Dubuque, Iowa / East Dubuque, Illinois |
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 A quartet of two-year-old CGW GP30s at East Dubuque in May 1965. (© Mark G. Gayman photo). Blank |
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Dubuque and East Dubuque have been a and a major rail junction and part of the midwest's
railroad fabric for many decades. Established on opposite shores of the Mississippi River,
the two have served as funnels for all types of rail commerce, east-west and north-south. And
since the rise of merger mania in the late 1950s, railroads in the area have played a game
of "musical chairs;" everytime the music stopped a railroad disappeared. Loss to history
have been such names as Chicago Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q), Chicago Great Western (CGW),
the Milwaukee Road, and more recently Burlington Northern (BN), Illinois Central,and Soo
Line (Soo). By the close of the 20th century, most of the rail lines that served Dubuque/E.
Dubuque had been displaced by much larger players BNSF, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific.
At one time, Dubuque was a regular station stop for many scheduled passenger train through- out the 1940s, 50s and 60s -- in fact as many as 22 passenger trains called on Dubuque. However the area saw its last passenger train (CB&Q) in late April 1971 just prior to the Amtrak start-up. Train travel had been declining across the U.S., and Dubuque was similarly impacted. The two rail activity centers, even though separated by the "Mighty Mississippi," were physically joined by a historic five-span camelback truss bridge. It would be a mistake to suggest that traffic levels in Dubuque were comparable to the better-known hotspots of the 1950s, 60s and 70s; nonetheless it has remained a fan favorite because of the interesting and action-filled train watching available. |
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