwaukee and never saw NP or GN trains pass through there until, of course, AMTRAK took over passenger train operation in 1971 when you got a mish-mash of passenger equipment all mixed into the same train.
Paul Fischer
There must have been some exchange between the MILW and the Hill Lines until the later bout the Q (Officially) in 1901. That really got the wheels rolling for the Pacific Exension.
The Northern Pacific was originally chartered to build a line from the great lakes
to Puget Sound. The NP later built and acquired lines to Minneapolis and St. Paul. The twin cities were an important regional transportation hub not only for the rail connections to Chicago but also as a point for transfer of passengers and freight between Mississippi River boats and the railroads.
With the completion for the Northern Pacific across Montana to the Columbia River in 1883 the Twin Cities began to grow not just as a regional transportation bub but as a transportation center in a national rail network. In 1890, under the second period of Villard control, the NP leased the Wisconsin Central (later the Soo)to provide a link to Chicago. The NP's lease of the WC was relinquished in the bankruptcy that followed the Panic of 1893. Notably, the original Chicago connection for the North Coast Limited was provided by the Chicago & Northwestern.
1893 was also the year in which the Great Northern was completed to Seattle, adding to the importance of the Twin Cities as a railroad hub. The GN, privately financed by the House of Morgan and ably managed by J.J. Hill weathered the panic. The NP came under Morgan financial control but it took J.J. Hill several more years to persuade Morgan to give operational control of the NP to Hill. With two railroads to Puget Sound from the Twin Cities Hill sought control of the CB&Q. The Q not only provided an excellent Chicago connection for the GN and NP but a connection at Billings as well.
As Hot Water pointed out the CB&Q plus its C&S and FW&D subsidiaries provided an entrance to the Denver and Texas markets. Also served were Kansas City, St Louis and Omaha. The Billings gateway provided an important outlet for forest products from the Pacific Northwest to reach the central states. Forest Products made up a huge share of GN and NP eastbound loads throughout the 20th century. The markets for forest products east of Chicago were important to the Hill lines but there was competition in those markets from other sources. The sparsely forested central states served by the CB&Q through Billings were a region where Northwest forest products could sell well due to the relative lack of competition.
E.H Harriman gained control of the Union Pacific in 1898 and sought to strengthen the position of the line by controlling its connections to the east and west. He acquired control of the SP in 1901 for access to the California markets and engaged the Hill and Morgan interest in the titanic fight over the CB&Q which was a valuable link to Chicago for both the UP and the Hill lines. Harriman was allied with Rockefeller interests so the struggle was a double duel not just between Harriman and Hill but the Rockefellers and Morgan. Hill had acquired 98% of the CB&Qs stock and split it evenly between to GN and NP. Harriman attempted to control 49% of the CB&Q by acquiring control of the NP. The NP remained under Hill and Morgan's control and the Harriman stake in the NP was diluted when Hariman was given a combination of NP and GN stock at the conclusion of the fight.
The UP did as much damage to the NP as it could by building or acquiring branch lines to Butte, Spokane and Puget Sound. The UP even resorted to using an interurban line to siphon off lucrative perishable traffic from NP territory in the Yakima Valley. The rivalry continues today. When the BN leased much of the former NP to Dennis Washington for the Montana Rail Link they were careful to keep the MRL out of Butte and Spokane to prevent interchange with the UP and keep Montana traffic captive to the BN and now BNSF.
The Rockefellers were investors in the C,M & St.P. It is unfortunate that the Rockefeller association with the St Paul Road (only later known as the Milwaukee Road) did not result in a "community of interests" between the UP and the Milwaukee. Throughout the 20th century the UPs favorite connection between Council Bluffs and Chicago varied between the Rock Island, the C&NW and the Milwaukee. A UP/Milwaukee combination would have given the UP an entrance to Chicago, a high speed line to Milwaukee and the Twin Cities and the shortest route from Chicago to Puget Sound. Today's Montana and Dakota wheat farmers would enjoy the competition as would steam ship lines calling at Seattle Tacoma.
If that UP-Milwaukee association had developed perhaps the Wisconsin Central would have remained under CP control and the CN would have bought the C&NW.
If Morgan was the money behind J Hill, was there any interest beteen Hill and the SP? The two systems met at Portalnd OR.
No
The Hill-Harriman rivalry made the UP-SP and GN-NP combines rivals.
Hill spent millions building lines to compete with the UP in the same decade as the fight over the CB&Q and the Northern Securities case. The Spokane, Portland & Seattle was constructed starting in 1906 and owned 50% by the GN and 50% by the NP. It gave both railroads a direct low grade route into Portland along the north bank of the Columbia River. This was in direct competition to UP controlled Oregon Railroad & Navigation Co. on the south bank of the Columbia. The SP&S bought the Oregon Electric in 1910 and extended it to Eugene by 1912 to siphon away traffic in the Willamette Valley from the SP much as the UP did to the NP in the Yakima Valley.
After battling his rival in Oregon Hill took two further approaches to drive further south in a quest for California traffic. The first was the Great Northern Pacific Steamship Company which provided fast service between California and Astoria, Or where the liners met SP&S trains. The other was the construction of the Oregon Trunk Line to reach California via the Inside Gateway along the east side of the Cascade Mountains to reach the Western Pacific. The completion of the Inside Gateway was not achieved until years after Hills death but it remains an important route to this day. It created a GN, SP&S, WP and Santa Fe route between the Pacific Northwest and California.
After the era of the Hill-Harriman battles the NP and the SP did coordinate on California service. The NP and SP exchanged through passenger cars between Seattle and California at Portland. And in the Diesel era the NP and SP operated freights with run through power between Eugene and the NPs big Auburn yard between Seattle and Tacoma. The run through power continued after the BN merger with the northern terminal shifting to the ex-GN yard at Interbay in Seattle. That run through power gave rail fans a chance to see SP tunnel motors on the Seattle waterfront.
The Inside Gateway was a favored route in the first decade of the Burlington Northern. When the UP gained control of the WP in 1983 the BN shifted California traffic to the SP Eugene route. When the UP and SP merged in 1996 the BNSF obtained ownership of the WP from Bieber to Keddie, Ca. and rights over the rest of the WP. This revived traffic on the Inside Gateway as BNSFs answer to service on the I-5 corridor.
After 100 years you could say the more things change the more they stay the same.
